The New Research “Yoga is not a matter of theory or dogma, like philosophy or popular religion, but a matter of experience. Its experience is that of a conscient universal and supracosmic Being with whom it brings us into union, and this conscious experience of union with the Invisible, always renewable and verifiable, is as valid as our conscious experience of a physical world and of visible bodies with whose invisible minds we daily communicate.” SRI AUROBINDO CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-555 Emergence of Integral Personality Read More 1 The Agenda of Sri Matriniketan Ashram Research: The First Objective of Research: It will include in its scope the richly varied objective Material and subjective Spiritual experience, reconcile them in the beyond intellect Cosmic Self through the movement of vertical Consciousness and make the future opulent with all that is the best in the past and present. Thus the following promise is concentrated: "Content abide not with one conquered realm; Adventure all to make the whole world thine, To break into greater kingdoms turn thy force." Savitri-536 The Second Objective of Research: It will accumulate in itself all that is the most affirmative and the completest invisible energies and pour them out on the surrounding by an intense Aspiration, a Master Action and a King Idea so that one mighty Deed in the Occult plane can change the whole course of world events and external things. "A prayer, a master act, a king idea Can link man’s strength to a transcendent Force. Then miracle is made the common rule, One mighty deed can change the course of things; A lonely thought becomes omnipotent." Savitri-20 "Knows that one high step might enfranchise all" Savitri-371 The Third Objective of Research: The unending opulence of the Matter and Spirit cannot be exhausted by all the Saints, Seers and Scientists of all Time and the continuous uncovering and working out of Their unending secrets, endless truths and timeless mystery are the constant preoccupations of subjective Research. " He (Avatar) must call light into its dark abysms, Else never can Truth conquer Matter’s sleep And all earth look into the eyes of God. All things obscure his knowledge must relume, All things perverse his power must unknot: He must pass to the other shore of falsehood’s sea, He must enter the world’s dark to bring there light. The heart of evil must be bared to his eyes, He must learn its cosmic dark necessity, Its right and its dire roots in Nature’s soil." Savitri-450 The Fourth Objective of Research: It will strive to provide the utmost fulfillment and perfection of objective and subjective living by entry into Supraphysical experience which lies behind our gross physical, vital and mental living and humanity will be liberated from all subjection of life to the multiplication of new wants, exaggeration of ambitious activities and an aggressive expansion of the collective ego. Thus life can become 'a marvellous journey of the spirit.' (Savitri-301) " In the kingdom of the Spirit’s power and light, As if one who arrived out of infinity’s womb He came new-born, infant and limitless And grew in the wisdom of the timeless Child; He was a vast that soon became a Sun." Savitri-301 OM TAT SAT Read More 2 Serving Humanity: The Scope of helping humanity: “Patriotism, cosmopolitanism, service of society, collectivism, humanitarianism, the ideal or religion of humanity are admirable aids towards our escape from our primary condition of individual, family, social, national egoism into a secondary stage in which the individual realises, as far as it can be done on the intellectual, moral and emotional level, —on that level he cannot do it entirely in the right and perfect way, the way of the integral truth of his being, — the oneness of his existence with the existence of other beings. But the thought of the Gita reaches beyond to a tertiary condition of our developing self-consciousness towards which the secondary is only a partial stage of advance.” Sri Aurobindo/CWSA-19/Essays on the Gita/p-136 The Necessity of Leadership: “The best, the individuals who are in advance of the general line and above the general level of the collectivity, are the natural leaders of mankind, for it is they who can point to the race both the way they must follow and the standard or ideal they have to keep to or to attain. But the divinised man is the Best in no ordinary sense of the word and his influence, his example must have a power which that of no ordinarily superior man can exercise.” Sri Aurobindo/CWSA-19/Essays on the Gita/p-138 The Necessity of Spiritual Leadership: “This too the divinised man becomes in the measure of his attainment, impersonal in his personality, unbound by quality or action even when maintaining the most personal and intimate relations with men, unbound by any dharma even when following in appearance this or that dharma . Neither the dynamism of the kinetic man nor the actionless light of the ascetic or quietist, neither the vehement personality of the man of action nor the indifferent impersonality of the philosophic sage is the complete divine ideal. These are the two conflicting standards of the man of this world and the ascetic or the quietist philosopher, one immersed in the action of the Kshara, the other striving to dwell entirely in the peace of the Akshara; but the complete divine ideal proceeds from the nature of the Purushottama which transcends this conflict and reconciles all divine possibilities.” Sri Aurobindo/CWSA-19/Essays on the Gita/p-141 The Necessity of Supramental Leadership: “The supramental man on the contrary will think more with the universal mind or even may rise above it, and his individuality will rather be a vessel of radiation and communication to which the universal thought and knowledge of the Spirit will converge than a centre. The mental man thinks and acts in a radius determined by the smallness or largeness of his mentality and of its experience. The range of the supramental man will be all the earth and all that lies behind it on other planes of existence. ..Ordinarily the supramental knowledge will be organised first and with the most ease in the processes of pure thought and knowledge, jnana , because here the human mind has already the upward tendency and is the most free. Next and with less ease it will be organised in the processes of applied thought and knowledge because there the mind of man is at once most active and most bound and wedded to its inferior methods. The last and most difficult conquest, because this is now to his mind a field of conjecture or a blank, will be the knowledge of the three times, trikaladrsti .” Sri Aurobindo/CWSA/24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-837, 839 The Permanent Help: “Someone had written to (the) Mother, “I want my money to be used exclusively to conquer the causes of our sufferings and misery.” (The) Mother had replied, “That is what we are working towards here, but not in the artificial way of the philanthropists, who only deal with the outward effects. We want to eliminate forever the CAUSE of suffering, by divinizing matter through integral transformation.” The Mother's Agenda/10th April-1968. The permanent help and panacea of all problems of existence is possible through a triple reversal of Consciousness and inner change of Nature. All of the issues of humanity can be resolved by the permanent elevation of individual and collective Consciousness through Integral Evolution and Supramental Influence initially dynamised through a few individuals (A few can climb to an unperishing sun, (Savitri-689)) and finally spreads to elevate the general Consciousness of the race (His gates to the world were swept with seas of light. (Savitri-236)). OM TAT SAT Read More 3 The Agenda of Integral Tantra Yoga : First Agenda: Integral Yoga begins with the method of Vedanta to arrive at the aims of Tantra . In the integral Yoga Psychical experience, especially of the kind associated with what is often called occultism and savours of the miraculous, should be altogether subordinated to Spiritual truth and wait upon that for its own interpretation, illumination and sanction. The Second Agenda: In Vedantic method the Spirit is all important means of arriving at the Shakti. In Tantric method the Shakti is the all important means of arriving at the Spirit. The Third Agenda: Integral Tantra Yoga of Knowledge, Dakshina Marga begins with the descent of fragments of Truth Supreme. Integral Tantra Yoga of Love, Vama Marga begins with the descent of fragments of Supreme Love. The Fourth Agenda: Integral Yoga is a combination of Vedantic Sacrifice ‘the Brahman is offered to the Brhaman by the Brhaman ’ (The Gita-3.24) or 'Living for me, by me, in me they shall live' (Savitri-699) and Vedic or Tantric Sacrifice ‘the Shakti is offered to the Shakti by the Shakti ’. OM TAT SAT Read More 4 The Root Formula of Integral Yoga : The Root Formula One: All the problems of existence can be resolved by the discovery of the Inconscient Self. “For the key is hid and by the Inconscient kept; The secret God beneath the threshold dwells.” Savitri-68 The Root Formula Two: Desire is identified as the 'Keyword' and root problem that takes shelter in the Inconscient sheath. “Then lest a human cry should spoil the Truth He tore desire up from its bleeding roots And offered to the gods the vacant place. Thus could he bear the touch immaculate. A last and mightiest transformation came. His soul was all in front like a great sea Flooding the mind and body with its waves; His being, spread to embrace the universe, United the within and the without To make of life a cosmic harmony, An empire of the immanent Divine.” Savitri-318 The Root Formula Three: Inconscient Self can be opened by massive Supramental Intervention. “This ever she meant since the first dawn of life, This constant will she covered with her sport, To evoke a Person in the impersonal Void, With the Truth-Light strike earth’s massive roots of trance, Wake a dumb self in the inconscient depths And raise a lost Power from its python sleep That the eyes of the Timeless might look out from Time And the world manifest the unveiled Divine.” Savitri-72-73, “As when a searchlight stabs the Night’s blind breast And dwellings and trees and figures of men appear As if revealed to an eye in Nothingness, All lurking things were torn out of their veils And held up in his vision’s sun-white blaze.” Savitri-151, The Root Formula Four: All the problems of existence can be resolved by the intervention of Divine Force from above the head and below the feet…. Or it can be also resolved by the intervention of dynamic Spirit from within the heart, below the feet, around the world and above the head. “Our life is entrenched between two rivers of Light , We have turned space into a gulf of peace And made the body a Capitol of bliss.” Savitri-531 “It (dynamic Spirit) is within, below, without, above.” Savitri-98 OM TAT SAT Read More 5 The Main Formula (Maha Mantra ) of Integral Yoga: The First Formula: All Life is Yoga. (Maha Mantra) The Second Formula: All Yoga is a compression of one’s Evolution by all possible ways of union with the Divine. The Third Formula: All Evolution is the awakener of higher states of Consciousness. The Fourth formula: All Consciousness is one but in action, it involves in many-fold concentrated Effort and spontaneous movement of Shakti to realize every possible line of Spiritual experience. The Fifth Formula: All Effort is the synthesis of all the wide and supple Methods. The Sixth Formula: All the method is the synthesis of central Truth of self-discipline. The Seventh Formula: The practice of all self-discipline leads to continuous union with the Self. The Eighth Formula: All Dispensable self-disciplines are termed as Psycho-physical methods, which mean to pursue inner development with the help of outer aid, support. The Ninth Formula: All Indispensable self-disciplines are termed as Psychic, Spiritual and Supramental methods which mean to pursue inner development without the support of any outer aid. The Tenth Formula: All Dispensable self-disciplines are used to subordinate all Indispensable self-disciplines, and its indispensability is felt after the Spiritual foundation is established on a secure basis. OM TAT SAT Read More 6 The Main Frame of Integral Yoga: The Three Basic Requisites: are of (1) unflinching patience, (2) absolute courage and (3) colossal faith. The Three Basic Inward Concentrations: are (1) of exclusive concentration of the one object worthy of pursuit, (2) contemplation and (3) silencing of mind. The Three Central secrets: are of entire consecration, constant inward remembrance of one central liberating knowledge and renounce all the inner support of central egoism. The Three Central Dynamic Processes: are that of development of true psychic being, sublimation of human into Divine Love and elevation of mental consciousness into spiritual and Supramental plane. The Three Central Methods: of Integral Yoga are that of gradually intensive and purposeful working of divine force, which subsequently compels all Nature to undergo a Divine change and the Divine Power uses all life as means of world transformation. The Three Central Vedantic Principles of Integral Yoga: are derived from the three Vedantic method of knowledge; it is either knowledge in the will working out through action or knowledge in the intellect through discernment or knowledge of the heart expressed in love and faith. The Three Central Vedic Principles of Integral Yoga: are the perfection of the body by the Psycho-physical method of Hathayoga ; the perfection of the mind and Psychic being by disciplining of mind through Rajayoga and the transformation of Nature by synthetic Yoga of Tantra . Integral Yoga does not propose the ceaseless practice of Psycho-physical Sciences of Hathayoga and Tantra and ceaseless practice of Psychic Science of Rajayoga , ‘but their methods can either altogether be dispensed with or used only for a preliminary or else a casual assistance.’ In integral Yoga the utility of Psycho-physical Science is felt after Spiritual foundation is established through Karma, Jnana and Bhakti Yoga . The Three Central Inner Revolutions: are that of the abolition of desire, making life an instrument and the disappearance of ego. The Three Basic or Fundamental Realisations: are that of (1) experience of Timeless, Spaceless and Silent Brahman, (2) of dissolution of self and world in the Unknowable, --Moksha, Nirvana and (3) the Source of Being and its relation with Becoming which builds a strong foundation of integral Yoga. The Three Inner or Central Intuitions: These are indispensable for the perfection of Spiritual being acting directly on earth Nature; they are the awareness of witness Purusha, sakhi, who watches the action of Nature, to give them new directions, refinement and extension related with subtle and flexible creation, and an inner awareness of his Spiritual and Supramental being who are master of his Nature. Here Intuition is at once (1) witness, sakhi, (2) source of consent, anumanta , and (3) almighty Lord of the Nature, Maheswara. The Three Central Objects of Integral Yoga: The object of integral Yoga must be accepted wholly by those who follow it and they are the Divinity in one Self, total discovery of the Divinity in the world and total discovery of the dynamism of some transcendent Eternal. OM TAT SAT Read More 7 From Puri to Pondicherry : The Preliminary Teaching: The stages through which the Gita has developed its preliminary teachings are that firstly, it spoke of the destruction of desire and attachment and conquest of senses by stilling the mind; secondly of equality and peace; thirdly of passionless, impersonal and sacrificial action and recognition of the Supreme as the doer of all work; fourthly of inner renunciation of desire and ego preferable to the outer renunciation of life and action; fifthly, the doctrine of Avatara and the Divine birth. The Higher Teaching: The Gita’s higher teachings are that of Divine work by rising above the gunas ; secondly, besides its earlier declaration that Knowledge is greater than Works, Bhakti is considered the greatest element in Yoga; thirdly the relation between Works, Knowledge and Divine Love and their synthesis as means of supreme realisation; fourthly, the vision of Universal Purusha , which ‘can be seen, known, entered into only by that Bhakti which regards, adores and loves Me alone in all things’; fifthly, the inter-relation between the multiple Soul, Kshara , immutable Self, Akshara , and the Supreme Self, Purushottama who is the Master of Works, Knowledge and Love; sixthly, Sraddha , faith, as an important aid for the manifestation of Para Prakriti . The Highest Teaching: The most secret teaching of the Gita is the Knowledge of the whole Godhead, samagram mam, which can be gained by four gradations of exclusive knowledge attended with five gradations of all-inclusive knowledge, by knowing which will leave nothing yet to be known. The Highest Teaching hinted but not developed: It has been hinted constantly in myriad terms of Vasudevah sarvamiti , the Godhead is all that is the universe and all that is in the universe, Prakritm mamikam, into My Divine nature, Prakritim me param , My supreme nature, Prakritim swam, My own nature, Prakritir jiva-bhuta , Divine Nature which has become the jiva, Madbhavam agatah , have arrived at My nature of being, daivi prakriti, (The Gita-9.13) Divine nature and Param bhavam , Supreme nature or the ultimate becoming, sadharmyam agatah , those who have become of like nature and law of being with the Divine; but these terminologies were nowhere explained entirely. These are left as clues for the greatest Spiritual developments, which can be resolved fully through ascending advance of spiritual experience. OM TAT SAT Read More 8 The Seven Fold Self Ignorance: 1: Original Ignorance: Not knowing the origin, Source of our existence, the Supramental Self or extending ahead to Bliss Self. 2: Cosmic Ignorance: Not knowing the immobile and immutable Self, the Spiritual Self. 3: Egoistic Ignorance: Not knowing the Universal Self, the Cosmic Self. 4: Temporal Ignorance: Not knowing the Psychic Being. 5: Psychological Ignorance: Not knowing the subliminal Self which constitutes our true physical being, true vital being and true mental being. 6: Constitutional Ignorance: Not knowing the Subconscient Self, Inconscient Self and their influence on the waking Self. 7: Practical Ignorance: Not knowing the right relation of the surface physical, vital and mental Nature with the above ten Selves. To understand practical Ignorance we can concentrate on the following lines of Savitr i: "Our outward happenings have their seed within,” Savitri-52 “This earth is not alone our teacher and nurse; The powers of all the worlds have entrance here.” Savitri-153 “In a contrary balance to earth’s truth of things The gross weighs less, the subtle counts for more; On inner values hangs the outer plan.” Savitri-186 OM TAT SAT Read More 9 An Inspiration from Sri Aurobindo's Writings : 1: All of Sri Aurobindo’s writings from the early days of Baroda to the last days of Pondicherry are identified as the accumulation of overhead descended knowledge. 2: Out of them The Synthesis of Yoga, The Life Divine, The Mother and Savitri are identified as high-concentration approved writings or the best standard available to the race to pursue integral Yoga. 3: All his other writings are extremely helpful to those who are entirely conscious of the whole aim and the final Spiritual destination. They will be able to trace the sequential change of His world vision and world action with the growth and expansion of His Divine Consciousness. 4: The Mother confirmed, “Thus, Sri Aurobindo represented a totality of comprehension and knowledge and power; and every one of his books is at once a symbol and a representation. Every one of his books contains symbolically, potentially, what is in him. Therefore, if you concentrate on the book, you can, through the book, go back to the source . And even, by passing through the book, you will be able to receive much more than what is just in the book. ” TMCW-8/Questions and Answers-1956/p-163, A sincere entry into His Teachings (or Their Teachings) confirms a brief Supramental touch and this touch can be prolonged by the formation, development and densification of multiple subtle bodies. The Mother confirms, "It's only at the time of having the experience that you can really understand what you read." (The Mother's Agenda//November 23, 1965.) OM TAT SAT Read More 10 Sri Aurobindo's Hope on Woman : “I am beginning to understand why Sri Aurobindo always said it was woman that could build a bridge between the two. I am beginning to understand. One day, I will explain. I am beginning to understand. Sri Aurobindo used to say: it is woman that can build a bridge between the old world and the supramental world. Now I understand.” The Mother The Mother’s Agenda-26.04.1972 “After I knew that God was a woman, I learned some-thing from far-off about love; but it was only when I became a woman and served my Master and Paramour that I knew love utterly.” Sri Aurobindo TMCW-10/On Thoughts and Aphorisms/p-329 “God has so arranged life that the world is the soul’s husband; Krishna its divine paramour. We owe a debt of service to the world and are bound to it by a law, a compelling opinion, and a common experience of pain and pleasure, but our heart’s worship and our free and secret joy are for our Lover.” Sri Aurobindo TMCW-10/On Thoughts and Aphorisms/p-340 Sri Aurobindo had great hope in women in building the future. Their main objective in life is not procreation or enjoyment of life with men but to accumulate Spiritual energy. The ‘virgin bridals of the dawn’ (Savitri-401) are identified as the future of the Nation and they can keep their mind, life and body untouched and pure to enter union with the Divine in all the ten planes of Consciousness and realise the full delight and perfection of all those planes or ‘virgin who comest perfected by joy.’ (Savitri-424) They are also representative symbols of pure Spiritual fosterer or the ‘citizens of that mother state.’ (Savitri-262) Thus Para-prakriti dominated Indian women can dream of the emergence of 'a virgin earth' or 'Heaven’s joys might have been earth’s if earth were pure.' (Savitri-123) OM TAT SAT Read More: The All Orissa Girls Meet 11 Questions Raised By the Death God in Savitri : Before conquering Death from without, which is an issue of all life, a Sadhak is given the triple task of conquering Death from within (1) by universalisation of Consciousness, (2) by illuminating the Subconscient and Inconscient planes and (3) by change of Nature through activation of 'Yoga of Self-perfection' and dynamic Sachchidananda Consciousness: The First Task of Conquering Death by Universalisation of Consciousness: This experience will be followed by static Viswarupa Darshana as witnessed by the Arjuna of the Gita (Chapter-10) and dynamic Viswarupa Darshana as witnessed by Death God in Savitri , Book-10, Canto-4. "A Mother-wisdom works in Nature’s breast To pour delight on the heart of toil and want And press perfection on life’s stumbling powers, Impose heaven-sentience on the obscure abyss And make dumb Matter conscious of its God. Although our fallen minds forget to climb, Although our human stuff resists or breaks, She keeps her will that hopes to divinise clay; Failure cannot repress, defeat o’erthrow; Time cannot weary her nor the Void subdue, The ages have not made her passion less; No victory she admits of Death or Fate." Savitri-353-354 “In the enormous emptiness of thy mind Thou shalt see the Eternal’s body in the world, Know him in every voice heard by thy soul, In the world’s contacts meet his single touch; All things shall fold thee into his embrace. Conquer thy heart’s throbs, let thy heart beat in God: Thy nature shall be the engine of his works, Thy voice shall house the mightiness of his Word: Then shalt thou harbour my force and conquer Death .” Savitri-476 The Second Task of illumining the Subconscient and Inconscient planes: " He (Narad) sang the Inconscient and its secret self, (Discovery of Inconscient Self) Its power omnipotent knowing not what it does, All-shaping without will or thought or sense, Its blind unerring occult mystery, And darkness yearning towards the eternal Light, And Love that broods within the dim abyss And waits the answer of the human heart, And death that climbs to immortality." Savitri-416 “O Death , I have triumphed over thee within; I quiver no more with the assault of grief; A mighty calmness seated deep within Has occupied my body and my sense: It takes the world’s grief and transmutes to strength, It makes the world’s joy one with the joy of God. My love eternal sits throned on God’s calm; For Love must soar beyond the very heavens And find its secret sense ineffable; It must change its human ways to ways divine, Yet keep its sovereignty of earthly bliss.” Savitri-633 The Third Task of Permanent Descent of Sachchidananda Consciousness: " His living cosmic spirit shall enring, Annulling the decree of death and pain, Erasing the formulas of the Ignorance, With the deep meaning of beauty and life’s hid sense, The being ready for immortality," Savitri-706 “Even there shall come as a high crown of all The end of Death, the death of Ignorance. But first high Truth must set her feet on earth And man aspire to the Eternal’s light And all his members feel the Spirit’s touch And all his life obey an inner Force. This too shall be; for a new life shall come, A body of the Superconscient’s truth, A native field of Supernature’s mights: It shall make earth’s nescient ground Truth’s colony, Make even the Ignorance a transparent robe Through which shall shine the brilliant limbs of Truth And Truth shall be a sun on Nature’s head And Truth shall be the guide of Nature’s steps And Truth shall gaze out of her nether deeps.” Savitri-708 "The frontiers of the Ignorance shall recede, More and more souls shall enter into light, Minds lit, inspired, the occult summoner hear And lives blaze with a sudden inner flame And hearts grow enamoured of divine delight And human wills tune to the divine will, These separate selves the Spirit’s oneness feel, These senses of heavenly sense grow capable, The flesh and nerves of a strange ethereal joy And mortal bodies of immortality." Savitri-710 Death will exist for him as there are gulfs between multiple planes of intermediate Consciousness. His task in this birth is to bridge as many gulfs as possible through the movement of vertical Consciousness or through a four-fold union with the Divine. When all the gulfs are bridged, then there will be a free flow of the highest energy to the Lowest planes and that is the hour of closure to physical immortality. This is a task for him left in All Life to attain. OM TAT SAT Read More To discover new things in material life is the object of mental Research. Behind the material life there is a vast domain of subtle physical, subtle vital and subtle mental planes. To discover the truths of that world is the object of Spiritual Research. This discovery will be still extended to Psychic within, Spiritual, universal, Supramental and Bliss planes above the head and Subconscient and Inconscient planes below the feet. The Mother confirms that when our discovery of new wisdom is a ‘ direct expression and creation of a light which is above us’ then ‘That is the only case in which one can say that the thought is our own.’ In this creation nothing is our own except what has descended to us through Divine Will, Divine Knowledge and Divine Love. We carry that wealth as Soul Force in succeeding births and bodies. (Refer: The Mother/TMCW-8/Questions and Answers-1956/p-345) "The greatest inner discoveries, the experience of self-being, the cosmic consciousness, the inner calm of the liberated spirit, the direct effect of mind upon mind, the knowledge of things by consciousness in direct contact with other consciousness or with its objects, most spiritual experiences of any value, cannot be brought before the tribunal of the common mentality which has no experience of these things and takes its own absence or incapacity of experience as a proof of their invalidity or their non-existence. " Sri Aurobindo CWSA-22/The Life Divine/p-677 “The work of achieving a continuity which permits one to go up and down (in Consciousness) and bring into the material what is above, is done inside the consciousness. He who is meant to do it, the Avatar, even if he were shut up in a prison and saw nobody and never moved out, still would he do the work, because it is a work in the consciousness, a work of connection between the Supermind and the material being. He does not need to be recognised, he need have no outward power in order to be able to establish this conscious connection. Once, however, the connection is made, it must have its effect in the outward world in the form of a new creation, beginning with a model town and ending with a perfect world.” The Mother The Mother’s Centenary Works/Vol.3/p-179,

" No victory she admits of Death or Fate. Always she drives the soul to new attempt;" Savitri-354 Moderate Spirituality "An ordinary religious teaching or philosophical doctrine is well enough satisfied to seize on certain great and vital aspects of truth and turn them into utilisable dogma and instruction, method and practice for the guidance of man in his inner life and the law and form of his action; it does not go farther, it does not open doors out of the circle of its own system, does not lead us out into some widest freedom and unimprisoned largeness. This limitation is useful and indeed for a time indispensable. Man bounded by his mind and will has need of a law and rule, a fixed system, a definite practice selective of his thought and action; he asks for the single unmistakable hewn path hedged, fixed and secure to the tread, for the limited horizons, for the enclosed resting-places. It is only the strong and few who can move through freedom to freedom.” Sri Aurobindo CWSA/19/Essays on the Gita/p-526-527 The Agenda of Moderate Spirituality “Nevertheless it is possible to make the material man and his life moderately progressive by imprinting on the material mind (physical mind) the custom of progress, the habit of conscious change, the fixed idea of progression as a law of life… It is possible to give the material man and his life a moderate spirituality by accustoming him to regard in a religious spirit all the institutions of life and its customary activities.”⁹ Sri Aurobindo “Nor can the ideal of human life be simply the animal repeated on a higher scale of mentality. Otherwise, a moderate mental satisfaction would have stayed our advance.”¹⁰ Sri Aurobindo “When we attain this perfection (master of the physical), then action and inaction become immaterial, since neither interferes with the freedom of the soul or draws it away from its urge towards the Self or its poise in the Self. But this state of perfection arrives later in the Yoga and till then the law of moderation laid down by the Gita is the best for us; too much mental and physical action then is not good since excess draws away too much energy and reacts unfavourably upon the spiritual condition; too little also is not good since defect leads to a habit of inaction and even to an incapacity which has afterwards to be surmounted with difficulty.”¹¹ (This line indicates that till one discovers Psychic being and Spiritual being, the law of moderation is good; but after that discovery, one should pursue rigorous self-control, ceaseless consecrated action, hard sacrifice.) Sri Aurobindo If one is comfortable and satisfied⁶⁶ with one part of his being and Nature having contact with the Divine, excluding the rest of his being and nature, then he is identified as a Moderate. Integral Yoga promises that an ordinary earth-bound life can be transformed into Divine life, but it cannot be reconciled with Divine life. This means in order to arrive at Divine life, one has to renounce ordinary earth-bound life.⁶⁷ We can confirm it by the Mother's following observation, "But, in the beginning (Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry in 1926), the first condition for coming here was that you would have nothing more to do with your family!.... In the beginning, it was very, very strict – for a long time... The first condition was: ‘Nothing more to do with your family ...’ ...this is an indispensable condition because as long as you hang on to all these cords which bind you to ordinary life, which make you a slave to the ordinary life, how can you possibly belong to the Divine alone?"⁶⁵ Moderate philosophy considers man as above the brute and below God and he is given the calm reason as his guide. He chooses a middle path of reason’s vigilant light which is neither that of Gods with their superhuman thought and power nor that of Titans with their furious march to conquer the kingdom of heaven and dash their life against the eternal Law and fall and break by their own violent mass, nor is he driven by an unthinking will of the bird and beast, nor is he moved senselessly by the stark necessity of Inconscient things. The Moderate Spirituality begins when there is an instreaming of exceptional light of experience into the great mass of normal unenlightened human mind, vitality and physicality which forms the outer self and engrosses the natural preoccupation of a moderate seeker. Integral Yoga recognises man’s hunger for immediate solutions of all his practical problems and does not rest content with unsolved discord, unillumined compromise, patched with failure but sets out in its mission to resolve all problems of existence through integral Evolution or existence fully aware of itself. It accepts all life as Yoga of the Mother-nature, evolving through the concentration of the individual or the secret will of Sachchidananda appearing as the individual in a world. It uses all the means of Religion, Science, Occult knowledge and Spiritual thought as a starting point and the evolutionary endeavour of Nature has experimented on all lines in order to find her true way and her whole way. It accepts the developmental urge of all Religion as ‘a sort of unconscious Yoga of devotion’, and Science as ‘a sort of unconscious Yoga of intellect’; it is the first approach of mind to the Spirit and Nature’s means of slow evolution and are relevant for the beginners. Integral Yoga accepts all Religion as part of the eternal Religion, Sanatana Dharma, and adoration of the personal God of all Religion as passage of partial realisation of the Divine, helping one towards the realisation of the Divine in its entirety. All Science is accepted as part and portion of Supreme Science and the rationalistic Materialism can safely enter the vast field of evidence and experience when the intellect has been severely trained to clear austerity. It served humanity greatly through a clean sweep at once of truth of liberated intelligence, a new departure and a surer advance of perfect experience and liberates humanity from the dualities of the sensational partial conceptions. Who is a moderate?: “So must the dim being grow in light and force And rise to his higher destiny at last, Look up to God and round at the universe, And learn by failure and progress by fall And battle with environment and doom, By suffering discover his deep soul And by possession grow to his own vasts.” Savitri-146 (by possession of Psychic being) “He is satisfied with his common average kind; Tomorrow’s hopes and his old rounds of thought, His old familiar interests and desires He has made into a thick and narrowing hedge Defending his small life from the Invisible; His being’s kinship to infinity He has shut away from him into inmost self, Fenced off the greatness of hidden God.” Savitri-165-66 “Man’s eyes could look into the inner realms; His scrutiny discovered number’s law And organised the motions of the stars, Mapped out the visible fashioning of the world, Questioned the process of his thoughts or made A theorised diagram of mind and life.” Savitri-361 A moderate’s width of life is all that he can think and act and to enjoy and to breathe is the height of his mortal hope. He meets a strange portion of his self that seeks for fragments and lives satisfied in the fragments. He lives in himself and for himself alone and with the rest joins only fleeting ties. His passion over short-lived surface joy and grief is his Shudra identity and his high thought cannot prevent him from the trap of inferior lower Nature which is ‘lower than the lowest reptile’s crawl’⁴⁵ and thus, he is unable to discover the Eternal in his secret house. He pursues the Divine Mother with life’s blind desire and claims all of Her as his lonely own and hastens to engross Her sweetness meant for all and hopes to bind Her with his longing cords. He finds Her Divine touch too strong to bear; intolerant of a Force he could not house and shrank into himself as from too bright a Sun. His mind’s light hides from him the Eternal’s thought; his heart’s hope conceals from him the Eternal’s will and earthly joy shuts from him the Eternal’s Bliss. The Spirit of a Moderate: “For swift and easy is the downward path,” Savitri-211 “Inviting to their high and exquisite sphere, To their secure and fine extremities This creature who hugs his limits to feel safe, These heights declined a greater adventure’s call. A glory and sweetness of satisfied desire Tied up the spirit to golden posts of bliss. It could not house the wideness of a soul Which needed all infinity for its home.” Savitri-238 “Man turns aside or chooses easier paths;” Savitri-449 (turns aside difficult adventure) “Only in limits can man’s strength be safe, Yet is infinity thy spirit’s goal, Its bliss is there behind the world’s face of tears.” Savitri-453 “Yet is he (intellect of man) visited by intuitive light And inspiration comes from the Unknown; But only reason and sense he feels as sure, They only are his trusted witnesses.” Savitri-517 “Our mortal vision peers with ignorant eyes; It has no gaze on the deep heart of things.” Savitri-626 Moderate Spirituality is the first preliminary form of seeking with a certain kind of religiosity which is not a pure Spiritual temperament but is of the nature of mind or life finding in itself a Spiritual support. In this stage, man is mostly preoccupied with the utilisation of such contacts as he can construct with what is beyond him to help or serve his mental ideas or moral ideals or his vital and physical interests and true turn to some Spiritual change has not yet come. Through small joys and grief, he moves towards God. His consciousness forgets to be Divine and cannot bear the Divine’s tremendous touch and cannot experience radical transformation of Nature. He experiences God with His cruel indifferent bitter law and pitiless gaze, meets love with his own agony and short-lived passion and an unknown face of Fate visits with ominous terror and shadowy doom. Now he walks in Nature’s doubtful ray. If his will could be made one with the Divine will and if his thought could echo the thoughts of God, then he might be all-knowing and omnipotent. If his mind can receive God’s light and his force be driven by God’s force then he is a miracle doing miracles. Effort has been made to accommodate the moderate seekers in the main streams of integral Yoga regardless of their past trend, fixed belief and exclusive methods. They will be conversant with its many fold Spiritual practices from the very beginning of their sadhana life and make their life opulent with the fresh inflow of Spiritual experiences. Their natural recoil from the difficult road, high truth, concentrated writings, great adventure within and without and practice of large-scale Spiritual disciplines are corrected, enlarged and transcended through the practice of inner adoration, sacrifice and consecrated action. An awareness comes of an inner light, of guidance or a communion, a greater control than the mind and will to which something in him obeys but all is not yet recast in the mould of that experience. The final aim of the evolutionary Nature in mental man is Spiritual change by the influence of the inner being and higher Spiritual mind but this by itself can lead to an illumined mental idealism to the growth of a religious mind, a religious temperament and some devotion in the heart and piety in the conduct. It is a first approach of Mind to the Spirit but it cannot enter the radical transformation of life and nature. Thus, a moderate Devotee has more responsibility to live deeper within, to exceed his present consciousness and raise the Spiritual aspiration of the heart, its self-offering and its inner seeking. His faith in the Divine is indispensable; for without it he cannot pursue his path through the Unknown and this need not be imposed on him but must come as free perception and imperative direction, adesh, from the inner Spirit. The Limitation of Moderate Spirituality: "He is a smallness trying to be great, An animal with some instincts of a god, His life a story too common to be told, His deeds a number summing up to nought, His consciousness a torch lit to be quenched, His hope a star above a cradle and grave." Savitri-78 “A slowly changing order binds our will. This is our doom until our souls are free.” Savitri-154 “As long as the human animal is lord And a dense nether nature screens the soul, As long as intellect’s outward-gazing sight Serves earthy interest and creature joys, An incurable littleness pursues his days.” Savitri-163-164 “A little bliss is lent thee from above, A touch divine upon thy human days. Make of thy daily way a pilgrimage, For through small joys and griefs thou mov’st towards God.” Savitri-451 “He sees his little self as very God. His little ‘I’ has swallowed the whole world, His ego has stretched into infinity.” Savitri-453 Narad said: “Because thy strength is a part not God’s whole, Because afflicted by the little self Thy consciousness forgets to be divine As it (consciousness) walks in the vague penumbra of the flesh And cannot bear the world’s tremendous touch, Thou criest out and sayst that there is pain.” Saviti-454 “Imprisoned in his body and his brain The mortal cannot see God’s mighty whole, Or share in his vast and deep identity Who (Divine) stands unguessed within our ignorant hearts And knows all things because he (Divine) is one with all.” Savitri-517 “The doctrine “No belief without proof” applies to physical science, it would be disastrous in the field of spirituality — or for that matter in the field of human action. The saints or bhaktas have the faith in God long before they get the experience of God — the man of action has the faith in his cause long before his cause is crowned with success — otherwise they would not have been able to struggle persistently towards their end in spite of defeat, failure and deadly peril.”³⁸ Sri Aurobindo Since moderate Spirituality is Nature’s unconscious Yoga through slow evolution, so it cannot transform the impending doom or fixed destiny into a higher Spiritual destiny. A moderate gains the hard-won quietude, silence, partial Divine realisation and falls into mortal grief and Nature’s Law during transitional or critical moments of life. During the period of extreme adversity, he does not lean on the pure and tranquil Spirit for all the necessary aid and help; rather, he opens himself towards murmurs of inhuman solitudes and prefers to find a gate of escape⁴⁶ from all real problems. All Religions and all Sciences have their own countless stories of doing harm and evil to mankind and the world. “To adopt a religion because one is born in that religion or because the people one loves and trusts practise that religion or because when one goes to a particular place where others pray and worship, one feels helped in one’s own prayer and worship, is not the sign of a very strong nature; I should say it is rather the sign of a weakness or at any rate of a lack of originality.” The Mother/The Mother’s Centenary Works (second edition)/8/246, The Law of Moderation-1: Or Practice of Moderate Spirituality through Science: “(Scientific) Genius is one attempt of the universal Energy to so quicken and intensify our intellectual powers that they shall be prepared for those more puissant, direct and rapid faculties which constitute the play of the supra-intellectual or divine mind. It is not, then, a freak, an inexplicable phenomenon, but a perfectly natural next step in the right line of her (Nature’s) evolution.”¹⁵ Sri Aurobindo “It is the Godhead who manifests himself in the great thinker, the hero, the leader of men, the great teacher, sage, prophet, religious founder, saint, lover of man, the great poet, the great artist, the great scientist, the ascetic self-tamer, the tamer of things and events and forces.”¹⁶ Sri Aurobindo “Our human knowledge is a candle burnt On a dim altar to a sun-vast Truth;” Savitri-280 “And Science tears out Nature’s occult powers,” Savitri-627 “And sciences omnipotent in vain By which men learn of what the suns are made, Transform all forms to serve their outward needs, Ride through the sky and sail beneath the sea, But learn not what they are or why they came….” Savitri-644 Science begins its journey from an obscure and ignorant perception of the hidden realities of Nature and proceeds towards more luminous and more potential vision of the Truth. It is the outcome of the development of man’s faculty of exclusive concentration and vast extension of practical physical mind. Integral Evolution considers Science as a part of occultism as it brings to light the Nature’s hidden formulas and uses its knowledge to set free the operation of her energies and place all its inventions and discoveries at the service of mankind. Science represents a vast system of physical magic through utilisation of secret truths of being and secret power and processes of Nature and it cannot rest content with the barriers of sense knowledge. Integral Evolution further provides this input that success and completion of physical knowledge of Science can be arrived at in its range of inquiry by discovery of what lies beyond, the Supraphysical knowledge because behind the process of physical Nature there is a vast inner kingdom of Supraphysical fact which can be accessed through Subliminal and Spiritual vision and entry into the Occult movement of the Force. Science dreams of physical conquest of death, discovers the necessary conditions or means for an indefinite survival of the body, has insatiable thirst for power and knowledge to capture God’s Omnipotence and Omniscience, contracting Space and Time to vanishing point and it strives in a thousand ways to make man the master of the circumstance and it is arriving at the border where material is divided from the immaterial and the highest achievement of utilitarian Science has even reduced the dependency on external aid of machinery to a vanishing point. In the wireless telegraphy and telephonic communication, the sensible physical means for the intermediate transmission of physical force is removed and it is preserved only at the point of transmission and reception. The development of Supraphysical science ensures that dependency even on these machineries will disappear and direct communication can be established between mind and mind without the aid of the physical organs and limitation they impose on our surface consciousness. If we can recognise this fact, then an enormous vista to the future will open wide through Supraphysical Science. Since the very Soul of scientific enquiry is the search for knowledge, so it cannot cry a halt at sense-dominated knowledge and reasoning from sense knowledge and shall strive to go beyond the limitation and error of sense²¹ by revealing the facts and realities not seizable by corporeal organs. Science confirms the Vedic and the Upanishadic idea ‘of the one essence with its many becomings’. The dualist appearance of Matter and Energy are reconciled in Science as matter is energy or E= mc² and are reconciled in the Vedanta as the Matter is Brahman Energy, annam brahma . It is evident that essential Matter is a thing non-existent to senses and is only a conceptual form of substance, and a point is reached where the arbitrary distinction in thought divides the form of substance from the form of energy. With the increase of scientific knowledge, man becomes capable of regulating and indefinitely prolonging life, though not capable of an entire conquest of death. Science is capable of envisaging only external or secondary causes of removing death and disease to a distance and is not capable of the root knowledge of eliminating it; it knows the process of things but not the essence; thus, it arrives at more powerful manipulation of circumstance without experiencing the essential control. But if we could go behind the surface nature and grasp the essential subtle nature and cause of error, suffering and death, we might hope to arrive at a mastery over them which should be not relative but entire. We can even hope to eliminate them altogether and justify the dominant instinct of our nature by the conquest of that absolute good, bliss, knowledge and immortality which our intuitions perceive as the true and ultimate condition of the human being. So the solution of the whole problem of existence cannot be realised by exclusive one-sided knowledge and the process of science, but we must know the process of mind, life, Soul and Spirit and all that are behind the material surface, and then only we have sufficiently integral knowledge for the total solution of the problem. Science is keen to take minute care, intelligent approach and one-pointed concentration on the smallest and largest of its works. This mighty energy is an equal and impartial mother and its intensity and force of movement is the same in the formation and upholding of a system of suns and the organisation of the life of an ant-hill. We have already seen how greatly and scrupulously Science has served the ends of the Divine and we must preserve all the truths of material Science and its real utilities in the final harmony, even if many or even if all of its existing forms have to be broken or left aside. Reason corrects the error and limitation of the sense mind and is therefore one of the most powerful faculties developed by Science and that is the chief cause of his superiority among the terrestrial beings. The reason of the enormous success of physical Science is that it works best and with a firm confidence, the truth and potentiality already contained in Nature, when it is given a substance to work or handle the cosmic force through acquired knowledge, deals objectivised actualities with sure steps of verification by positive reason and objective evidence, erects formulas and standards based on the objective and phenomenal reality and proceeds from them for new invention and new discovery and it accepts the actual, physical and objective fact as self-evident truth beyond question. Physical Science enlarged the discoveries and released the huge secret material energy into action and for it physical actuality alone is real and Mind and Life are only the departmental activities of Matter and material instrumentation and it ignores the Spiritual, considering it as one form and fragment of Mind and it accepts all other subjective beings and things on the same condition in so far as they can become objects of our external evidence or acceptable to that part of the reason which builds upon the data supplied by them that relies upon as one solid basis of objective knowledge. Certain scientific discoveries are misused and clumsily used by humanity who are mentally and morally unready and unfit to handle powers great and perilous; for it would be an artificial control without any true knowledge of the secret energy that underlies and sustains our creation. The ancient Indian Physicists had identified the hierarchies through which the pure Energy has condensed as pure Matter and the elementary state of material Force is a condition of pure material extension in space. The Material force first modified its ethereal status, akasha , and from this vibration the sense of sound is born and it further modified into a second state which is called in the old language the aerial, vayu , of which a special property of contact between force and force has emerged and from this vibration of force the sense of touch is born. The third self-modification of the primitive force is the principle of light, electricity, fire and heat. Agni, which is again manifested in earth’s atmosphere as sight. A fourth state is characterized by diffusion, is termed as water or the liquid state, jala, accompanied by the birth of the fourth element of sense, the taste and the final modification is termed as earth of the solid state, bhumi, accompanying with it the faculty of sense, the smell. This is the attitude of ordinary consciousness towards Matter that in proportion as Matter is more subtle, less densely resistant and enduringly seizable by the sense, it appears to us less material. Thus, the ancient thinking satisfied the query of the ordinary human mind, about how these forms which are so real, durable and solid to the sense can be in truth only temporary phenomena and things like pure energy are nonexistent, intangible and incredible to sense organs. The integral Vedantic affirmation of universe confirms that the delight of its existence is at (1) first self-gathered, absorbed, sub-conscious in the basis of the physical universe giving birth to the five states of Matter, akasha, vayu, agni, jala and bhumi ; (2) then evolves the five subtle sense of life that of sabda, sparsa, dristi, rasa and gandha ; this Life is Force and Force is Power and Power is Will and Will is the working of the master Consciousness; (3) then the life of sensation further emerges as growth of mind and ego in the triple vibration of pain, pleasure and indifference which is the limitation of the force of consciousness in the form and from its exposure to shocks of the universal Force which it finds alien to it and out of harmony with its own measure and standard; (4) finally, the distortion of original consciousness emerges as the full Sachchidananda consciousness in its creations by movement of ascending and descending Consciousness whose pace is regulated (a) by universality, (b) by equality, (c) by self-possession and (d) by conquest of Nature. This is the normal course, evolution and movement of the world. To realise its own power and to master and to know its world is therefore the increasing impulse of all individual life and that impulse is identified as the essential aspect of growing self-manifestation of Sachchidananda in cosmic existence or universalisation of the individual Being and Nature. His limited mental consciousness has to widen to the superconscient unity in which each embraces all; his narrow heart has to learn the infinite embrace and replace its lusts and discords by universal love; his restricted vital being has to become equal to the whole shock of the universe upon it and capable of universal delight; his recalcitrant physical being has to know itself as no separate entity but as one with and sustaining in itself the whole flow of the indivisible Force that is all things. The Divine Life is born out of the deeper and wider truth of our being which is extended as life of unity, mutuality and harmony, which will again replace the imperfect mental consciousness of artificially arranged and mechanized unity of material life into the oneness-in-all of the supreme Existence-Consciousness-Bliss. Reason and Science bind man within the limitations of Space and Time. The Space is defined as a stable extension measured out by divisibility of substance and mind places itself at certain point in that divisible extension and regards the disposition of substance around it. Time is defined as a mobile extension measured out by succession of the past, present and future in which mind places itself at a certain point from which it can look back and ahead. This experience of space and time in our waking state is what we call as a surface mental consciousness, and is only a small selection from our entire conscious Being. Behind this surface consciousness, there is a much vaster Subliminal and Subconscient mind, which is the greater part of our identity and contains heights, depths, and profundities to which no man can measure or fathom. This knowledge gives us the starting point of the true Science and also the starting point of true Spirituality. This knowledge will deliver us from the circumscription by the material and illusion of the obvious. Modern thought is unaware of invisible forces other than those revealed or constructed by Science; it does not believe that Nature is capable of creating any physical, vital and mental beings other than those around us in the physical world, men, beasts, birds, reptiles, fish, insects, germs and animalculae. These cosmic forces whose subtler substance is invisible to us, form conscious beings or use persons to embody them in physical forms and in a physical world and can act upon Matter and through Matter. As there are Powers of Knowledge or Forces of Light and Truth, so there are Powers of Ignorance, tenebrous Forces of the Darkness, Falsehood and Evil whose work is to prolong the reign of Ignorance and Suffering. The transformation of these universal forces attached to present unstable creation is beyond the scope and control of Physical Science. Science is oblivious and unaware of the Being, the Self and it experiences the separateness in the multiplicity and a dwelling or circling in the ill-understood maze of becomings but this limitation can be cured by the Soul in the Becoming growing into knowledge, into the awareness of the Being which in the multiplicity holds all these existences and their truth is already there in the Being’s timeless existence. The Divine Being is capable of becoming innumerable forms, though He is beyond all form, He does not lose His Divinity in these multitude of forms but pours out in them the delight of His Being and glories of His Godhead; this Earth-power, principle of all this figured material existence, does not lose her immutable divinity because she forms into habitable worlds, throws herself out in the hills and hollows and allows herself to be shaped into utensils or the hearth and the household or as hard metal into weapon, engine, electrical and electronic appliances. The material substance, either subtle like air, ether, heat, electricity and light or rather denser in water, soil, rock and hard metal, are form and body of the Spirit and would never have been created if it could not be made a basis for the self-expression of the Spirit. Science itself is a mental construction, a multitude of pragmatically correct formulas and devices, masterful in the creation of apt machinery, automatically infallible in its own field, but is entirely ignorant of the foundations of our being and of world-being and it does not throw any light on the major question of original cosmic process of how these determinates were created out of the original Indeterminate Existence. It cannot transform and perfect our nature and therefore cannot perfect our life. Rather it transforms all forms to serve their outward need. We do not gain essentially anything most needful by utmost widening of a physical objective knowledge like embracing the most distant solar systems, ride through the sky, exploring the deepest layers of earth, sail beneath the sea and tracing the most subtle powers of material energy. That is why in spite of dazzling triumphs of physical science with all its achievements of making life of humanity materially one, proves itself always in the end a vain and helpless creed by fixing everything into an artificially arranged and mechanised unity of material life and can never achieve happiness and fullness of being for humanity. Our true happiness and completeness lies in the true growth of our whole being and the transcendence of our existing Nature. So first we must grow into our full mental being which is the first transitional movement towards human perfection, mastery and freedom; it does not actually liberate the Soul from increased servitude but prepares loosening of the hold of material and vital absorption. The Integral Yogi’s distinction from other mental men is that he lives and acts in a greater vision and vaster Spiritual Consciousness that he has to express or rather that presses to express itself through him and moulds his works. After realisation of the Integral Divine, the static highest Oneness and the Dynamic greatest Power, an Integral Yogi returns to intermediate worlds for multiple perfection, siddhis , and again returns to earth and its multitude of problems, bears the burden of the world, enjoys Divinely its Self and Universe by renouncing the egoistic sense of desire and possession, tyaktena bhunjithah and transforms humanity. For his Spiritual Consciousness, existence appears as a world of Spirit, mayi vartate, ¹⁷ not a world of Matter but a God manifested in the form, not a world of life but a God manifested in the force, not a world of mind but a God manifested in the thought. His entry in Occultism is not confined to a subordinate action of astonishingly effective use of mind power and life power by mechanisation of latent forces but mind and life forces are made plastic, subtle, variable in their action and have not the material rigidity and they have developed a subtle and plastic Intuition in the knowledge for the interpretation of all their action, process and application of established formulas. He enters Arts with the aim of a more glorious and beautiful manifestation; there the delight of the Spirit is ever new, the forms of beauty are innumerable, the godhead adored is ever young and the taste of the delight is eternal and inexhaustible and attains to something of this true capacity for variable but universal delight in the aesthetic reception of things. His aim in utilitarian Science is to enter the ways and processes of the Divine, to know the material and means of work to utilise that knowledge for the conscious and faultless expression of the Spirit’s mystery, joy and self-fulfilment. His aim in Science is to discover, understand and execute the working of the Divine Consciousness-Puissance in men, creatures and in Nature’s myriad manifestations. His aim in medical Science is to discover integral healing through the intervention of the Divine Grace or Nature’s all-powerful suprarational remedy which can be subordinated by the support of medicines and doctors. Science discovers the fundamental truth of existence that the Matter resolves itself into form of Energy and studies opaque Force and Matter. This force is fundamentally the Chit-Tapas or Chit-Shakti , Consciousness-force of the Vedanta which builds up and constitutes the Matter. Traditional Spirituality discovers the greater and completer fundamental truth that the Matter exists as a substantial appearance of Consciousness and the only reality is a pure Spirit or the Conscious Being. Integral Spirituality finds a link principle of Consciousness which is veiled as subconscious form in Matter and revealed as superconscious form in Spirit. Since to Science, Matter is the beginning and end of all knowledge so it shows reluctance to accept Consciousness as the mother of intelligence and material Energy or blind Nature-Force is now ordinarily accepted as the sole cause and mode of things and the sole instrumentation of the World-Force. Science has worked marvels by organising the instrumentation of material forces and created an unlimited prospect of our existence and it does not accept the instrumentation of the powers of Consciousness and Spiritual and Occult forces exceeding and overpassing the limitation of existing Nature. When Science will be able to mend its earlier stand of recognising a subconscious mind or intelligence as creator of material universe but accepts an involved Truth Consciousness behind all material existence, then it will be able trace the hierarchies of higher Consciousness and gives way to the higher Spiritual appetite of integral Yoga and its unconscious wandering within Matter ends and it will recognise life, mind and Supermind as evolution of veiled Truth Consciousness in Matter or different grades of same energy, different organisations of the one conscious force of Existence. Purified Intelligence is an intermediate consciousness and it can trace the passage of Spiritualised Intelligence and Intuition of higher Consciousness. Science can find its full sense and justification by illuminating itself with the Light and Truth preserved in the ancient Vedantic Scripture. Thus, we cease to reason and go deep into ourselves by stilling the mind. Knowledge of luminous vastness with illimitable self-vision awaits and is seated beyond mind and intellectual reasoning. Thus, we can hope that a great progression of Science starting from the rudimentary beginnings of an awakening of the material forces, continuing with this mutual self-discovery and self-illumination by fusion of old Eastern and modern Western wisdom, might lead to another immense development and departure. The Law of Moderation-2: Or Practice of Moderate Spirituality through Religion: “Nor shall you say of any Scripture that it alone is all-sufficient and no other truth can be admitted, as the Vedavadins said of the Veda, nanyad astıti vadinah (those who are devoted to the Veda whose creed is that there is nothing else.¹³ ). This is a saving and liberating word which must be applied to all the Scriptures of the world. Take all the Scriptures that are or have been, Bible and Koran and the books of the Chinese, Veda and Upanishads and Purana and Tantra and Shastra and the Gita itself and the sayings of thinkers and sages, prophets and Avatars , still you shall not say that there is nothing else or that the truth your intellect cannot find there is not true because you cannot find it there. That is the limited thought of the sectarian or the composite thought of the eclectic religionist, not the untrammelled truth-seeking of the free and illumined mind and God-experienced soul.”¹⁴ Sri Aurobindo “All powers of Life towards their godhead tend In the wideness and the daring of that air, Each builds its temple and expands its cult, And Sin too there is a divinity.” Savitri-185 The objective of all Religion is to generalise the highest available Spiritual Truth for the largest benefit of humanity and its greatest utility is to act as an intermediary between the perfect Spirit and imperfect Nature. The objective of all Spirituality is to trace the endless unfolding of the opulence of the Spirit and preserve its highest discovered truth in some casketed secret symbolic formulas and given only to a few fit initiated Souls living within the secret Schools of Spiritual Fortress for the present and future benefit of humanity. In integral Yoga, both objectives are reconciled. But in our separative consciousness each Religion takes on the appearance of opposing forces; each exists as opposites through rituals, ceremony and sacraments; each claims to be the Truth and superior and taxes the others with error and inferior Truth-expressions; each feels impelled to destroy, clash or refuse the others in order that it alone may survive, fulfill itself and spread the message of the Truth. The religious emotions are often invaded by turmoil, obscurity, self-assertive narrowness, challenging egoism and are either crude or narrow or fanatical or mixed with movements that are not signs of the Spirit’s freedom and draw back Religion of its higher Spiritual aim and character. The necessity of mutually destructive schools of philosophy arises when human mentality lays an exclusive emphasis on one side of the Spiritual experience, affirms that as the sole eternal Truth of existence and states it in terms of all dividing mental logic. Again if we give support to this play of difference, then we assert that the Supreme and the human Soul are eternally different and reject the validity of a Spiritual experience which transcends their difference. Integral Yoga proceeds towards all-inclusive Knowledge, not by setting one truth against other truth to see which will survive and flourish, but complements one exclusive truth by another exclusive truth in the light of the vision that each are special aspect of one all-inclusive Truth. All truth idea, truth vision, truth perception and truth discernment have this character of large integrating knowledge, a whole working out of the process of self-awareness in a self-executing harmony of truth-being. The quest of man for God, which becomes in the end most ardent and enthralling of all his quests, begins with his first vague questionings of Nature, thus, the primitive form of Religion started from animism, spirit-worship, demon-worship and deification of the natural forces, an obscure and ignorant feeling of hidden influences and incalculable forces, or a vague sense of being, will, intelligence in what seems to us Inconscient, of the invisible behind the visible, of the secretly conscious Spirit in things distributing itself in every working of energy. This obscurity, inferior stage and primitive inadequacy of the first perceptions do not detract from the value of the truth of this great quest of the human heart and mind, and it must start from an obscure and ignorant perception of hidden Realities and proceed to the more and more luminous vision of the Truth and sheer contact of the Spiritual Reality which at first comes to us masked, draped, veiled by the mists of the Ignorance. In India , the age of Intuitive knowledge, Intuitive seeing and Intuitive expression was represented by fathomless thought and profound language of early Vedantic thinking of the Upanishads; the Intuition was unable to give us direct knowledge because the surface nature was not trained and well organised to fully assimilate its messages. In order to organise the surface being the age of Intuitive knowledge had to give place to the age of rational knowledge, inspired Scriptures, intellectual account which made room for metaphysical philosophy and logical justification of what has been found by inner realisation as represented in The Gita and afterwards metaphysical philosophy gave birth to systematized method for realisation and experience through experimental psycho-physical Science of Hathayoga , experimental occult science of Tantra and experimental Psychic Science of Rajayoga . In the West, this synthetic and illumined tendency of consciousness was replaced by the separative and analytic, Spiritual urge parted company from intellectual reason, and philosophy took the form of purely intellectual and ratiocinative explanation for things. The dynamic thought and conduct developed a discipline, an effort at inner perfection of the being through systems like the Pythagorean, Stoic and Epicurean; this reached a higher Spiritual plane of knowledge through the later Christian and Neo-pagan thought structures where the Eastern and Western experiences were reconciled. In the age of rationalistic speculation, the Indian philosophers were respectful of a double attitude, that of (1) inspired revelation through Intuition, an authority superior to reason and (2) testing the result of Intuition through Reason. In this way they avoided the metaphysical sin and the tendency to battle in the cloud. Their speculations proceeded towards the highest Spiritual experience by united consent of two great authorities, the Intuition and the Reason. Subsequently, in the passage of time the trend of the reason to assert its own supremacy prevailed in effect over the theory of its subordination. So the old catholicity and unity of intuitive Knowledge which sees things in the whole, suffered through the intervention of reason’s analysis and division and natural tendency of the reason to affirm some and negate others which conflict with its own chosen conclusion and hence each school of thought founded on Vedic or Vedantic theory use its texts as weapons of opposition against others. In the West the later Religion was not supported by philosophy but by credal theology. There Spiritual philosophy emerged by the sheer force of the individual genius and it was observed that the critical control of the intellect over Spiritual experience was hampered and was unreliable due to an inferior light of reason turned upon a field of higher Spiritual illumination. The real business of Religion is to prepare man’s mind, life and bodily existence for a Spiritual evolution and gives each one a mould of Spiritual discipline, a way of intense aspiration, a discernment and possession of Truth and has to lead him to that point where the inner Spiritual light begins to fully emerge. The Religions in India accepted a vast number of difficult formulations and all the elements that have grown in the course of the evolution of Religion and refused to ban or excise any. It developed occult Science to its utmost limit, accepted Spiritual philosophies of all kinds, every possible line of highest, deepest and largest Spiritual realisation, Spiritual experience and Spiritual self-discipline; followed all ways of communication between man and the Supreme Divine and every possible way of advance to the goal. Thus, a larger psychic and emotional relation, more deep and plastic in its essence and all embracing relation with God became imperative. It is by such plasticity and catholicity that the wider aim of the evolution of Religion can work with an unexampled multitudinous richness, impregnable durability, generality, universality, height, subtlety and all possible fullness. All the post-Buddhistic era lived in the shadow of the great Refusal and the final end of life for all is the garb of the ascetic. It disturbed two thousand years of old Vedic Aryan balance between Matter and Spirit and has increasingly dominated Indian minds of the ascetics and the religionists for many centuries with the idea that (1) renunciation and condemnation of earthly life is the sole path of knowledge, (2) acceptance of life as the act of ignorant Maya , (3) the cessation of birth and withdrawal to happier worlds is the right use of human birth, the call of the Spirit to recoil from Matter. It was in the integral Yoga, the three great formulas of negations of interim solution, (1) the chain of karma , (2) escape from wheel of rebirth and (3) cosmic illusion, Maya, which had permeated and predominated the general conception of the mind of the race through most of the Religious and Spiritual disciplines of India, were transcended and it was felt necessary to find a true solution and to look afresh at the Idea or Truth behind the Hindu negation of this cosmic existence. In the new orientation, in its ultimate objective, the limitations of Universal Illusionism behind these theories were traced and they were transformed to their full significance of a universal Realism, a real universe reposing on a Reality at once Universal, Transcendent and Absolute. The law or the chain of karma is Divine Will acting through the limitation of mind, producing mechanised living and bondage. Each being reaps what he sows. Karma is further projected as the outcome of past good or evil thoughts, feelings and actions which determine and construct his fixed physical fate. They are the chief or the most forceful determinants of his being and his future. This idea of Karma is a construction of the narrow but practical human physical mind and vital mind concerned with its petty rules of life and its desires and joys and sorrows and erecting their puny standards into the law and aim of the cosmos. These ignorant notions cannot be acceptable to the human intellect and still less to the law of Divine living. The true liberating karma as proposed in integral Yoga is the action of direct Divine will received through the Psychic or Spiritual being whose outcome is intense creative joy of Spirit, the harmony of the eternal musician and the play of the Divine Playmate. The higher law of karma is ultimately the law of Spiritual evolution and with the emergence of our Soul, the primary plan of fixed destiny is partly modified by the intervention of the mind and wholly changed to Psychic and Spiritual destiny and the binding law of karma is replaced with the Spiritual freedom or the law of the Self. The past mechanized action of man gives birth to the present man of fixed fate and the present mental action of man gives birth to a future Spiritual man with an unimaginable Spiritual destiny. Those who are bound to the chain of karma are bound to the principle of rebirth and in all traditional schools, the freedom from rebirth is projected as the highest and ultimate objective. The methods by which they can escape into the Purushottama State and rest there permanently, for that they must satisfy three conditions; firstly, they must mould themselves towards this ideal their whole inner life in their earthly living; secondly, they must have the capacity to go to the highest state of Purushottama either in trance or waking state while continuing in this earthly body and thirdly, they must be faithful to this aspiration during the hour of departure of the earthly body. In integral Yoga, rebirth is not considered as the Soul’s circling in the net of desire, but an opportunity of Spiritual evolution and through it the mind, life and body repeat the lesson of manifesting their involved Divinity till the recovery of their complete and undivided Divine life. It is for ever-increasing upward experience of the individual being from life to life; the growth of the Soul is a growth out of darkness into Light, out of falsehood into Truth, out of suffering into its own supreme and universal Ananda. It is through joy and grief, pain and suffering, fortune and misfortune that the Soul enters into rebirth. The theory of Maya, the Illusionist theory, as proposed by Shankara is the sense of illusion or unreality of cosmic existence as formulated by the mind; it really cuts the knot of the world problem; it is an escape, a separation from Nature. This sense of unreality powerfully seizes the consciousness of a Spiritual seeker with great force when the mind withdraws from its constructions; one passes into pure Selfhood void of all sense of individuality and Consciousness is plunged into a trance of pure Superconscient existence. Buddha took one step farther to declare the unreality of the Self and God; for they too are constructions of the mind. Any error, division and confusion of mind between the activities of Saguna Brahman and quiescence of Nirguna Brahman would not be a creative cosmic Illusion, Maya, but only a wrong understanding of realities of Existence and a wrong relation created by Ignorance. A real solution of existence and world-existence can only stand upon the truth that accounts for their validity, integralises, harmonises and gathers together all their experience in the supreme all-reconciling Oneness. Still there are other decisive Spiritual experiences, that of greater Divine union with the double Spiritual experience of Cosmic Consciousness and Nirvana of world-consciousness, which can undo the whole theory of (mental) Maya , which can remove Ignorance and Falsehood from material life and this world is experienced as real as Brahman . The illusionist word Maya , of the later Vedantist , which means cunning, fraud and illusion, has declined from its original meaning of knowledge, skill and intelligence of the Ancient Vedantist. Integral Yoga retains the ancient original Vedantic sense of Maya, which is all-comprehending, all-containing and all-embracing Consciousness of the Supreme, that affirms and includes the truth of all Spiritual experience, integralises all Knowledge, and experiences That which being known all is known. (Supramental) Maya is the supreme and universal Consciousness and Force of the Eternal and Infinite and it is at once transcendental, universal and individual and it can put forth many states of Consciousness at a time. The world appears to be an Illusion (mental) Maya by virtue of the presence of lower Nature and apparent denial of Ignorance which seeks to become affirmation and this Illusion-Power which creates appearances can be removed by ascending into the higher Consciousness and Matter can be the solid ground for manifestation of the highest Divine. The shadow of the great Refusal or principle of negation prevailing over principle of affirmation of post Buddhistic era of the East was reincarnated in the West as Christian negation⁴¹ which was born out of fear of hell and long subconscient memory of suppression, anguish, oppression, aggression, intolerance, use of violence, atrocity, paid the price of blood and suffering and death of Christian martyrs in thousands of its religious history. The accumulated Soul forces¹² of these martyrs conquered against the empire-force so that the oppression of Christianity prevailed but not the compassionate Christ. The victorious religion became a militant and dominant Church and Christianity organise themselves into mutual strife and they battled together fiercely to live, grow and possess the world as much as possible to their utmost capacity. They limit the Infinite as one and only Incarnation.⁴⁰ This monotheistic doctrine was again further aggravated as religious obscurantism of opposing the enquiry and extension of endless scientific discovery. The latter limitation was overcome with the advent of modern Science and the former can be transcended by the advent of Spiritual Science and the entry of a caravan of Light into the body of an individual Spiritual seeker and his greatest difficulty is that he still seeks happiness and fulfilment in Heaven beyond and not on earth. In order to overcome this exclusive Spirituality where this creation is identified as reprehensible;³⁹ he will have to fight strongly in order to establish himself here in the external life the Supreme Bliss from which all creation is born. He will weld strongly the central truth, central dynamic principle, central secret of his Religion with the all truth of Eternal Religion, Sanatana Dharma , from which all religions have evolved. He will realise the gospel of Divine love, service, benevolence and action that dominates his outer Christian living, which has its Transcendent source in Sachchidananda , the triple Divine principle of Existence, Consciousness and Bliss, and he will further realise that elevating himself to the Transcendent Source of all is a more important and relevant issue than the minor factor of serving the individual or the race. The division of Catholic and Protestant Christianity is identified in integral Yoga as the former is the original plasticity in nature with many-sided catholicity extended towards the growth of whole Nature of human being and the latter is disruptive of this wide-reaching tendency and insists on pure dependency on belief, monotheistic adoration of God, who lives as Immanent Being within and simplified law of good so as to make quick appeal to common intellect, heart and ethical will. The specialty of Catholicism is that they worship virgin Mother, Para-prakriti, and have the occult knowledge of the Subliminal plane and Protestants have something of the inner Divine Presence. . Integral Yoga accepts and adores the compassionate Christ as Divine Incarnation. The Cross,¹⁹ which symbolises purification and suffering, is transformed in integral Yoga²² into a symbol of strong and perfect union between the Soul and Nature and all that purified humanity is culminated by its fulfillment. The Mother force in Virgin Mary is extended in integral Yoga as Virgin Savitri, the descent of Supreme nature, Para-prakriti, into human form, who promises that Earth life can be made an equal and peer of Heaven and Heaven’s joy can natively grow on mortal soil if Earth can be made pure and virgin. Savitri further promises to transform the seven-fold sorrows of the Subconscient world (this can be linked with Mother Mary’s seven sorrows) into seven-fold Bliss and ‘Misery shall pass abolished from the earth.’²⁰ Integral Yoga accepts Shankar’s theory of ‘Brahman is Real and World is an Illusion’ as the initial Spiritual experience and rejects it in the final journey with the realisation of World is as real as Brahman and Brahman Force can penetrate into material life and Divinise it. It accepts the Buddhistic doctrine of Nirvana and the eightfold path⁵⁵ as the initial Spiritual realisation and rejects its negation that the world, the Self and the Divine are the construction of Mind and hence are unreal. It accepts the Gita’s self-discipline of Karma, Jnana and Bhakti Yoga and rejects its objective of escape into the Supreme abode of Param Dham . It accepts the inner renunciation of desire and ego of ascetic living and rejects saintly inactivity and renunciation of outer life. It accepts the exclusive Spiritual quests of later Vedantists as the starting point of Yoga and rejects their dependency on Psycho-physical means of self-discipline. It accepts initially Patanjali's eight limbs of Yoga⁵⁶ and its highest objective of Samadhi, which 'tends to withdraw into a subliminal plane at the back of our normal experiences instead of (objective of Integral Yoga) descending and possessing our whole existence.'⁶³ It accepts Chris t as the Divine Incarnation, its gospel of universal Love, brotherhood, equality and charity and rejects the Christian doctrine of limiting the infinite to one and only Divine Incarnation, solution of all problems of existence in the Heaven beyond, long Subconscient memory of oppression, miseries and acceptance of creation as the error of God. Integral Yoga accepts the fundamental truth of all religions and rejects their narrow customs and creeds. Integral Yoga accepts the ancient Vedantic doctrine of searching for the truth of existence in both Matter and Spirit and finds a reconciling equation in which Brahman consciousness penetrates material life. The above Eastern and Western negations are further fragmented through the apparent negations and divisions between mind, life and body. The three negations of mind are identified as limitation of Consciousness (which gave birth to Pleasure, Pain and Indifference), Ignorance and Dualities transformed in integral Yoga into Infinite Consciousness, integral Knowledge and Oneness; of life are identified as Death, Desire or Hunger and Incapacity transformed in integral Yoga into Immortality, satisfied Delight and Omnipotence and of physical are Ignorance, Inertia and Division transformed in integral Yoga into Omniscience, Divine peace and tranquility and Unity. Conscious unity and perfect harmony of mind, life and body can be arrived at by discovering the triple Soul of Manomaya, Pranamaya and Annamaya Purusha , and further pushing to discover the Psychic Being in the heart and Spiritual and Supramental Being above the head. Spiritual experience born out of World Negation as developed by Buddha and later further extended by the Indian Saint Shankara is the Nirvana and Brahma Nirvana, respectively. For the Buddha , the world, Self and God are constructions of the mind and by withdrawing from such constructions, one arrives at the ineffable Delight of the Nirvana . If this experience is further extended one realises the featureless, immutable, silent and absolute state of One and indivisible Brahma Nirvana . And the Ananda becomes so intense and pure that to the mind this phenomenal world seems to be an illusion. The Spiritual experience born out of Positive Affirmation of World or considering world as the body of the Divine, Vasudev Sarvamiti, is the Cosmic Consciousness which is possible by raising and widening the mind to the state of Truth Thought, Truth Vision, Truth Hearing, Truth Discernment and Truth Touch or developing the faculty of Higher Mind, illumined Mind, Intuitive Mind and finally Mind is universalized to experience Overmind state of Consciousness. In this cosmic Consciousness of Overmind the Matter is real to the Spirit and the Spirit is real to the Matter and their reconciliation is practicable. In this Cosmic consciousness Mind, Life and Body are no longer considered as agents of separation and fomenters of an artificial quarrel but as conscious Intermediaries and Instruments of evolving Consciousness, where Mind is self-fulfilled when it becomes a pure mirror of the Truth of Being; Life is self-fulfilled when it consciously lends its energies to the perfect self-figuration of the Divine in ever-new forms and activities of the universal existence and body is self-fulfilled when its substance is plastic and malleable enough to the pure Divine touch and its Light. In integral Yoga, the negative Spiritual experience of Nirvana and the positive or affirmative Spiritual experience of Cosmic Consciousness are accepted as expressions of Self and are reconciled and transcended, where the former asks the pacification of the mind and the latter asks the activation and illumination of Mind. These two Spiritual experiences are the basis of static and dynamic Brahman , beyond which the greater Divine union and integral Divine realisation stand. In conclusion, Integral Yoga has nothing to do with Hindu religions or any other Religions. It recognises two things. (1) It accepts the 'Truth of the Divine which is the spiritual reality behind all religions'⁵² and (2) dynamic Divine union and its highest form identified as Supramental truth, which is not known to any Religion. These two things are identified as the foundation of all future action of integral Yoga and by their help all problems of existence can be resolved, all impurity can be purified, all untransformed Nature can be Divinised and all imperfections of existence can be perfected. The Law of Moderation-3: Or Eightfold Concentration for the beginners of Integral Yoga: “Detect first what is false (countless rajasic imperfections) or obscure (countless tamasic imperfections) in you and persistently reject it, then alone can you rightly call for the divine Power to transform you.....But whatever his (Sadhak's ) aim, however exalted his aspiration, he has to begin from the law of his present imperfection, to take full account of it and see how it can be converted to the law of a possible perfection.” Sri Aurobindo CWSA-32/The Mother with letters on the Mother/p-4 CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-631 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. Apprentice Sadhakas will begin this Yoga with the triple wheels of Vedantic method of Karma, Jnana and Bhakti Yoga with limited will, intellect and emotion, integral in its aim and process and many-sided in progress, but starting from works and proceeding by works aided at each step with more and more illumined Divine knowledge and vivifying Divine love. At the beginning and for a long period on the way, limitations and exclusiveness will be there, but the integral Yoga will wear them more loosely than the more exclusive ways of seeking and will soon emerge from the limitations of exclusive concentration. And lastly, they will keep this in mind that integral Yoga can be further pursued through integral method by activation of Psychic, Spiritual and Supramental self-discipline through dynamisation of an essential, multiple and Integral concentration and they can gradually withdraw dependency from the following eight disciplines of exclusive concentration as soon as higher concentrations intervene; for in higher concentrations these disciplines retain their spontaneous absolute state. Here, in this paper, a passing reference is given to these absolute states. These eight self-disciplines can be compared with the Buddha's Āryāṣṭāṅgamārga, the Noble Eightfold Path⁵⁵ and Patanjali's system of Aṣṭāṅgayoga, the Eight Limbs of Yoga.⁵⁶ Here the Buddha's Path is Ethical/Mental, Patanjali's Path is in Ascending Limbs, and the Integral Yoga Path is Spiritual and Supramental Integration. i) All Renunciation, Sarva Aparigraham, Sarva-Tyāga, Sarva-Sannyāsa : "Therefore attachment and desire must be utterly cast out; there is nothing in the world to which we must be attached, not wealth nor poverty, nor joy nor suffering, nor life nor death, nor greatness nor littleness, nor vice nor virtue, nor friend, nor wife, nor children, nor country, nor our work and mission, nor heaven nor earth, nor all that is within them or beyond them."³⁴ Sri Aurobindo Renunciation is a self-discipline of negative practice in order to arrive at the positive aim of integral Yoga. All renunciation includes external and inner renunciation necessary during the formative stage of integral Yoga and its utility is no longer felt when the Soul no longer seeks pleasure but possesses the delight of the Divine in all things and obeys consciously the will of one Self in all beings. In integral Yoga, complete external renunciation of life is a provisional stage through which the Soul must pass at some period of its progress. And inner renunciation is experienced in the three stages, that of renunciation of triple attachment in the senses, the heart, the intellect; ‘for attachment is the egoism in love and not love itself;’³⁴ secondly renunciation of triple self-will or desire in the thought, emotion and action; for ‘desire is limitation and insecurity in a hunger for pleasure and satisfaction and not the seeking after the divine delight in things;’³⁴ and thirdly, renunciation of triple egoism in the intellect, heart and volition; for ‘ego must either disappear in impersonality or fuse into a larger I.’³⁵ So from the very beginning of this Yoga one has to teach oneself to renounce desire in three stages; first, renounce all lower forms of desire and concentrate on the higher desire of passion for the Divine manifested as Purity, Peace, Ananda , Love, Beauty etc.; secondly, one has to be taught not to desire anything for one’s own separate sake, not to desire even personal salvation, but for the manifestation of God in the world and for the Divine in ourselves and lastly, one must learn to desire, not in its own egoistic way, but in the way of the Divine, it must yearn to fulfill a larger and greater Will. Thus, through this training, the desire, which is a great harasser of man and cause of every kind of stumbling, can be fit to be transformed into its Divine counterpart of Delight in things. This desire has its root in the Inconscient Sheath and can be removed from its root by Supramental Invasion. It is identified in Savitri as 'A last and mightiest transformation."⁵⁴ The will in us takes various forms of will of life, will of intellect, and a will of emotion, covering every part of nature that reacts with incapacity, limitations, wrong or perverted will. These are to be renounced in order to tune oneself with the Divine will. Purification of egoism through renunciation is indispensable for inner purity, peace and joy. When one realises that the one Divine power works in his mind, life and body and the same works in all other men, animals, plants and things animate and inanimate, then one is liberated from egoism, - ‘When the human ego realises that its will is a tool, its wisdom ignorance and childishness, its power an infant’s groping, its virtue a pretentious impurity, and learns to trust itself to that which transcends it, that is its salvation.’³³ Through the practice of renunciation, falsehood is rooted out and one arrives at a desireless state, which is the essential condition for arriving at equality and complete surrender. As long as falsehood is there penetrated within the Matter, things will end badly. To remove it is the direct task of Supramental action.⁵³ ii) All Equality, Sarva-Samatā : “Attaining to a perfect equality in the soul, mind and heart, we realise our true self of oneness, one with all beings, one too with That which expresses itself in them and in all that we see and experience. This equality and this oneness are the indispensable twin foundation we must lay down for a divine being, a divine consciousness, a divine action. Not one with all, we are not spiritual, not divine. Not equal-souled to all things, happenings and creatures, we cannot see spiritually, cannot know divinely, cannot feel divinely towards others.”²³ Sri Aurobindo “It has been best formulated in the already expressed doctrine of the Gita by which a complete renouncement of desire for the fruits as the motive of action, a complete annulment of desire itself, the complete achievement of a perfect equality are put forward as the normal status of a spiritual being. A perfect spiritual equality is the one true and infallible sign of the cessation of desire, — to be equal-souled to all things, unmoved by joy and sorrow, the pleasant and the unpleasant, success or failure, to look with an equal eye on high and low, friend and enemy, the virtuous and the sinner, to see in all beings the manifold manifestation of the One and in all things the multitudinous play or the slow masked evolution of the embodied Spirit.”²⁴ Sri Aurobindo “The first business of the sadhaka is to see whether he has the perfect equality , how far he has gone in this direction or else where is the flaw, and to exercise steadily his will on his nature or invite the will of the Purusha to get rid of the defect and its causes.”²⁵ Sri Aurobindo “A perfect equality not only of the self, but in the nature is a condition of the Yoga of self-perfection. The first obvious step to it will be the conquest of our emotional and vital being, for here are the sources of greatest trouble , the most rampant forces of inequality and subjection, the most insistent claim of our imperfection. The equality of these parts of our nature comes by purification and freedom.”²⁶ Sri Aurobindo “A perfect equality of our spirit and nature is a means by which we can move back from the troubled and ignorant outer consciousness into this inner kingdom of heaven and possess the spirit’s eternal kingdoms, rajyam samruddham , of greatness, joy and peace. That self-elevation to the divine nature is the complete fruit and the whole occasion of the discipline of equality demanded from us by the self-perfecting aim in Yoga.”²⁷ Sri Aurobindo “A perfect equality and peace of the soul is indispensable to change the whole substance of our being into substance of the self out of its present stuff of troubled mentality. It is equally indispensable if we aspire to replace our present confused and ignorant action by the self-possessed and luminous works of a free spirit governing its nature and in tune with universal being. A divine action or even a perfect human action is impossible if we have not equality of spirit and an equality in the motive-forces of our nature.”²⁸ Sri Aurobindo Integral Yoga demands complete equality not only of Nature, which constitutes our mind, heart and body but also of the Self, as a first necessity of Spiritual perfection, which can be attained by entire renunciation of desire, attachment and ego. The first obvious step to equality will be purification of the vital and emotional being as they are the sources of greatest trouble, the most rampant forces of inequality, subjection and imperfection. The last and most difficult step is the equality of thinking mind, buddhi, the entire purification of it is an indispensable condition for rising to Spiritual and Supramental heights. All things move towards Divine fulfillment, each experience of suffering and joy, creation and destruction, ignorance and knowledge, hatred and love, is a necessary link in carrying out the universal movement and it is our business here to understand and support it and see all things as the manifestation of the Divine without anger, impatience and trouble; any least revolt or reaction is a violence against the Master of the world and ‘this little pebble of imperfection may throw down the whole achievement of the Yoga.’⁶⁴ Equality in Integral Yoga is a Spiritual way of replying to life and compelling it to become perfect through use of three passive methods and three active methods. The passive equality of Karma Yoga is titiksha , endurance, which is a teaching of the system to bear steadily and calmly of all contacts of pleasant and unpleasant, heat and cold, health and disease etc. The active equality of Karma Yoga is sama bhoga , which is an equal enjoyment of all things, happenings, experiences, objects, etc. The passive equality of Jnana Yoga is udasinata , indifference, which is a teaching of the system to remain indifferent to all touches of joy and grief, pleasure and pain or to seat above, superior to all physical and mental touches. The active equality of Jnana Yoga is sama rasa, which is a flow of equal Spiritual, Supramental rasa to all things, happenings, experiences and objects. The passive equality of Bhakti Yoga is nati , which is a joyful submission of the Soul to the will of God; it experiences all touches as His ecstatic touch and all experiences as His play. The active equality of Bhakti Yoga is sama ananda , which is a joy of Unity in everything and with everything. After equality is established the other three siddhis of Integral Yoga to which one may pursue are: - shanti, peace, sukha , spiritual ease in all circumstances and hasya , joy and laughter of the Soul. iii) All Consecration, Complete Surrender, Sarva-Yajña, Sarva-Samarpaṇa : “A long, difficult stage of constant effort, energism, austerity of the personal will, tapasya , has ordinarily to be traversed before a more decisive stage can be reached in which a state of self-giving of all the being to the Supreme Being (Vedantic Sacrifice) and the Supreme Nature (Vedic Sacrifice) can become total and absolute.”⁶¹ Sri Aurobindo “Our sacrifice is not a giving without any return or any fruitful acceptance from the other side; it is an interchange between the embodied soul and conscious Nature in us and the eternal Spirit. For even though no return is demanded, yet there is the knowledge deep within us that a marvellous return is inevitable. The soul knows that it does not give itself to God in vain; claiming nothing, it yet receives the infinite riches of the divine Power and Presence.”⁶² Sri Aurobindo Integral Yoga insists on the buddhi, will and emotion to dwell constantly on the master idea of surrender and must discourage all other lesser preferences of personal will, desire in the prana and separative ego and teach the whole being that any kind of grief, revolt, fear, impatience and trouble is a violence against the Master of existence.³⁶ The act of triple sacrifice has to be practiced every moment and every movement of our action, intellect and emotion, from the smallest, most ordinary, trifling to the greatest and most uncommon and noble acts, and it can begin by offering a flower, a leaf, our food, action, sleep and askesis to the Lord of sacrifice and if there is a resolute self-consecration from deep within with the Soul’s awakening, then these inadequate things can be a sufficient instrument for Divine purpose. ‘Therefore the wise have always been unwilling to limit man’s avenues towards God; they would not shut against his entry even the narrowest portal, the lowest and darkest postern, the humblest wicket-gate. Any name, any form, any symbol, any offering has been held to be sufficient if there is the consecration along with it; for the Divine knows himself in the heart of the seeker and accepts the sacrifice.’⁵¹ With the growth of surrender, one becomes more powerful and all other opposing hostile forces lose their strength and two important inner changes are experienced. The secret inmost Soul in the heart comes to the front which was veiled by the restless activity of mind, the turbulent impulse of vital being and the obscurity of physical consciousness. Secondly, the Spiritual being above the head liberates the Divine Presence and Light and permeates them to our conscious and subconscious nature. The unveiling of the Psychic and Spiritual being paves the path open in the long run for more intense and comprehensive action of Universal Self and Supramental Self. Then, Integral Yoga is pursued by the direct interference and guidance of these four Selves and the integral method is evolved. iv) All Purification, Sarva-Śuddhi : "Purity is perfect sincerity and one cannot have it unless the being is entirely consecrated to the Divine." ⁴⁷ The Mother "Power of integral purity: the power to accept nothing but the divine influence." ⁴⁷ The Mother "Integral purity: the whole being is purified of the ego." ⁴⁷ The Mother "If one lives only for the Divine and by the Divine, there follows a perfect purity." The Mother The object of purification is to make the whole mental being a clear mirror in which the Divine reality can be reflected, a clear vessel and an unobstructing channel into which the Divine presence and through which the Divine influence can be poured, a subtilised stuff which the Divine nature can take possession of, shape anew and use for Divine issues. All impurity is a wrong discrimination, a departure from the law of nature, dharma , and an ignorant confusion of the disordered being. We have to primarily root out all impurity after a deeper diagnosis and secondarily treat its symptoms. There are two forms of impurity; (1) one is a defect born of the nature of our past evolution; this defect is a radically wrong and ignorant form given to all the four instrumental beings that of physical, vital, sensory and intellectual mind; (2) the second impurity is born of the successive emergence of evolving faculties like physical, vital, mental, Soul and Supermind and the defect is created by dependence of higher instruments on the lower which add the imperfection of embarrassment, wrong direction and confusion. We have to deal with all these four instruments and set about their purification. The complete purification of one instrument depends on the complete purification of other instruments and that is the source of great difficulty. The Integral Yoga proposes to begin with the purification and perfection of Buddhi, which will bring about the most easily and effectively or can add with a most powerful rapidity the purification of the rest. All purification is a release, a delivery, a throwing away of limiting, binding, obscuring imperfections and confusions of the four instrumental nature that (1) of purification from impatience, fear and doubt brings freedom of physical mind, (2) of purification from desire brings the freedom of the psychic prana , of purification from wrong emotions and troubling reactions the freedom of the heart, (3) of purification from the obscuring limited thought brings freedom of the sense mind and (4) of the purification from thought power and will power subjected to lower mind brings the freedom of the intelligence, freedom from mere intellectuality. The root source of impurity is in the physical mind in the form of incoherent desire, doubt, narrowness and fear. It is irresponsible and careless of all rules, properties, and harmonies. This tamasic mind adores small earth-gods, aspires for greater comfort, order, and pleasure, but is skeptical about the direct Spiritual experience and Spiritual deliverance and to enlighten it by higher Spiritual and Supramental planes is one of the difficult objectives of the Integral Yoga. Purification of the physical mind is possible either by silencing the mind and by becoming a witness or by developing concentration through single-minded thought. Purification of the physical mind can also be pursued either by the method of constant concentration of psycho-spiritual Mantra, constant repetition of psycho-physical, Japa ; as the Words have a direct harmonious effect on the vibration of the physical substance, or the method of changing the centre of living from below the naval to the centre above the head and directing the inverted Spiritual force to possess the physical mind and vital mind. In addition to it, Psychic influence can also purify the physical mind. It trains the body to become a passive field and instrument of greater light and force, responds and supports every demand of the Spirit’s force and every variety of new Divine experience. The second cause of impurity, ‘the sources of greatest trouble,’⁴ ² is the inter-penetration and mixture of sensational hungering of vital and emotional reaction in the heart in the thinking process, is unable to mirror the real Soul, which creates in man a false soul of desire, the deformed Divine will in dominant bodily life and the physical mind. All indulgence of the emotions of the soul of desire is an impurity and it distorts both knowledge and action. It becomes a hurtling field of joy and grief, love and hatred, likes and dislikes, content and discontent, hopes and disappointments, and all the stupendous play of passion which is the drama of life in the world. Desire is the impurity of prana, the root of all sorrow, disappointment, affliction, a rapid subjection to fatigue, dissatisfaction and early disappointment of all its gains, a ceaseless morbid stimulation, trouble, disquiet, asanti. To get rid of the desire soul or emotional mind is one of the firm, indispensable negative methods of purification of psychical prana . The vital being must be trained of the positive method of enjoying life out of a right functioning in obedience to the working of Divine Will in order to get rid of its impurity in the form of attachment and craving; heart must be purified from false emotions of fear, wrath, hatred and lust by the touch of Divine love and joy in depth and intensity and the luminous reaching out to fusion and unity with God and our fellow creatures. The tranquillization, sama, equality, samata and mastery, dama , of these members are the essential conditions of the purification of buddhi from error, ignorance and perversion. This purification spells an entire equality in the nervous being and heart. The Gita’s rule of purification of the vital being is attained not by mental control but by the strong immobility of an immortal Spirit. The third cause of impurity is the inter-penetration of pain and pleasure of sense mind into the thinking process in the form of attractions and repulsions, the acceptances and refusals, the satisfactions and dissatisfaction, the capacities and incapacities of the life-energy in the body. Sense mind is a constant blind, purposeless repetition in a circle, disorder, restless, unintelligent subjection to habit. With the development of Science, Philosophy and Spiritual knowledge, the limitation of sense mind and its discord of the life in matter are overcome and they can be purified when buddhi stands back from the action of sense mind, sakhi, then withdraws support, then reducing it to stillness or by concentration on this thought, the alien and confusing elements are rejected. "A pure celestial joy is the" (Savitri-663) right use of sense. The true function of the sense mind or the right relation of the sense mind with the Psychic being is to lie upon passively, luminously to the contacts of Super Life and transmit their right taste, rasa , and principle of delight in them to the higher function. Or “Heaven’s joys might have been earth’s if earth were pure. There could have reached our Divinised sense and heart Some natural felicity’s bright extreme, Some thrill of Supernature’s absolutes:” Savitri-123 The fourth cause of impurity has its source in the intellect, buddhi, due to (1) inrush of desire into the thinking function, (2) illusion of senses and inrush of the sense mind into thinking functions, (3) improper action of will to know or the disparity between knowledge and will is one of the principal defects of the human buddhi. Buddhi has the tendency to cling to fragments of truth and knowledge to the exclusion of the whole truth and comprehensive knowledge and hence is deprived of the fullness and perfection of life. Its purification is achieved by the habit of right thought free from sense error, desire, old association and intellectual prejudgment and cultivation of an entire intellectual rectitude and in the perfection of mental disinterestedness. Purified Buddhi does not involve in lower movements of Nature, but stands back from the object, observes disinterestedly, puts itself in the right place by force of comparison, contrast, analogy, reason from its rightly observed data by deduction, induction, interference and holding all its gains in memory and supplementing them by a chastened and rightly-guided imagination to view all in the light of a trained and disciplined judgment. Such is the pure intellectual understanding of which disinterested observation, judgment and reasoning are the law and characterising action. But in order to acquire real knowledge, buddhi has to cultivate two different kinds of passivity. Firstly, the intellect has to train to discriminate the true intuition from all other false vibrations and open itself upward towards the former true state; secondly, to develop complete intellectual passivity, the power of dismissing all thought, na kinchit api chintayet . (The Gita-6.25) The stilling of this repeating, circling thought mind is one of the most effective disciplines of Yoga. The complete detachment with the aid of (1) an entire self-government, sama , (2) equality, samata , (3) calm, shanti, is the surest step of purification of buddhi . Buddhi is one important instrument, if sufficiently purified, and then it will most easily and effectively purify other instruments. Once our buddhi and will are well purified, then it can open up to perfect illumined discernment, intuitions and revelations of the Supermind. To arrive at the whole truth of Integral Yoga must be the object of purification of the buddhi. All other methods of purification are as follows: (1) All pursuit of knowledge, if not vitiated by a too earthward tendency, tends to refine, to subtilise, and to purify the being. (2) In proportion as we become more mental, we attain to a subtler action of our whole nature which becomes more apt to reflect and receive higher thoughts, a purer will, a less physical truth and more inward influences. (3) The power of ethical knowledge and the ethical habit of thought and will to purify is obvious. (4) Philosophy not only purifies the reason and predisposes it to the contact of the universal and the Infinite, but tends to stabilize the nature and create the tranquility of the sage; and tranquility is a sign of increasing self-mastery and purity. (5) The preoccupation with universal beauty even in its aesthetic forms has an intense power for refining and subtilising the nature, and at its highest it is a great force of purification. (6) Even the scientific habit of mind and the disinterested preoccupation with the cosmic law and truth not only refine the reasoning and observing faculty, but have, when not counteracted by other tendencies, a steadying, elevating and purifying influence on the mind and moral nature which has not been sufficiently noticed. (7) The systematic purification of the whole being for an integral reflection and taking in of the Divine reality can only be done by the special methods of Yoga. v) All Concentration, Sarva-Saṃyama: "The effective fullness of our concentration on the one thing needful to the exclusion of all else will be the measure of our self-consecration to the One who is alone desirable. But this exclusiveness will in the end exclude nothing except the falsehood of our way of seeing the world and our will’s ignorance."⁵⁸ Sri Aurobindo "This power, says Patanjali, comes by “samyama” on an object. That is for the mentality, in the gnosis there is no need of samyama . For this kind of perception (absolute self-control) is the natural action of the Vijnana ."⁵⁹ Sri Aurobindo "This process is the basis of what Patanjali calls samyama , a concentration, directing or dwelling of the consciousness, by which, he says, one can become aware of all that is in the object. But the necessity of concentration becomes slight or nil when the active oneness grows (or development of Integral Concentration); the luminous consciousness of the object and its contents becomes more spontaneous, normal, facile."⁶⁰ Sri Aurobindo The concentration of an enlightened will, thought and heart turned towards one luminous and infinite source of action, knowledge and delight is the starting point of the Yoga. There must be a strong and immovable concentration of will on attainment, fulfillment and manifestation of the Divine, a large, many-sided yet single concentration of the thought on the idea, the perception, the vision, the awakening touch, the soul’s realisation to the one Divine, a flaming concentration of the heart on the seeking of the All and Eternal and the possession and ecstasy of the All-Beautiful. In integral Yoga, purity and concentration are complementary to each other, feminine and masculine, passive and active sides and the two must proceed together till we arrive at Integral concentration, where the essential, multiple, absolute, all-inclusive state will replace the concentration in thought and effort. Mind is unable to hold at once the unity and multiplicity, but the same is the normal state of integral concentration. Mind has the capacity to dwell on one thing at a time to the exclusion of others, so within this limitation, we have to depend on exclusive concentration for the development of other higher faculties. Exclusive concentration has three powers by which the aim of Integral Yoga can be affected. Firstly , with the help of concentration we can know the secret behind anything or all things, but here we must use this power to know the one Thing-in itself, the Divine ; secondly , by concentration the whole will can be gathered up for the acquisition of all that are still beyond us, this power in us can be sufficiently trained, single-minded, sufficiently sincere and faithful towards the acquisition of the One object worthy of pursuit; thirdly, by concentration the mass of weakness, fear, perversion can become strength, courage, a great purity or a single universal soul of Love; we can use this power to transcend above all things, above all attributes, and become the pure and absolute Being. By this exclusive concentration, we can arrive through uncompromising renunciation of the lower nature at an entire self-consecration to the One. The ultimate objective of concentration culminates in Samadhi , a settled Divine status. This can be arrived at by (i) strenuous method of concentrated meditation on the one subject of Integral Divine either in the mystic syllable AUM with representation of the Brahman in waking, dream, sleep and Turiya state or triple formula of the Brahman, “Brahman is in all things, all things are in Brahman and all things are Brahman ;”⁴³ (ii) the more strenuous method is the concentrated contemplation, which is the fixing the whole mind in concentration on the essence of the idea of Integral Divine only; in this process thought ceases and one enters in an inner Samadhi , then subsequently samadhi experience is dynamised in our lower being to shed its power, light and bliss on our ordinary consciousness; (iii) the most strenuous method is the silencing of the mind altogether, either by standing back from mental action or by rejecting the thought-suggestions, by this a great peace is unveiled and one experiences the all-pervading Brahman . For integral Yoga, these three methods are the most direct and powerful disciplines. vi) All Scripture, Sarva-Śāstra : “The traditions of the past are very great in their own place, in the past, but I do not see why we should merely repeat them and not go farther. In the spiritual development of the consciousness upon earth the great past ought to be followed by a greater future…” Sri Aurobindo CWSA-29/Letters on Yoga-II/p-480, All Shastra is the outcome and record of past Spiritual exercises on the secrets of Nature and Soul or it is ‘An occult document of the All-Wonderful’s art’⁷ and is helpful for all future exploration. All the lines of the traditional Yoga ‘are supposed to be fixed and the Teacher who has received the Shastra by tradition and realised it in practice guides the disciple along the immemorial tracks.’⁵ ‘The written or traditional teaching expresses the knowledge and experiences of many centuries systematised, organised, made attainable to the beginner.’⁵ Integral Shastra differs from traditional Shastra in the sense that its method is not an imperative formula, fixed routine and mechanising process, but ‘each man in this path has his own method of Yoga. Yet are there certain broad lines of working common to all which enable us to construct not indeed a routine system, but yet some kind of Shastra or scientific method of the synthetic Yoga.’³⁷ The seeker of integral Yoga will accept ancient disciplines, for they rest upon eternal truths and their practice will reinforce the practice of integral Shastra . The aims arrived at by the ancient teachings like Sankhya, Tantra, Karma, Jnana, Bhakti, Hatha and Raja Yoga are included in integral Yoga or the seeker will give ‘them an orientation in conformity with his aim.’⁸ All Yoga schools of India proposes the psycho-physical methods for practice whereas the method of Integral Yoga will be mainly Spiritual and for this he can depend on the Gita, the four main Upanishads that of the Isha, Kena, Taitariaya and Aiteriya Upanishads and the portion of the Vedas where hymns were offered to mystic Fire, Agni . First, we can do a systematic study of different Spiritual experiences and find an interrelation with each other and how these experiences drive towards the Supramental realm; thus, their various aspects are explored in The Synthesis of Yoga. Then the extension of these experiences explored in The Life Divine will be worked out. The hierarchies between Ignorance to Integral Knowledge, exclusive concentration to Integral concentration, mind to Supermind, Matter to Spirit, Life as it is to Divine Life that are hinted in The Synthesis of Yoga , are sufficiently explored in The Life Divine . And also the issues that Sri Aurobindo left unfinished in the unrevised chapters of ‘Yoga of Self-perfection’ can be further traced and developed from The Life Divine . Then, finally, we will study Savitri in search of all missing links and connect them strongly to the point where we can open to the new vistas. The Supramental principles are shadowed out by the Gita, the Upanishads and the Vedas in figures, hints and symbols. The envisaging mind can enter into relation with the Supramental in three successive stages. Firstly, with the activation of mental self or manomaya Purusha , the mental sheath or the manomaya kosha is able to receive into it from above infinite existence, consciousness, bliss of the Supramental plane or Vijnanamaya Purusha. The mental perception, ideation, will, pleasure are transformed into radiances of the Divine knowledge, pulsation of Divine will, waves and floods of Divine delight; secondly, the manomaya kosha is transformed into dense self-luminous consciousness, chaitanyaghana or chidghana. This Divine Consciousness contains all the immutable and inviolable truths of the Divine being and Divine nature. Thirdly, this luminous manomaya kosha is further illumined in the image of the Supramental sheath or Vijnanamaya kosha. It brings authentic identities of Divine wisdom, movement of Divine will and vibration of the Divine delight intensities. Our objective in concentrating the Veda, the Upanishad and the Gita is to repeat the Spiritual experience of the great past. Our objective in concentrating on The Synthesis of Yoga, The Life Divine, The Mother, and Savitri is, initially, to repeat brief Spiritual experiences and, finally, to be established in the multitude of Spiritual experiences developed in those integral Shastra, which will lead us towards a greater unknown future. One 'must pass beyond the written Truth, — sabdabrahmativartate — beyond all that he has heard and all that he has yet to hear, — srotavyasya srutasya ca .'³ vii) Divine All Teacher, Sarva-Guru-Śakti: “A strict obedience to the wise and intuitive leading of a Guide is also normal and necessary for all but a few specially gifted seekers.”¹ Sri Aurobindo "Teaching, example, influence, -- these are three instruments of the Guru ... The example is more powerful than the instruction... Influence is more important than example. Influence is not the outward authority of the Teacher over his disciple, but the power of his contact, of his presence, of the nearness of his soul to the soul of another, infusing into it, even though in silence, that which he himself is and possesses..."² Sri Aurobindo “I do not see anybody in the world more qualified than Sri Aurobindo to lead you to the feet of the Mahashakti .”¹⁸ The Mother “For the disciple of an integral Yoga there can be no hesitation; as a seeker of knowledge it is the integral knowledge and not anything either half-way and attractive or high-pinnacled and exclusive he must seek. He must soar to the utmost height, but also circle and spread to the most all-embracing wideness, not binding himself to any rigid structure of metaphysical thought, but free to admit and combine all the soul’s highest and greatest and fullest and most numerous experiences.”³⁰ Sri Aurobindo “This can be done by a spiritual meaning and use in our psychical interchange with others, and it is largely by a psycho-spiritual interchange of this kind that a master in Yoga helps his disciple.”²⁹ Sri Aurobindo The Guru of a traditional school of Yoga is a representative of the Divine with the combination of part Divine realisation and ego born of exclusive knowledge and individual liberation of Soul and he reinforces and illumines the truth of traditional Shastra . The Guru of Integral Yoga combines in Him the realisation of the Divine in its entirety, followed by the annihilation of ego through constant sense of discipleship to the Supreme Master as everything pours in constantly from above without any personal effort and the sense of becoming a slave of God in all humanity through universalisation of Consciousness. For the beginners the aid of the Guru, Ista Devata or past Avataras in the form of Buddha, Christ or Sri Krishna or living influence, a living example and a present instruction is needed and with the development of Psychic, Spiritual and Supramental faculties, the dependency on external aid is reduced and one receives everything directly from the inner Divine, inner Chaitya Guru , the Psychic Being in the heart and subsequently from the Universal Divine, Jagad Guru, Spiritual Being, pervading this whole existence and Transcendent Supreme Divine, Param Guru, Supramental Being beyond this existence. A living Teacher of Integral Yoga does not arrogate himself to the pride of Guruhood with his partial realisation and in a humanly futile and self-exalting spirit. He will stimulate the aspiration of his disciples through the central Supramental Influence of Integral Divine realisation within him reconciling their Nature, Self and God which will be subordinated by less powerful Spiritual influence of awakening the exclusive power of the Spirit by losing the splendours of life and least powerful means of direct examples, suggestions and psycho-physical instructions and help at the growth of faculties and experiences by a natural process and free expansion. His whole business is to awaken the Divine light and set working the Divine force of which he himself is a living channel and representative. In the preliminary stage as a Sadhaka of integral Yoga cannot reject the practice of traditional Shastra, like the Gita, the Upanishad , and the Veda as they contain the basic truth and experiences of many centuries leading one towards systematic development of the comprehensive truth of Integral Yoga; similarly ‘a representative influence occupies a much larger place in the life of the sadhaka .’³ This representative living of Spiritual Influence ‘is a narrower practice, but safe and effective within its limits, because it follows a well beaten track to a long familiar goal.’⁴ ‘In India a great authority, a high reverence even is ordinarily attached to the written or traditional teaching.’⁵ So it is an exceedingly good fortune for a Sadhaka⁵⁷ to accept the dominant Influence of a Shastra or living Teacher to repeat the truth of his Spiritual experience and can utilise that as an opportunity to strengthen and intensify his already possessed experiences of a similar kind. A privileged Sadhak of integral Yoga⁵⁷ finds Psychic being in the heart as the true Guru within and a very pure vital and very strong character as true Guru without who can hammer the disciple to remove his falsehood and Ignorance. A Sadhaka can enter relation with the Guru or the Ista Devata or living Influence in three successive stages; firstly He is conceived with a particular Divine form or particular Divine qualities of which He is a true and dynamic representative, towards which our nature or personality has affinity; secondly He is considered as one real Person, yet multiple personality, nirguno guni, the All Personality capable of infinite quality, the Ananta-guna , the qualitiless, Impersonal, nirguna, the Akshara Purusha, not divisible by any sect, schools of Yoga or nationality etc; thirdly we go back to the ultimate source of all idea and fact that goes beyond all Personality and all Impersonality, in which the Upanishad and the Veda describe by single word He or That, Tat . A Sadhaka of integral Yoga cannot be satisfied with the one or many Divine qualities of the Guru or the personal Deity, but he shall realise Him integrally in all His names and forms and Divine qualities; sees and realises his Guru in all other Deities, Avataras and ancient Shastras and not mistake the front of Him which is prominent in his attitude to the world for all the infinite Godhead. He will shun all sectarian and fanatic attitudes of crying, “My God, my Incarnation, my Prophet, my Guru ,”⁶ and leave behind the one-sided and limited tendency of mind in recognising that exclusive aspect of the Divine. For him the experience of Divine Oneness is carried to its extreme, amply fathomed and more deeply embraced to the full experience of the Divine Multiplicity. He can realise the Divine entirely by approaching Him with His endless variety, never-ending form and infinite manifestation. viii) All Mother Force, Sarva-Parā-Śakti: - “It is not as a Guru that I love and bless, it is as the Mother who asks nothing in return for what she gives.”¹ ⁸ The Mother “I am not eager to be the Guru of anyone. It is more spontaneously natural for me to feel the Mother of all and to carry them forward silently through the power of love.”¹ ⁸ The Mother “But in the later transitional stage of this movement our personal and necessarily ignorant effort more and more dwindles and a higher Nature acts; the eternal Shakti descends into this limited form of mortality and progressively possesses and transmutes it.”³¹ Sri Aurobindo “If a spiritual transformation, not a mere illumining modification of our nature, is to be done at all, we must call in the Divine Shakti to effect that miraculous work in the individual; for she alone has the needed force, decisive, all-wise and illimitable. But the entire substitution of the divine for the human personal action is not at once entirely possible.”³¹ Sri Aurobindo “For the Ishwari Shakti , divine Conscious-Force and World-Mother, becomes a mediatrix between the eternal One and the manifested Many.”³² Sri Aurobindo (Supreme said) " O Savitri, thou art my spirit’s Power, The revealing voice of my immortal Word, The face of Truth upon the roads of Time Pointing to the souls of men the routes to God." Savitri-703 The adoration of the exclusive Mother can begin with exclusive concentration and shall culminate in identity with the all-inclusive Mother or All Mother in integral Concentration. The Mother as the nether Executrix Power works in the Ignorance and Inconscience as the four-fold Soul-force of Brahma-Shakti, Kshetra-Shakti, Vaisya-Shakti and Shudra-Shakti in the form of Wisdom, Courage, Opulence and Service respectively. As the intermediate Mediatrix Power, She works as four-fold Spiritual Powers of Maheswari, Mahakali, Mahalakshmi and Mahasaraswati, working in Knowledge, Power, Harmony and Perfection respectively, linking the Sachchidananda Consciousness with the manifested Many and returns towards Her Supreme Creatrix Power of Truth Supreme, Power Supreme, Supreme Delight and Will Supreme respectively through evolving endless appearances out of Her revealing substances. Her Executrix Power in Ignorance of the Purusha-Prakriti play ascends to Mediatrix Power in Knowledge of the Ishwara-Shakti play, culminates in the Creatrix Power in Vijnana of the Brahman-Maya play for the complete Divine action in all the planes. The Divine Mother is the manifesting Power of Purushottama, appearing in the Play, Lila as the dual Power of Ishwara and Shakti, containing each other in the higher Divine nature, revealed in the lower nature of Ignorance as dual power of Purusha and Prakriti , separate from each other. The relation between the Purusha and Prakriti emerges as one advances in the Yoga. The Sankhya liberation proposes that, when Purusha learns not to identify himself, the Prakriti begins to fall away from its impulse of movement and returns towards equilibrium and rest. Tantra confirms that worship to Para-Prakriti or Shakti is the sole effective force for all Spiritual attainment. In the Vedantic teaching, Prakriti is considered as the power of illusion, maya , and hence the search after the silent inactive Purusha is the means towards liberation. In Karma Yoga, Prakriti is the doer of all work and Purusha is the Lord, witness, knower, enjoyer and the source of sanction of her work. Purusha-Prakriti realisation in ignorance is the first siddhi of Karma Yoga , where Purusha is liberated and is capable of Spiritual control over the lower nature. The next siddhi of Karma Yoga is the Ishwara-Shakti realisation, which can participate in higher dynamism of Divine work and total unity and harmony of the being in a Spiritual nature. In Integral Yoga, Purusha is the Lord and is of the nature of Sat, the being of conscious self-existence; Prakriti is his executive energy and is of the nature of Chit. The relation between Purusha and Prakriti exists in two states of rest and action. When Prakriti is absorbed in the bliss of the Purusha, there is rest; when the Purusha pours itself out into the Prakriti , there is action, creation, enjoyment and Ananda of becoming. And in the Supramental plane, the supreme and universal Purusha and the supreme and universal Prakriti arrive at their perfect relation. The Supreme Spirit is one as Purusha or as Prakriti . Jiva in the essence of self is one with the Supreme Purusha , mamaibansa jivabhuta (The Gita-15.7), so on the side of Nature, in the power of self, Jiva is one with Shakti, para prakritir jivabhuta (The Gita-7.5). The realisation of this double oneness confirms that Jiva is the meeting place of Supreme Purusha and Supreme Prakriti and is the condition of integral self-perfection. All the above methods can be utilised in integral Yoga. There are three successive stages through which the action of the Mother’s force is intensified. First, Jiva receives the power of the Mother , and the sadhaka feels that the Divine Shakti is driving behind and shaping all his thoughts, will, feelings and actions. He may feel the Master of the Shakti, Ishwara , sometimes or continually in three ways to his consciousness; (i) himself as servant to the Ishwara , (ii) a great Shakti is supplying the energy, shaping the action, formulating the results, (iii) the Ishwara above determining by his will the whole action. In the second stage, the individual doer disappears. The Shakti possesses his thought, will, feeling, and action. The Master of existence appears in three ways, (i) the Shakti carrying on all knowledge, thought, will, feeling and action for the Ishwara in an instrumental form; (ii) the Master of existence, Ishwara , compelling all Her action and our Soul enjoys all relation with Him which are created by Her workings, (iii) There is the intensest form of realisation of Jiva disappearing into the Shakti and there is the play of the Shakti with the Ishwara, Mahadeva with Kali, Krishna with Radha. In the last stage, there is an increasing manifestation of Ishwara in all things and beings, in all thought, will and action. The distinction between Ishwara and Shakti begins to disappear, the maya of the ego is removed and complete joy and presence of the Divine is manifested in the being. This is the highest realisation of perfection and delight of active Oneness. Recapitulation: “Abandoning the dubious middle Way, (of Moderate Spirituality) A few shall glimpse the miraculous Origin (Few are Bliss Souls) And some shall feel in you (Savitri) the secret Force (Some are Gnostic Souls) And they shall turn to meet a nameless tread, Adventurers into a mightier Day.” Savitri-704 (1) Rejection is defined as the withdrawal of support of the deformed lower nature, apara Prakriti , by the indwelling Purusha. The rejection is the condition of arriving at the state of equality and surrender. (2) The equilibrium status of Purusha and Prakriti is defined as equality. (3) Surrender is defined as Prakriti’s submission to Purusha . (4) Concentration is born when this submission causes Prakriti to merge with Purusha. Concentration is defined as gathering back of the thought into the Self. Concentration is the active status of Purusha . (5) Purity is the passive status of Purusha which witnesses the action of Prakriti. (6) Shastra defines the right relation of the Purusha and Prakriti i n Ignorance and their play in the higher planes of Consciousness. (7) The Guru is the static state of Purusha in Ignorance, Ishwara in the Knowledge and Brahman in the Supramental State. (8) The Mother is the dynamic state of Purusha , revealed as the Psychic executrix Mother power in Prakriti and doer of all action in Ignorance, Shakti or Mediatrix Spiritual Mother Power in Knowledge and Maya or Creatrix Mother Power in the Supramental and Bliss plane. The Spiritual Future of a Moderate: “Uplifted towards luminous secrecies Or conscious of some splendour hidden above They leaped to find her in a moment’s flash, Glimpsing a light in a celestial vast, But could not keep the vision and the power And fell back to life’s dull ordinary tone.” Savitri-362 “They slide back to the mud from which they climbed; In the mud of which they are made, whose law they know They joy in safe return to a friendly base, … To be the common man they think the best, To live as others live is their delight. For most are built on Nature’s early plan And owe small debt to a superior plane The human average is their level pitch, The thinking animal’s material range.” Savitri-689 The Mother observed that the attitude of the most developed class, the most intellectual elite, towards immense transformation work, "Ah, no! I don’t want to bother about that, I just want to live peacefully, as well as I can. We’ll see once the world has been transformed, then we can start bothering about it."⁴⁴ Moderate Spirituality with its partial self-giving, is prone to Soul-slaying truth.⁴⁸ It cannot confront extreme adversity and Death, cannot reconcile Spirit with Matter and hence submits and surrenders before negative energies like Ignorance, Falsehood, Suffering and Death. It must learn the lesson to accumulate Spiritual energies or Soul Saving Truth⁴⁹ and ascend to the state of ancient Vedantic Seers of Brahma Satya Jagat Satya, through later Vedantic Spiritual Seekers, with the realization of Brahma Satya Jagat Mithya . It is only through moderate Spirituality, Spiritual life can be generalised in humanity. 'The generalisation of Yoga in humanity must be the last victory of Nature over her own delays and concealments. Even as now by the progressive mind in Science she seeks to make all mankind fit for the full development of the mental life, ("Our minds are starters in the race to God," Savitri-169) so by Yoga must she inevitably seek to make all mankind fit for the higher evolution, the second birth , the spiritual existence.'⁵ ⁰ OM TAT SAT References: 1: CWSA-22/The Life Divine/p-941, 2: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-66, 3: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-55, 4: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-55, 5: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-56, 6: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-66, 7: Savitri-623, 8: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-342, 9: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-23, 10: CWSA-21/The Life Divine-51, 11: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-348, 12: CWSA-19/Essays on the Gita/p-44, 13: "This flowery word which they declare who have not clear discernment, devoted to the creed of the Veda, whose creed is that there is nothing else, souls of desire, seekers of Paradise, – it gives the fruits of the works of birth, it is multifarious with specialities ofrites, it is directed to enjoyment and lordship as its goal." The Gita-2.42-43, 14: CWSA-19 /Essays on the Gita/p-92-93, 15: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-13, 16: CWSA-19 /Essays on the Gita/p-374, 17: The Gita-6.31, 18: The Mother’s Centenary Works/Vol-16/p-207, The Mother’s Centenary Works/Vol-13/p-82, 19: “The cross is the symbol of transformation, you know: Matter (transversal gesture) penetrated by the Spirit; and the junction is the transformation. A tremendous Force came, like that, for this cross to become truly … the flower of transformation.” The Mother’s Agenda/10/498, “The cross is the sign of the triple being, transcendent, universal and individual.” CWSA-30/Letters on Yoga-III/p-183, 20: Savitri-507, 21: “It admits philosophy in a still more remote fashion; and if nowadays it eagerly seeks after science, that is because science helps prodigiously the satisfaction of its vital desires, needs and interests: but it does not turn to seek after an entirely scientific life any more than after an entirely ethical life. A more complete effort in any one of these directions it leaves to the individual, to the few, and to individuals of a special type, the saint, the ethical man, the artist, the thinker, the man of religion; it gives them a place, does some homage to them, assigns some room to the things they represent, but for itself it is content to follow mainly after its own inherent principle of vital satisfaction, vital necessity and utility, vital efficiency.” CWSA-25/The Human Cycle/p-156, 22: "All true Truth of love and of the works of love the psychic being accepts in their place: but its flame mounts always upward and it is eager to push the ascent from lesser to higher degrees of Truth, since it knows that only by the ascent to a highest Truth and the descent of that highest Truth can Love be delivered from the cross and placed upon the throne; for the cross is the sign of the Divine Descent barred and marred by the transversal line of a cosmic deformation which turns it into a stake of suffering and misfortune. Only by the ascent to the original Truth can the deformation be healed and all the works of love, as too all the works of knowledge and of life, be restored to a divine significance and become part of an integral spiritual existence." CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-157, 23: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-96, 24: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-177, 25: CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-722, 26: CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-702, 27: CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-699, 28: CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-699-700, 29: CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-879, 30: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-361, 31: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-86, 32: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-124, 33: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-59, 34: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-329-330, 35: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-358, 36: “The buddhi dwelling always in this master idea must discourage all its own lesser insistences and preferences and teach the whole being that the ego whether it puts forth its claim through the reason, the personal will, the heart or the desire-soul in the prana, has no just claim of any kind and all grief, revolt, impatience, trouble is a violence against the Master of the being.” CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-723, “A drive for fulfilment of falsehood or wrong will would be felt by him, not as a movement towards freedom, but as a violence done to the liberty of the spirit, an invasion and imposition, an inroad upon his supernature, a tyranny of some alien Nature.” CWSA/22/The Life Divine/p-1039, 37: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-46-47, 38: CWSA-29/Letters on Yoga-II/p-94-95, 39: “This is precisely how the modern Western attitude has become twisted compared to the ancient attitude, the attitude – it isn’t exactly ancient – of the Gita. It’s extremely difficult for the Western mind to comprehend vividly and concretely that ALL is the Divine. It is so impregnated with the Christian spirit, with the idea of a ‘Creator’ – the creation on one side and God on the other! Upon reflection, one rejects this, but ... it has entered into our sensations and feelings, and so – spontaneously, instinctively, almost subconsciously – one credits God with all one considers to be the best, the most beautiful, and especially with what one wishes to attain, to realize. (Each individual, of course, changes the content of his God according to his own consciousness, but it’s always what he considers to be the best.) And just as instinctively, spontaneously and subconsciously, one is shocked by the idea that things one doesn’t like or doesn’t approve of or which don’t seem to be the best, could also be God…I am putting this purposely into rather childish terms so that it will be clearly understood. But this is the way it is. I am sure of it because I have observed it in myself for a VERY long time, and I had to.... Due to the whole subconscious formation of childhood – environment, education, and so forth – we have to DRUM into this (Mother touches her body) the consciousness of Unity : the absolute, EXCLUSIVE unity of the Divine – exclusive in the sense that nothing exists apart from this Unity, even the things which seem most repulsive…Sri Aurobindo also had to struggle against this because he too received a Christian education. And these Aphorisms are the result – the flowering – of the necessity to struggle against the subconscious formation which has produced such questions (Mother takes on a scandalized tone): ‘How can God be weak? How can God be foolish? How....’ But there is nothing but God! He alone exists, there is nothing outside of Him. And whatever seems repugnant to us is something He no longer wishes to exist – He is preparing the world so that this no longer manifests, so that the manifestation can pass beyond this state to something else. So of course we violently reject everything in us that is destined to leave the active manifestation. There is a movement of rejection…Yet it is He. There is nothing other than He! This should be repeated from morning to night, from night to morning, because we forget it every minute. There is only He, there is nothing other than He. He alone exists, there is no existence without Him. There is only He!” The Mother’s Agenda-07.07.1961, “Yet Sri Aurobindo says (in simple terms), ‘God created the world for the Joy of the creation,’ or rather, ‘He brought forth the world from Himself for the Joy of living an objective life.’ This was Theon’s thesis too, that the world is the Divine in an objective form, but for him the origin of this objective form was the desire to be. All this is playing with words, you understand, but it turns out that in one case the world is reprehensible and in the other it is adorable! And that makes all the difference. To the whole European mind, the whole Christian spirit, the world is reprehensible. And when THAT is pointed out to them, they can’t stand it.” The Mother’s Agenda-20.12.1961, “The only way to make life perfect (I mean here life on earth, of course) is to look at it from a sufficient height to see it in its totality, not only its present totality, but over the whole past, present and future: what it has been, what it is, what it must be – you must be able to see it all at once. Because that's the only way to put everything in its place. Nothing can be done away with, nothing SHOULD be done away with, but each thing must find its own place in total harmony with the rest. Then all those things that appear so "evil," so "reprehensible" and "unacceptable" to the puritan mind would become movements of joy and freedom in a totally divine life. And then nothing would stop us from knowing, understanding, feeling and living this wonderful Laughter of the Supreme who takes infinite delight in watching Himself live infinitely. This delight, this wonderful Laughter which dissolves all shadows, all pain, all suffering ... We only have to go deep enough into ourselves to find the inner Sun and let ourselves be bathed in it. Then everything is but a cascade of harmonious, luminous, sun-filled laughter which leaves no room for shadow and pain. In fact, even the greatest difficulty, even the greatest grief, even the greatest physical pain, if you can look at them from THERE, take your stand THERE, you see the unreality of the difficulty, the unreality of the grief, the unreality of the pain – and all becomes a joyful and luminous vibration. It is ultimately the most powerful means of dissolving difficulties, overcoming grief and getting rid of pain. The first two [difficulties and grief] are relatively easy (relatively), the last [pain] is more difficult because of our habit of regarding the body and its sensations as extremely concrete and positive – but actually it is the same thing, it's just that we haven't been taught and accustomed to seeing our body as something fluid, plastic, uncertain, malleable. We haven't learned to permeate it with this luminous Laughter which dissolves all shadows and difficulties, all discords, all disharmony, all that grates, cries and weeps.” The Mother’s Agenda-14.01.1963, 40: “Oh, if you mean the puritans, the Protestants ... dreadful! They're the worst. Catholicism still retains something of the occult sense, and after all, they have a certain adoration for the Virgin, which keeps them in contact with something that's not asuric. The last Pope, who's dead now [Pius XII], had broadened both his own mind and Church doctrine a lot: he was a devotee of the Virgin. But the Protestants turned back to the Father, and so their worship became exactly the worship of a one and only, personal God, an asuric God. And they have fabricated and distorted everything: like asceticism, for instance, and all that sort of thing – everything they touched was twisted and spoiled.” The Mother’s Agenda-15.12.1962, 41: “The entire West is convinced, of course, that the earth has to be taken as it is and that it's a preparation for a life in another world, which according to your "faults" or "qualities" will be a heaven or a hell. But anyway, doing away with hell, all those who have goodwill will go to a beatific heaven.” The Mother’s Agenda/November 30, 1965, 42: CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-702, 43: CWSA-21/The Life Divine/p-149, 44: The Mother’s Agenda-7/p-294-295, “In human beings, along with the growth of the mental activities grows the subtlety of self-deception. The more they are intellectual the more they are, in their self-deception, completely candid and insincere at the same time.” The Mother/TMCW-14/p-341 45: Savitri-215 46: "That’s very important. Because all those who begin by being disgusted with life, their first movement is to get away – all of them. I receive truckloads of letters: as soon as they are disgusted with life, as soon as it stops being something marvelous, "Oh, enough! I want to get away, I want to get away." That’s indeed the first movement: you climb up above, but it will be to come back down and change things HERE – it’s not to abolish them, but to change them." The Mother's Agenda/November 9, 1966, 47: TMCW/Vol-14(Words of the Mother-II/p-149-150, 48: “Awaits him armed with soul-slaying word:” Savitri-336, “Or lie with the harlot Power that slays the soul.” Savitri-185, “A strong and fallen goddess without hope, Obscured, deformed by some dire Gorgon spell, As might a harlot empress in a bouge, Nude, unashamed, exulting she upraised Her evil face of perilous beauty and charm And, drawing panic to a shuddering kiss Twixt the magnificence of her fatal breasts, Allured to their abyss the spirit’s fall.” CWSA-33/Savitri-212, “Threefold are the doors of Hell, destructive of the soul – desire, wrath and greed: therefore let man renounce these three.” The Gita-16.21, “The Asuric Prakriti is the rajasic at its height; it leads to the slavery of the soul in Nature, to desire, wrath and greed, the three powers of the rajasic ego, and these are the three-fold doors of Hell, the Hell into which the natural being falls when it indulges the impurity and evil and error of its lower or perverted instincts.” CWSA-19/Essays on the Gita/p-474, 49: “O Death, thou speakest truth but truth that slays, I answer to thee with the Truth that saves.” Savitri-621, "Whensoever there is the fading of the Dharma and the uprising of unrighteousness, then I loose myself forth into birth as Soul Saving Truth, atmanam srijamyaham." The Gita-4.7 "Therefore the Yogins do works with the body, mind, understanding, or even merely with the organs of action, abandoning attachment, for self-purification, atma suddhaye. " The Gita-5.11 (self-purification is here Soul saving Truth.) 50: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-30, 51: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-82, 52: “The Asram has nothing to do with Hindu religion or culture or any religion or nationality. The Truth of the Divine which is the spiritual reality behind all religions and the descent of the supramental which is not known to any religion are the sole things which will be the foundation of the work of the future.” Sri Aurobindo/CWSA-35/Letters on Himself and the Ashram-701, 53: "The supermind uses the physical organs and confirms their way of action, but it develops behind them the inner and deeper senses which see what are hidden from the physical organs and farther transforms the new sight, hearing, etc. thus created by casting it into its own mould and way of sensing. The change is one that takes nothing from the physical truth of the object, but adds to it its supraphysical truth and takes away by the removal of the physical limitation the element of falsehood in the material way of experience." CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-868, 54: "Then lest a human cry should spoil the Truth He tore desire up from its bleeding roots And offered to the gods the vacant place. Thus could he bear the touch immaculate. A last and mightiest transformation came." Savitri-318, 55: Buddha’s Eightfold Path (Āryāṣṭāṅgamārga) In the Buddhist tradition, each step of the path is prefaced with the term Samyak (meaning "Right," "Correct," or "Wholesome"). They are grouped into three divisions: Wisdom (Prajñā), Ethical Conduct (Śīla), and Mental Discipline (Samādhi). [1 , 2 , 3 ] Samyag-dṛṣṭi — Right View / Understanding Samyak-saṅkalpa — Right Resolve / Intention Samyag-vāc — Right Speech Samyak-karmānta — Right Action / Conduct Samyag-ājīva — Right Livelihood Samyag-vyāyāma — Right Effort Samyak-smṛti — Right Mindfulness Samyag-samādhi — Right Concentration / Absorption. 56: Patanjali’s Eight Limbs of Yoga (Aṣṭāṅgayoga) Outlined in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, these steps provide a structural framework that moves from external ethical disciplines to internal spiritual absorption. [1 , 2 ] Yama — Restraints / Moral Codes Niyama — Observances / Self-Disciplines Āsana — Posture Prāṇāyāma — Breath Control / Expansion of Life-force Pratyāhāra — Withdrawal of Senses Dhāraṇā — Concentration Dhyāna — Meditation Samādhi — Absorption / Total Integration The 5 Yamas (Social Ethics & Restraints) The Yamas are universal ethical vows that apply regardless of time, place, or circumstance. They regulate your external behavior to prevent the fragmentation of personal energy. [1 , 2 , 3 , 4 ] Ahimsa (Non-violence): Practicing harmlessness in thought, speech, and action toward all living beings. Satya (Truthfulness): Committing to absolute honesty and sincerity; avoiding falsehoods that lead to internal disintegration. Asteya (Non-stealing): Desisting from taking what is not freely given, whether it is physical items, time, or credit. Brahmacharya (Right Use of Energy): Directing vital life-force and creative energy toward spiritual growth, often interpreted as moderation or continence. Aparigraha (Non-possessiveness): Practicing non-greed, non-attachment, and avoiding the unnecessary accumulation of physical things. The 5 Niyamas (Personal Practices & Observances) The Niyamas build internal discipline and structure a healthy, harmonious inner life. The final three components collectively establish the foundation of Kriya Yoga (the yoga of action). [1 , 2 , 3 ] Saucha (Purity): Maintaining both external cleanliness of the body and environment, and internal purity of the mind. Santosha (Contentment): Cultivating stable, unconditional happiness and gratitude for what is present in the moment. Tapas (Disciplined Austerity): Igniting a "burning enthusiasm" and self-discipline to purify your habits and withstand life's friction. Svadhyaya (Self-Study): Observing your own behavior patterns and studying sacred texts to deepen self-awareness. Ishvara Pranidhana (Surrender): Dedicating your actions to a higher power, cosmic intelligence, or the absolute divinity. 57: “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, "Two rules alone there are that will diminish the difficulty and obviate the danger. (1) One must reject all that comes from the ego, from vital desire, from the mere mind and its presumptuous reasoning incompetence, all that ministers to these agents of the Ignorance. (2) One must learn to hear and follow the voice of the inmost soul, the direction of the Guru , the command of the Master, the working of the Divine Mother. Whoever clings to the desires and weaknesses of the flesh, the cravings and passions of the vital in its turbulent ignorance, the dictates of his personal mind unsilenced and unillumined by a greater knowledge, cannot find the true inner law and is heaping obstacles in the way of the divine fulfilment. Whoever is able to detect and renounce those obscuring agencies and to discern and follow the true Guide within and without will discover the spiritual law and reach the goal of the Yoga ... A radical and total change of consciousness is not only the whole meaning but, in an increasing force and by progressive stages, the whole method of the integral Yoga." CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-187, "The ego cannot see where it is being led; it revolts against the leading, loses confidence, loses courage. These failings would not matter; for the divine Guide within is not offended by our revolt, not discouraged by our want of faith or repelled by our weakness; he has the entire love of the mother and the entire patience of the teacher." Sri Aurobindo/CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-64, 58: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-85, 59: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-493, 60: CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-858, 61: CWSA-22/The Life Divine/p-963-64, 62: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-109, 63: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-37, 64: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-103, 65: "(Q) Mother, previously things were very strict in the Ashram, but not now. Why? Yes, I have always said that it changed when we had to take the very little children. How can you envision an ascetic life with little sprouts no bigger than that? It’s impossible! But that’s the little surprise package the war left on our doorstep. When it was found that Pondicherry was the safest place on earth, naturally people came wheeling in here with all their baby carriages filled and asked us if we could shelter them, so we couldn’t very well turn them away, could we?! That’s how it happened, and in no other way ... But, in the beginning, the first condition for coming here was that you would have nothing more to do with your family! If a man was married, then he had to completely overlook the fact that he had a wife and children – completely sever all ties, have nothing further to do with them. And if ever a wife asked to come just because her husband happened to be here, we told her, ‘You have no business coming here!’ In the beginning, it was very, very strict – for a long time. The first condition was: ‘Nothing more to do with your family ...’ Well, we are a long way from that! But I repeat that it only happened because of the war and not because we stopped seeing the need to cut all family ties; on the contrary, this is an indispensable condition because as long as you hang on to all these cords which bind you to ordinary life, which make you a slave to the ordinary life, how can you possibly belong to the Divine alone? What childishness! It is simply not possible. If you have ever taken the trouble to read over the early ashram rules, you would find that even friendships were considered dangerous and undesirable ... We made every effort to create an atmosphere in which only ONE thing counted: the Life Divine." The Mother's Agenda/August 25, 1954, "Only, the whole thing is that the time must have come, there must be only That left – all the rest spoils, whatever it is, even the highest, purest, noblest, most beautiful and marvelous things: all that spoils. Only That.” (The Mother's Agenda/ March 26, 1966), “A decisive choice has to be made between lending the body to nature’s ends in obedience to her demand to perpetuate the race as it is, and preparing this very body to become a step towards the creation of a new race. The two cannot go together; at every minute you have to decide whether you wish to remain within the manhood of yesterday or belong to the supermanhood of tomorrow. ” The Mother/TMCW/Vol-14/Words of the Mother-II/p-127, TMCW/Vol-12/On Education/p-54-55, 66: "He is satisfied with his common average kind; Tomorrow’s hopes and his old rounds of thought, His old familiar interests and desires" Savitri-165 “They live content with some small greatness won.” Savitri-184 "That with a little happiness is content," Savitri-204 "Content abide not with one conquered realm; Adventure all to make the whole world thine, To break into greater kingdoms turn thy force." Savitri-536, 67: "Happiness is not the aim of life. The aim of ordinary life is to carry out one’s duty, the aim of spiritual life is to realise the Divine." The Mother/TMCW-14/p-7, CWSA-30/Letters on Yoga-III/p-367, "To bring the psychic forward, selfishness and demand (which is the base of the vital feelings) must be got rid of — or at least never accepted." CWSA-30/Letters on Yoga-III/p-361 Download this WEB PAGE as PDF file: “It is binding on the developing (Soul) but not yet perfectly developed individual in the shape of social duty, family obligation, communal or national demand, so long as it is not in conflict with his growing sense of the higher Right. But the sadhaka of the Karmayoga will abandon this also to the Lord of works. After he has made this surrender, his social impulses and judgments will, like his desires, only be used for their exhaustion or, it may be, so far as they are still necessary for a time to enable him to identify his lower mental nature with mankind in general or with any grouping of mankind in its works and hopes and aspirations. But after that brief time is over, they will be withdrawn and a divine government will alone abide. He will be identified with the Divine and with others only through the divine consciousness and not through the mental nature.” Sri Aurobindo CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-210-211 “(1) Hatred and (2) disliking and (3) scorn and (4) repulsion, (5) clinging and (6) attachment and (7) preference are (seven deformations, vicaras, of integral Yoga) natural, necessary, inevitable at a certain stage: they attend upon or they help to make and maintain Nature’s choice in us. But to the Karmayogin they are a survival, a stumbling-block, a process of the Ignorance and, as he progresses, they fall away from his nature. The child-soul needs them for its growth ; but they drop from an adult (Soul) in the divine culture.” Sri Aurobindo CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-223

Six Fold Divine Call "Calling the mighty Mother of the worlds To make this earthly tenement her house." Savitri-528 "Therefore, besides the great solitaries who have sought and attained their self-liberation, we have the great spiritual teachers who have also liberated others and, supreme of all, the great dynamic souls who, feeling themselves stronger in the might of the Spirit than all the forces of the material life banded together, have thrown themselves upon the world, grappled with it in a loving wrestle and striven to compel its consent to its own transfiguration." Sri Aurobindo CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-27 “The liberated knower lives and acts in the world not less than the bound soul and ignorant mind but more, doing all actions, sarvakrit , only with true knowledge and a greater conscient power. And by so doing he does not forfeit the supreme unity nor fall from the supreme consciousness and the highest knowledge.” Sri Aurobindo CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-299 The Six-fold Divine Call “Recall of the soul’s adventure into space, A traveller through the magic centuries And being’s labour in Matter’s universe,” Savitri-29 “A call was on him from intangible heights; Indifferent to the little outpost Mind, He dwelt in the wideness of the Eternal’s reign.” Savitri-79 “Only a few responded to her call: Still fewer felt the screened divinity And strove to mate its godhead with their own, Approaching with some kinship to her heights.” Savitri-362 (King said to Savitri) “While to exceed yourselves thought’s trumpets call, Heard by a few, but fewer dare aspire,” Savitri-371 “He (Avatara) must call light into its dark abysms, Else never can Truth conquer Matter’s sleep And all earth look into the eyes of God.” Savitri-450 “My will, my call is there in men and things; But the Inconscient lies at the world’s grey back And draws to its breast of Night and Death and Sleep.” Savitri-690 Our Souls sometimes forget to aspire to the highest. In periods of great stress and turbulence in our lives do we open our being to the touch of a greater call and recall the Soul’s great adventure into Time and Space which continues through centuries. Otherwise, we show keen interest and feel safe to cling to some limited intermediate truth, which is not difficult to achieve and suits our mentality to ignore the ultimate aim and decline the Soul’s greater call. As a result, we afflict our Life, Evolution and Yoga with inferiority and have little obligation to a superior plane. Thus, the majority of human beings deprive themselves of realising the true body of the Soul which can see Truth’s whole. This awareness of mental limitation, the effort of stilling the brain and Soul’s unending aspiration has created an immense opportunity for everyone to open God’s door. Savitri reminds us constantly that ‘doors of light are sealed to common mind’⁵ and they ‘owe small debt to a superior plane.’⁵ So, few can respond to the rare Divine call adequately because most of human beings are built on Nature’s early evolutionary state of Ignorance. ‘Only in the uplifting hour of stress’⁵ and difficulties do they sometimes open to the touch of higher planes of Consciousness or uplift to breathe heaven’s air. They cannot hold this rare heavenly Call and slide back to the mud of ordinary life from which they climbed with great effort. They accept this Spiritual fall of lost glory and feel joy in the safe return to their routine inferior life. Men think it best to hug their limit and feel a safe and secure life within the range of the common average animal. In the long ever-mounting hierarchies of consciousness and in the stark economy of cosmic life, each creature is assigned some appointed fixed task and place of stay. If these customary and established triple modes of bound life were disturbed due to the call of higher Divine life, then the settled balance and perpetual order of things would break and crumble. That is why the Gita insists moderate seekers to ‘worship the Divine by his own natural profession and arrive at the highest Divine perfection’⁶ and let ‘be it thy supreme aim to do My work; doing all actions for My sake, thou shalt attain perfection.’¹³ The Gita insists the man of Knowledge not to disturb the life and thought basis of the ignorant human beings, 'for, impelled by his example but unable to comprehend the principle of his action, they would lose their own system of values without arriving at a higher foundation.’²⁵ After many births of preparation, when the hour of higher Spiritual possibility arrives, they will hear the Divine call of the Gita, ‘O Soul that finds thyself in this transient and unhappy world, turn and put thy delight solely in Me.’⁷ The true Call upon us is the Call of the Soul, Jivatma to unite with the Divine, Paramatm a; this often comes to an individual⁸ when his Soul is prepared for a Divine Life. This preliminary Spiritual Call of realising Soul Oneness must be recognised and accepted as imperative and must take precedence over all other claims and demands of the world in the form of call of the Nation, Society, philanthropy, occupational livelihood and household⁹ responsibility, that belong to the domain of ignorance. Nothing can substitute for the Spiritual Call or to rise out of the world to transcendence that can realise the true and integral good and arrive at the root of action and essence of existence. The First Divine Call: “His Soul breaks out to join the Oversoul,” Savitri-24, “The finite self mated with infinity.” Savitri-25, “A captive Life wedded her conqueror.” Savitri-125, "Immortal met immortal in their gaze." Savitri-373 “As when a soul is merging into God To live in Him for ever and know His joy, Her consciousness grew aware of him alone And all her separate self (Jivatma) was lost in his (Paramatma).” Savitri-410 “The soul’s pregnant meeting with infinity Had come to birth in him and taken fire:” Savitri-682 “Two looked upon each other, Soul (Psychic being of Savitri) saw Soul (Supreme Self).” Savitri-682 One receives the first Divine’s Call to realise Jivatma’s union with the static Divine, Ishwara, Paramatma, by renunciation of world attraction, objective enjoyment and attachment to mutable personality. When the vital and physical nature stands as an impediment to pure Spiritual pursuit, then out of that compulsion Asceticism and Illusionism are born. The highest achievement of this Call is a pure and unmixed Absolute, the total Nirvana of mentality and mental ego, entire Spiritual victory and surrender of lower nature. Thus, a foundation of a pure, blank, immutable Spiritual Consciousness is established with partial self-control, which is the first object in the evolution of a Spiritual man. Those who receive the first Divine Call, the Mother proposes: ‘Yogically (I don’t mean spiritually: that was the first stage of my sadhana ), it’s very easy to be a saint! Oh, even to be a sage is very easy. I feel I was born with it – it’s spontaneous and natural for me, and so simple! You know all that has to be done, and doing it is as easy as knowing it. it’s nothing… From experience, I know perfectly well that when one is satisfied with being a saint or a sage and constantly maintains the right attitude, all goes well -the body doesn’t get sick, and even if there are attacks it recovers very easily; all goes very well ... AS LONG AS THERE IS NOT THIS WILL TO TRANSFORM.’¹⁶ Those who receive the first Divine Call and pursue Sadhana , for them, Ashram living is not indispensable; it 'can be practised anywhere.'²⁰ So, 'the possession of the Divine is its first, greatest and most ardent object and that to neglect it for an inferior knowledge is to afflict our'²⁴ Life and Yoga with inferiority. A traditional Sadhak utilises this perfection as a passage to enter the supreme abode of Paramdham.²⁹ An Integral Sadhak utilises this experience as a passage to experience the dynamic Divine union of the second Divine Call. The Second Divine Call: “The calm delight that weds one soul to all ,” Savitri-6 “His inner self grew near to others’ selves And bore a kinship’s weight, a common tie, Yet stood untouched, king of itself, alone.” Savitri-27 “And fills his (King’s) days with her celestial clasp,” Savitri-130 "Or as a lover clasps his one beloved, Godhead of his life’s worship and desire, Icon of his heart’s sole idolatry, She now is his and must live for him alone: She has invaded him with her sudden bliss,... Incarnating her beauty in his clasp She gave for a brief kiss her immortal lips And drew to her bosom one glorified mortal head: She made earth her home, for whom heaven was too small. In a human breast her occult presence lived; He carved from his own self his figure of her: She shaped her body to a mind’s embrace." Savitri-274-275 “A new beginning flowers in word and laugh, A new charm brings back the old extreme delight: He (Jivatma ) is lost in her (Paraprakriti) , she is his heaven here.” Savitri-275 "Yet were there regions where these absolutes met And made a circle of bliss with married hands; Light stood embraced by light, fire wedded fire, But none in the other would his body lose To find his soul in the world’s single Soul, A multiplied rapture of infinity." Savitri-281-282 “An image cast by one deep truth’s absolute, Married to all in happy difference. ” Savitri-326 "And how shall the end be vain when God is guide? However man’s mind may tire or fail his flesh, A will prevails cancelling his conscious choice: The goal recedes, a bourneless vastness calls Retreating into an immense Unknown; There is no end to the world’s stupendous march, There is no rest for the embodied soul." Savitri-339 “One with the single Spirit inhabiting all,” Savitri-394 "He bent to her and took into his own Their married yearning joined like folded hopes; As if a whole rich world suddenly possessed, Wedded to all he had been, became himself, An inexhaustible joy made his alone, He gathered all Savitri into his clasp." Savitri-410 "Our consciousness is cosmic and immense, But only when we break through Matter’s wall In that spiritual vastness can we stand Where we can live the masters of our world And mind is only a means and body a tool." Savitri-542-543 "I have pursued him in his earthly form. A lonely freedom cannot satisfy A heart that has grown one with every heart: I am a deputy of the aspiring world, My spirit’s liberty I ask for all.” Savitri-649 “Be one with the infinity of my power: For thou art the World-Mother and the Bride.” Savitri-691 “A virgin unity, a luminous spouse, Housing a multitudinous embrace To marry all in God’s immense delight,” Savitri-695 A traditional Yoga Sadhak rejects life and action because the first Divine call does not promise an uncorrupt Divine Life. The Synthesis of Yoga book warns³⁵ that if the best Divine Souls of earth enter corruption of life (it means misuse of Ashram opportunities and misunderstanding of wisdom of Integral Yoga.), it produces the worst result. The gathering together of a large number of insincere devotees corrupts the Divine work or 'reduce it to pompous farce. '³⁵ So out of them, some can hold Her Divine Call to elevate the life of renunciation to the gradation of entire consecration of inner and outer life to the Divine and realise the Jivatma’s dynamic Divine union with Para-prakriti. This is also the period of activation of cosmic Consciousness. Or through prolongation of Static Divine Union, dynamic Divine union is realised. The four outer natures that need to be consecrated are, the physical mind, tamas , vital mind, prana , emotional mind, chitta, and intellect, buddhi and the inner nature of four-fold Soul forces that need consecration are the Soul of self-knowledge and truth, Brahmana, the Soul of courage and strength, Kshatria , the Soul of mutuality and harmony, Vaisya and the Soul of works and perfection, Shudra. The highest achievement and perfection of these Psychic attributes is the dynamisation of the four Divine Shaktis of Maheswari, Wisdom, Mahakali, Power and Strength, Mahalakshmi , Beauty, Love, Delight and Harmony and Mahasaraswati, Perfection in the individual life. Thus, the pure static immutable Divine Consciousness is transformed and dynamised into the mediatrix Divine Shakti who takes up the burden of Divine transformation of the individual and cosmic life. Those who receive the second Divine Call, the Grace and Protection of the Divine Mother are with them. ‘The more complete your faith, sincerity and surrender, the more will grace and protection be with you. And when the grace and protection of the Divine Mother are with you, what is there that can touch you or whom need you fear? A little of it even will carry you through all difficulties, obstacles and dangers; surrounded by its full presence you can go securely on your way because it is hers, careless of all menace, unaffected by any hostility however powerful, whether from this world or from worlds invisible. Its (dynamic Spirit's) touch can turn difficulties into opportunities, failure into success and weakness into unfaltering strength… You will know and see and feel that you are a person and power formed by her out of herself, put out from her for the play and yet always safe in her, being of her being, consciousness of her consciousness, force of her force, ananda of her Ananda .’¹⁸ 'And Sri Aurobindo says that if you are capable of maintaining this state (dynamic state of the Supreme), then you know everything: all that has been, all that is and all that will be –in an absolutely simultaneous way. '³⁰ His oneness with the Divine must be extended to the oneness with the others which is a fundamental oneness in Soul and Spirit and not a oneness of Ignorance with their mind, life, body and ego, because the latter oneness of Nature can arrive at a matured stage of sadhana in the universalised Consciousness in which he is unified more and more with other minds, other lives, other bodies than the organism we call ourselves, producing effects not only on our own moral and mental being and on the subjective being of others, and even on the physical world and its events by means nearer to the Divine contact than those possible to our egoistic capacity. It is understood that the transformation of Nature and the attainment of Supramental Consciousness is not possible without universalisation of Consciousness; for this universalisation is a passage towards the highest siddhi of integral Yoga. ‘Here the Yoga of self-perfection coincides with the Yogas of knowledge, works and devotion; for it is impossible to change the human nature into the divine or to make it an instrument of the divine knowledge, will and joy of existence, unless there is a union with the supreme Being, Consciousness and Bliss and a unity with its universal Self in all things and beings. A wholly separative possession of the divine nature by the human individual, as distinct from a self-withdrawn absorption in it, is not possible. ’¹⁹ In this second Divine Call 'the universal Shakt i must be realised, must be seen and felt and borne in the potent purity of its higher action, its supramental and spiritual workings. This greater vision of the Shakti will enable us to escape from the control of the gunas , to convert them into their divine equivalents and dwell in a consciousness in which the Purusha and Prakriti are one and not separated or hidden in or behind each other.'¹⁹ In the Gita , the realisation of this existence as Brahman, Vasudeva Sarvamiti , is identified as dynamic Divine realisation in cosmic Consciousness and very rare Souls attain this Consciousness. It is felt that for the stabilisation of the second Divine Call, isolation or Ashram living is essential or indispensable.²² His establishment of higher consciousness will create a gulf between ordinary life and higher life and hence a sense of insecurity will multiply. He will not feel safe in the world with his new identity of movement of Consciousness between Cosmic and Transcendent Self, and people around him will show intolerance and crucify him in every way.²³ So he who can control the lower Nature by the pressure of higher Nature receives a Divine Call to lead a more concentrated life in a Divine Centre. His attitude towards life will be that he will not remain indifferent towards his own imperfection and world imperfection, but he ‘will not only alter the forms and sphere of its own external life but, leaving nothing around it unchanged or unaffected, create a new world or a new order.’²⁸ The Third Divine Call: “Movement (Para-prakriti) was married to the immobile Vast (Paramatma );” Savitri-34, “There are Two who are One and play in many worlds; In Knowledge and Ignorance they have spoken and met And light and darkness are their eyes’ interchange; Our pleasure and pain are their wrestle and embrace, Our deeds, our hopes are intimate to their tale; They are married secretly in our thought and life.” Savitri-61 “And Nature (Para-prakriti) climb towards God’s (Paramatma) identity.” Savitri-121, "Only to attract her veiled companion And keep him close to her breast in her world-cloak Lest from her arms he turn to his formless peace, Is her heart’s business and her clinging care." (The relation between Supreme Self and Supreme Nature.) Savitri-181 “There he beheld in their mighty union’s poise The figure of the deathless Two-in-One, A single being in two bodies clasped, A diarchy of two united souls, Seated absorbed in deep creative joy; Their trance of bliss sustained the mobile world. " Savitri-295 “The wedding of the eternal Lord and Spouse Took place again on earth in human forms:” Savitri-411 “My spirit has glimpsed the glory for which it came, The beating of one vast heart in the flame of things, My eternity (Paraprakriti) clasped by his eternity (Paramatma) And, tireless of the sweet abysms of Time, Deep possibility always to love.” Savitri-435 “Imperishable, a tongue of sacrifice, It flamed unquenched upon the central hearth Where burns for the high houselord and his mate The homestead’s sentinel and witness fire From which the altars of the gods are lit.” Savitri-639 “Inscribe the long romance of Thee (Para prakriti ) and Me (Paramatma ).” Savitri-699, “A static Oneness (Paramatma) and dynamic Power (Para-prakriti) Descend in him, the integral Godhead’s seals; (Third Divine union) His soul and body take that splendid stamp.” (first and fourth Divine union of a Spiritual man) Savitri-24 In the third Divine Call, the relation between static and dynamic Brahman are reconciled. Thus few can offer their whole Soul and Nature and give everything to realise their absolute consecration to the Divine and His Shakti and become ‘a child and eternal portion’²¹ of Divine Mother’s Consciousness. They realise Brahman and Maya union in the Supramental plane and subsequently the realisation of dual Avatara or union of Paramatma and Paraprakriti in the Psychic heart centre. Or Sri Aurobindo's mission was ‘not to create mathas , ascetics and Sannyasis ; but to call back the souls of the strong to the Lila of Krishna and Kali .'²⁶ Sri Aurobindo further observed, "This is the stage I have reached in spite of all setbacks and recoils, imperfectly indeed in the secureness and intensity of the state, but well enough in the general type. When that has been done, then we may hope to found securely the play in us of his divine Knowledge governing the action of his divine Power."²⁷ Few climb to Her un-perishing Sun, the Supramental Plane and channel to earth mind, earth life and earth matter, the wizard Divine Ray in order to entirely remould Nature and Soul into the way and power of Supernature. Here the rejection of life, rejection of difficulty, rejection of disorder and flight into Nirvana are superseded by acceptance of life, acceptance of difficulty, and acceptance of disorder and transform them into an all-embracing higher life, true solution of the all-material problem, divine harmony, self-absorbed Delight and great victory. 'A divine unity of supreme spirit and its supreme nature is the integral liberation.'³² 'For the supermind is the divine mind and it is on the supramental plane that the individual arrives at his right, integral, luminous and perfect relation with the supreme and universal Purusha and the supreme and universal Para Prakriti.'³³ 'For the supreme Spirit is one as Purusha or as Prakriti, conscious being or power of conscious being, and as the Jiva in essence of self and spirit is one with the supreme Purusha (mamaivansa jivabhuta The Gita-15.7 ), so on the side of Nature, in power of self and spirit it is one with Shakti, para prakrtir jıvabhu ta (The Gita-7.5) . To realise this double oneness is the condition of the integral self-perfection. The Jiva (in the heart) is then the meeting-place of the play of oneness of the supreme Soul and Nature.'³⁴ The Fourth Divine Call: “A mystery of married Earth (Matter) and Heaven (dynamic Spirit) Annexed divinity to the mortal scheme.” Savitri-25, “It (Infinity) marries the earth to screened eternities.” Savitri-98, "To seize the absolute in shapes that pass, To fix the eternal’s touch in time-made things, This is the law of all perfection here." Savitri-108 “Even in these formless coilings he could feel Matter’s response to an infant stir of soul.” Savitri-141, “Awoke in Matter spirit’s identity And in a body lit the miracle” Savitri-157-58, "The soul lit the conscious body with its ray Matter and spirit mingled and were one." Savitri-232, “Where spirit and flesh in inner ecstasy join Annulling the quarrel between self and shape.” Savitri-236, "A fiery stillness wakes the slumbering cells, A passion of the flesh becoming spirit," Savitri-278 “Spirit and body thrilled identified, Linked in the grasp of an unspoken joy;” Savitri-334 “A spirit of its celestial source aware Translating heaven into a human shape Descended into earth’s imperfect mould And wept not fallen to mortality, But looked on all with large and tranquil eyes.” Savitri-353 “He takes with bright surprise spirit and sense.” Savitri-430 “And Matter is the Spirit’s willing bride” Savitri-538, “The living spirit and body in her clasp, As if death were not there nor end nor change.” Savitri-551 “And Matter’s depths be illumined with a soul” Savitri-268 “His nature grew a movement of the All, Exploring itself to find that all was He, (second Divine union) His soul was a delegation of the All That turned from itself to join the one Supreme.” (fourth Divine union) Savitri-319 “He (Avatar ) burns on an unseen original verge That Matter may be turned to spirit stuff:” Savitri-447 “In its antechambers of splendid privacy Matter and soul (Annamaya Purusha) in conscious union meet Like lovers in a lonely secret place:” Savitri-105 "Although he once had felt the Eternal’s clasp, Too near to suffering worlds his nature lived, And where he stood were entrances of Night." Savitri-128 “Man dared and thought and met with his soul the world.” Savitri-130 “What liberty has the soul which feels not free (freedom and liberation come by Soul’s (Jivatma) union with the Divine (Paramatma) .) Unless stripped bare and cannot kiss the bonds The Lover winds around his playmate’s limbs, (Marriage between dynamic Spirit and static Matter.) Choosing his tyranny, crushed in his embrace? (Inrush of large Divine Force is like a tyranny which can crush the material substance.) To seize him better with her boundless heart She accepts the limiting circle of his arms, (Matter accepts and possesses the limiting circle of dynamic Spirit.) Bows full of bliss beneath his mastering hands (imperfect Matter consecrates itself before Perfect Spirit.) And laughs in his rich constraints, most bound, most free. (Matter is delighted by meeting and handling the Spirit’s constraints.) This is my answer to thy lures, O Death.” Savitri-653, (This is also the relation between Paramatma Satyavan (the static Spirit) and Para-prakriti Savitri (the dynamic Spirit).) “Darkness below, (Inconscient Matter) a fathomless Light (Spirit) above,... Stand face to face, opposite, inseparable, Two contraries needed for his great World-task, Two poles whose currents wake the immense World-Force.” Savitri-656-57 “Too far thy heavens for me from suffering men. Imperfect is the joy not shared by all.” Savitri-686 And still, it is fewer who can dare to invert Her Supramental Shakti, Vijnana , and trace the path and key of Immortality uninterruptedly through a conscious descent into Matter’s long Night of abysmal hell and channel Her All Delight from above the head and below the feet to shatter Inconscient Matter or as experienced by King Aswapati , "He tore desire up from its bleeding roots" (Savitri-318). This Para-prakriti’s union with Apara-prakriti or large-scale invasion of Brahman energy into the Subconscient and Inconscient world and ploughing the hard and recalcitrant soil of material life and insisting that matter to become as plastic as Spirit are other preoccupations of this Divine Call. This difficult work of Subconscient and Inconscient transformation is activated without 'glory, and felicity' (Savitri-136) and without public admiration and King Aswapati entered this world of night and ‘bore the fierce inner wounds that are slow to heal.’¹⁵ This transformation also reminds us of the Avatar's experience of "A million wounds gape in his secret heart." (Savitri-446) The Fifth Divine Call: "The mystery of God’s birth and acts remains (birth of Avatar ) Leaving unbroken the last chapter’s seal, Unsolved the riddle of the unfinished Play ; The cosmic Player laughs within his mask, And still the last inviolate secret hides Behind the human glory of a Form, Behind the gold eidolon of a Name." Savitri-311 “Even if he (Avatar) escapes the fiercest fires, Even if the world breaks not in, a drowning sea, Only by hard sacrifice is high heaven earned: He must face the fight, the pang who would conquer Hell.” Savitri-447 “Although Light grows on earth and Night recedes, Yet till the evil is slain in its own home And Light invades the world’s inconscient base And perished has the adversary Force, He (successive Avataras ) still must labour on, his work half done .” Savitri-448-49 Then it is the fewest who receive the Call to manifest the Avatara, a greater and vaster instrumental and emanative action of the Divine, to whom the Divine Mother reveals Herself in its entirety, samagram-mam .¹ An Avatar must call down the supreme Light to the darkest abysms and till all the evils are slain in their Subconscient and Inconscient home, his labour continues and his task is half done. He hopes but never succeeds to arrest the ‘wheels of (earth’s) Doom’² and pays God’s debt to earth with his large suffering, ‘million wounds,’¹⁴ and with the body’s death. All the miseries of earth knock at his door for redemption. With his death¹², earth is newborn and opens for all his Soul’s vast Light, Love and Delight. The Sixth Divine Call: “One (last Avatar ) yet may come armoured, invincible; His will immobile meets the mobile hour; The world’s blows cannot bend that victor head; Calm and sure are his steps in the growing Night; The goal recedes, he hurries not his pace, He turns not to high voices in the night; He asks no aid from the inferior gods; His eyes are fixed on his immutable aim.” Savitri-449 The highest Divine Call received by the last Avatar, ³¹ as hinted in two places in Savitri, is to end the Law of Pain, ‘Evil turns back to its original good,’¹⁰ and to ‘vanquish Time and Death.’³ His being is charged with the mandate from Eternity to change the sorrowful earth’s old dusty law, to open the iron doors of Fate towards Divine Light and to lead mankind towards ‘Truth’s wide and golden road.’⁴ Thus, mankind will be able to hold the last siddhi, perfection of integral Yoga, known as ‘Truth supreme.’¹¹ Through Narad, Sri Aurobindo made humanity aware of the mission and task of the last Avatar , who will vanquish Time and Death. “He (last Avatar ) still must travel Hell the world to save. Into the eternal Light he shall emerge On borders of the meeting of all worlds; There on the verge of Nature’s summit steps The secret Law of each thing is fulfilled, All contraries heal their long dissidence. There meet and clasp the eternal opposites, There pain becomes a violent fiery joy; Evil turns back to its original good, And sorrow lies upon the breasts of Bliss: She has learned to weep glad tears of happiness; Her gaze is charged with a wistful ecstasy. Then shall be ended here the Law of Pain.” Savitri-450-451 “This mortal life shall house Eternity’s bliss, The body’s self taste immortality. Then shall the world-redeemer’s (last Avatara’s ) task be done.” Savitri-451 Narad advised humanity to wait all Time of All Life till the arrival of the last Avatar and ‘bear this great world’s law of pain’¹⁷ with the aid of a Psychic Being. “A little bliss is lent thee from above, (moderate seekers of truth) A touch divine upon thy human days. Make of thy daily way a pilgrimage, For through small joys and griefs thou mov’st towards God. Haste not towards Godhead on a dangerous road, (ascetic path of saintly inactivity) Open not thy doorways to a nameless Power, Climb not to Godhead by the Titan’s road.” (not to torture the body) Savitri-451 Lastly, Narad could not see whether the present Incarnation of Savitri and Satyavan or the Mother and Sri Aurobindo could conquer death. They tried with the existing capacity of Supramental descent and limitation of opening of recalcitrant body and only by a collaboration of both can Death be conquered. So the issue is now left to successive Vibhutis to try in their body the Supramental transformation and illumination of huge Subconscient and Inconscient sheaths and when “The Mighty Mother shall take birth in Time (as Last Avatara) And God be born into the human clay In forms made ready by your human lives. Then shall the Truth supreme be given to men:” Savitri-705 Truth supreme is identified as the last siddhi, the last perfection of integral Yoga where Subconscient and Inconscient sheaths will be entirely transformed and Death will be conquered. Thus, the theory of complete Divine Call is realised by the reconciliation of the above six Divine Calls. The first Divine Call of union with the static Divine must be prolonged in order to experience the second Divine Call of union with Dynamic Divine Mother. These static and Dynamic Divine movements must be intensified to experience the third call, which is a calling down of Supramental Brahman and supramental Maya to the heart centre. Thus, the Psychic being becomes the centre of union of Paramatma and Paraprakrit i and God’s Supramental door opens. Then the fourth Divine Call is initiated, which is the calling down of Supramental Divine Mother, Paraprakriti to nether Material life, Apara-prakriti and thus Brahman Consciousness penetrates into Subconscient and Inconscient Sheaths and Divinises life. The Mother and Sri Aurobindo’s plunge into Subconscient and Inconscient Sheaths and the meeting of a million wounds there or wounds that are slow to heal are the outcome of the fifth Divine Call. The Last Divine Incarnation will divinise the Subconscient and Inconscient sheaths entirely and bring for humanity the perfection of Truth Supreme, which is identified as physical immortality and divinisation of the whole of nature. OM TAT SAT References: 1: The Gita-7.1, 2: Savitri-19, 3: Savitri-474, 4: Savitri-476, 5: Savitri-689, 6: The Gita-18.46, 7: The Gita-9.33, 8: “I do not very readily accept disciples as this path of Yoga is difficult one and it can be followed only if there is a special call.” Sri Aurobindo/SABCL-26/On Himself/p-175, 9: “The soul belongs to the Divine, and owes obedience and service to the Divine alone. If the Divine commands it to work for family, country or humanity, then it is all right and it can do so without being imprisoned...If the command does not come from the Divine, to serve these things is only to obey social and moral conventions.”17 December 1969, The Mother’s Centenary Works (second edition)/Vol-10/p-283, 10: Savitri-451, 11: “A Truth supreme has forced the world to be;” Savitri-658, “Fragments of Truth supreme have lit his soul,” Savitri-659, “All-ruler, ruled by none, the Truth supreme,” Savitri-661, “The Truth supreme, vast and impersonal” Savitri-662, “O Death, if thou couldst touch the Truth supreme” Savitri-663, “If Truth supreme transcends her shadow here” Savitri-663, “Then shall the Truth supreme be given to men:” Savitri-705, 12: “Well, what Sri Aurobindo did by leaving his body is somewhat equivalent, although far more total and complete and absolute – because he had that experience, he had that, he had it; I saw him, I saw him supramental on his bed, sitting on his bed…He has written: I am not doing it individually, for myself, but for the whole earth. And it was exactly the same thing for me – but oh, that experience! Nothing counted for me anymore: people, the earth – even the earth itself had absolutely no importance.” The Mother’s Agenda/15th July 1961 “It is finished, the dread mysterious sacrifice, Offered by God’s martyred body for the world; Gethsemane and Calvary are his lot, He carries the cross on which man’s soul is nailed; His escort is the curses of the crowd; Insult and jeer are his right’s acknowledgment; Two thieves slain with him mock his mighty death.” Savitri-445 (Sacrifice of an Avatar through earthly departure of body.) “Such seemed he (Avatar) as if one departed came Wearing the light of a celestial shape Splendidly alien to the mortal air.” Savitri-576, 13: The Gita-12.10, 14: “A million wounds gape in his secret heart.” Savitri-446, 15: “Assaults of Hell endured and Titan strokes And bore the fierce inner wounds that are slow to heal.” Savitri-230, 16: “For the past two days there has been the feeling of not knowing anything – NOTHING at all. I have had this feeling for a very long time, but now it has become extremely acute, as it always does at times of crisis, at times when things are on the verge of changing – or of getting clarified, or of exploding, or. From the purely material standpoint – chemically, biologically, medically, therapeutically speaking – I don’t believe many people do know (there may be some). But it doesn’t seem very clear to me – in any case, I don’t know. Yogically (I don’t mean spiritually: that was the first stage of my sadhana), it’s very easy to be a saint! Oh, even to be a sage is very easy. I feel I was born with it – it’s spontaneous and natural for me, and so simple! You know all that has to be done, and doing it is as easy as knowing it. it’s nothing. But this transformation of Matter! What has to be done? How is it to be done? What is the path? …Is there a path? Is there a procedure? Probably not…(silence) To be in a condition in which all is the Supreme, all is wonderful, all is marvelous, all is marvelous love, all is ... all is profound Joy – an unchanging, immutable, ever-present condition. To live in That, and then to have this bodily substance contradict it through every possible stupidity – losing sight, losing strength, pains here, pains there, disorders, weaknesses, incapacities of every type. And at the SAME TIME, the response within this body, no matter what happens to it, is, ‘O Lord, Your Grace is infinite.’ The contradiction is VERY disconcerting…From experience, I know perfectly well that when one is satisfied with being a saint or a sage and constantly maintains the right attitude, all goes well -the body doesn’t get sick, and even if there are attacks it recovers very easily; all goes very well ... AS LONG AS THERE IS NOT THIS WILL TO TRANSFORM. All the difficulties arise in protest against the will to transform; while if one says, ‘Very well, it’s all right, let things be as they are, I don’t care, I am perfectly happy, in a blissful state,’ then the body begins to feel content!...That’s the problem: something totally new is being introduced into Matter, and the body is protesting…After my ‘interview’ with Nature, when she told me that she would collaborate, I thought this difficulty would cease; many things have improved considerably (ONE part of Nature is collaborating), but not this. Plainly and clearly, it comes from the subconscient and the inconscient (wherever there is consciousness, all is well); it’s rising up all the time, all the time, and with – oh, disgusting persistence!...And then of course it’s accompanied by all the usual suggestions (but that’s nothing, it comes from a domain which is easily controlled). Suggestions of this type: ‘Well, but Sri Aurobindo himself didn’t do it!’ (I know why he didn’t. but people in general don’t know.) And every adverse vibration naturally takes advantage of this: ‘How do you expect to succeed where he didn’t!’ But... my answer is always the same: ‘When the Lord says it’s all over with, I will know it’s all over with; that will be the end of it, and so what!’ This stops them short…But it doesn’t keep them from starting up again! They did so particularly after I read the passage where Sri Aurobindo affirms, ‘THIS time I have come for THAT – and I shall do it.’ The day when I read this I turned towards him, not actually putting the question to him but simply turning towards him, and he told me, ‘Read the book through to the end.’ And I know, I know it’s true – when I have read the book through to the end I will understand what he has done and I will even have the power to reply to all these suggestions. But meanwhile, everything that wants to keep me from doing it, all this obscure and subconscious ill will, tries its best to keep me from reading, including giving me this eye hemorrhage.” The Mother’s Agenda-15.07.1961, 17: Savitri-451, 18: CWSA-32/The Mother with Letters on the Mother/p-8, 13, 19: CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-622, “This however is a stage and not the whole perfection. The existence, however comparatively large and free, is still subject to the inferior nature. The sattwic, rajasic and tamasic ego is diminished but not eliminated; or if it seems to disappear, it has only sunk in our parts of action into the universal operation of the gunas, remains involved in them and is still working in a covert, subconscient fashion and may force itself to the front at any time. The sadhaka has therefore first to keep the idea and get the realisation of a one self or spirit in all behind all these workings (universalization of Consciousness). He must be aware behind Prakriti of the one supreme and universal Purusha. He must see and feel not only that all is the self-shaping of the one Force, Prakriti or Nature, but that all her actions are those of the Divine in all, the one Godhead in all, however veiled, altered and as it were perverted — for perversion comes by a conversion into lower forms — by transmission through the ego and the gunas. This will farther diminish the open or covert insistence of the ego and, if thoroughly realised, it will make it difficult or impossible for it to assert itself in such a way as to disturb or hamper the farther progress. The ego-sense will become, so far as it interferes at all, a foreign intrusive element and only a fringe of the mist of the old ignorance hanging on to the outskirts of the consciousness and its action. And, secondly, the universal Shakti must be realised, must be seen and felt and borne in the potent purity of its higher action, its supramental and spiritual workings. This greater vision of the Shakti will enable us to escape from the control of the gunas, to convert them into their divine equivalents and dwell in a consciousness in which the Purusha and Prakriti are one and not separated or hidden in or behind each other. There the Shakti will be in its every movement evident to us and naturally, spontaneously, irresistibly felt as nothing else but the active presence of the Divine, the shape of power of the supreme Self and Spirit.” CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-763, 20: “Sri Aurobindo’s way of Yoga is of a special character — it is neither sannyasa nor does it accept the ordinary way of human life. Its first stages can be practised anywhere. But unless there is a personal call to this particular way, there is no use in anybody taking to it. For it is a difficult path and there is little chance of success unless the aspiration is clear and fixed and the demand of the soul sincere and unbreakable. Sri Aurobindo does not admit anyone to this Yoga unless he has some ground to decide that there is in him this special call and that he has an evident capacity for this way — usually it is only after seeing personally at the time of one of the three darshans he gives to disciples and others that he decides whether or not to admit. On the strength of correspondence only he very seldom makes any decision of this kind.” CWSA-35/Letters on Himself and the Ashram/p-555, "So people who want to lead a special life or have a special organization to have (Spiritual) experiences, that's quite silly – the greatest possible diversity of experiences is at your disposal every minute, every minute. Only you must learn not to have a mental ambition for "great" things." "...whatever the circumstances may be, even apparently the worst, if you are in the true attitude and have the true consciousness, it doesn’t matter in the least for your inner progress,..." (Ref: The Mother’s Agenda/20.11.1963, The Mother's Agenda/10.12.1969), 21: CWSA-32/The Mother with Letters on the Mother/p-13, 22: “Sri Aurobindo had already realised in full two of the four great realisations on which his Yoga and his spiritual philosophy are founded. (1) The first he had gained while meditating with the Maharastrian Yogi Vishnu Bhaskar Lele at Boroda in 1908; it was the realisation of the silent spaceless and timeless Brahman gained after a complete and abiding stillness of the whole consciousness and attended at first by an overwhelming feeling and perception of the total unreality of the world, though this feeling was disappeared after his (2) second realization which was that of the cosmic consciousness and of the Divine as all beings and all that is, which happened in the Allipore jail and of which he has spoken in his speech at Uttarapara. To the other two realisations, (3) that of the supreme Reality with the static and dynamic Brahman as its two aspects and (4) that of the higher planes of consciousness leading to the Supermind he was already on his way in his meditations in the Alipore jail.” Sri Aurobindo/CWSA-36/Autobiographical Notes/p-94, "As for the conquest of death, it is only one of the sequelae of supramentalisation — and I am not aware that I have forsworn my views about the supramental descent. But I never said or thought that the supramental descent would automatically make everybody immortal. The supramental descent can only make the best conditions for anybody who can open to it then or thereafter attaining to the supramental consciousness and its consequences. But it would not dispense with the necessity of sadhana. If it did, the logical consequence would be that the whole earth, men, dogs and worms, would suddenly wake up to find themselves supramental. There would be no need of an Asram or of Yoga." CWSA-28/Letters on Yoga-I/p-312-313, "Work here (in the Ashram) and work done in the world are of course not the same thing. The work there is not in any way a divine work in special- it is ordinary work in the world. But still one must take it as a training and do it in the spirit of Karmayoga- what matters there is not the nature of work in itself, but the spirit in which it is done. It must be in the spirit of the Gita , without desire, with detachment, without repulsion, but doing it as perfectly as possible, not for the sake of the family or promotion or to please the superiors, but simply because it is the thing that has been given in the hand to do. It is a field of inner training, nothing else. One has to learn in it these things, equality, desirelessness, dedication. It is not the work as a thing for its own sake, but one’s way of doing it that one has to dedicate to the Divine. Done in that spirit, it doesn’t matter what the work is. If one trains oneself spiritually like that, then one will be ready to do in the true way whatever special work directly for the Divine, (such as the Ashram work) one may any day be given to do." (SABCL-23/Letters on Yoga-II/p-852) 23: “Sri Aurobindo once said (jokingly, as it were), while talking with those around him (I was there and we were talking about Christianity and the "new Christ"), he told them, "Oh, if the new Christ comes, the Church will crucify him!"” The Mother’s Agenda-October-7, 1967, “Inconscient traders in bundles of contraries, They did what in others they would persecute; When their eyes looked upon their fellow’s vice, An indignation flamed, a virtuous wrath; Oblivious of their own deep-hid offence, Moblike they stoned a neighbour caught in sin.” Savitri-209 “Hard is the world-redeemer’s heavy task; The world itself becomes his adversary, Those he would save are his antagonists: This world is in love with its own ignorance, Its darkness turns away from the saviour light, It gives the cross in payment for the crown.” Savitri-448, "A still deep sea, he laughs in rolling waves; Universal, he is all, — transcendent, none. To man’s righteousness this is his cosmic crime, Almighty beyond good and evil to dwell Leaving the good to their fate in a wicked world And evil to reign in this enormous scene." Savitri-657 24: "What Science does for our knowledge of the material world, replacing first appearances and uses by the hidden truths and as yet occult powers of its great natural forces and in our own minds beliefs and opinions by verified experience and a profounder understanding, Yoga does for the higher planes and worlds and possibilities of our being which are aimed at by the religions. Therefore all this mass of graded experience existing behind closed doors to which the consciousness of man may find, if it wills, the key, falls within the province of a comprehensive Yoga of knowledge, which need not be confined to the seeking after the Absolute alone or the knowledge of the Divine in itself or of the Divine only in its isolated relations with the individual human soul. It is true that the consciousness of the Absolute is the highest reach of the Yoga of knowledge and that the possession of the Divine is its first, greatest and most ardent object and that to neglect it for an inferior knowledge is to afflict our Yoga with inferiority or even frivolity and to miss or fall away from its characteristic object; but, the Divine in itself being known, the Yoga of knowledge may well embrace also the knowledge of the Divine in its relations with ourselves and the world on the different planes of our existence. To rise to the pure Self being steadfastly held to as the summit of our subjective self-uplifting, we may from that height possess our lower selves even to the physical and the workings of Nature which belong to them." CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-460-461, "We must recognise that our primary aim in knowledge must be to realise our own supreme Self more than that Self in others or as the Lord of Nature or as the All; for that is the pressing need of the individual, to arrive at the highest truth of his own being, to set right its disorders, confusions, false identifications, to arrive at its right concentration and purity and to know and mount to its source." CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-342, 25: CWSA-21/The Lfe Divine/p-58, 26: CWSA-36/ Autobiographical Note/p-222, “The Jiva, as has been seen, is the meeting-place of the play of the dual aspect of the Divine, Prakriti and Purusha , and in the higher spiritual consciousness he becomes simultaneously one with both these aspects, and there he takes up and combines all the divine relations created by their interaction. This it is that makes possible the dual attitude.” CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-768, 27: "When the Unity has been well founded, the static half of our work is done, but the active half remains. It is then that in the One we must see the Master and His Power, — Krishna and Kali as I name them using the terms of our Indian religions; the Power occupying the whole of myself and my nature which becomes Kali and ceases to be anything else, the Master using, directing, enjoying the Power to his ends, not mine, with that which I call myself only as a centre of his universal existence and responding to its workings as a soul to the Soul, taking upon itself his image until there is nothing left but Krishna and Kali. This is the stage I have reached in spite of all setbacks and recoils, imperfectly indeed in the secureness and intensity of the state, but well enough in the general type. When that has been done, then we may hope to found securely the play in us of his divine Knowledge governing the action of his divine Power. The rest is the full opening up of the different planes of his world-play and the subjection of Matter and the body and the material world to the law of the higher heavens of the Truth." CWSA-36/Autobiographical Notes/p-290, 28: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-268, 29: “In the supramental consciousness, there are no problems — the problem is created by the division set up by the Mind. The Supramental sees the Truth as a single whole and everything falls into its place in that whole. The Supramental is also spiritual, but the old Yogas reach Sachchidananda through the spiritualised mind and depart into the eternally static oneness of Sachchidananda or rather pure Sat (Existence) absolute and eternal or else a pure Non-existence absolute and eternal. Ours having realised Sachchidananda in the spiritualised mind plane proceeds to realise it in the supramental plane.” CWSA-28/ Letters on Yoga-I/p-133-134, “The idea of the supermind, the Truth-Consciousness is there in the Rig Veda according to Sri Aurobindo’s interpretation and in one or two passages of the Upanishads , but in the Upanishads it is there only in seed in the conception of the being of knowledge, vijnanamaya purusha , exceeding the mental, vital and physical being; in the Rig Veda the idea is there but in principle only, it is not developed and even the principle of it has disappeared from the Hindu tradition. It is these things among others that constitute the novelty of Sri Aurobindo’s message as compared with the Hindu tradition, the idea that the world is not either a creation of Maya or only a play, lıla , of the Divine, or a cycle of births in the ignorance from which we have to escape, but a field of manifestation in which there is a progressive evolution of the soul and the nature in Matter and from Matter through Life and Mind to what is beyond Mind till it reaches the complete revelation of Sachchidananda in life. It is this that is the basis of the Yoga and gives a new sense to life.” CWSA-29/Letters on Yoga-II/p-444-445, "The psychic and the spiritual opening with their experiences and consequences can lead away from life or to a Nirvana ; but they are here (in Integral Yoga) being considered solely as steps in a transformation of the nature." CWSA-22/The Life Divine/p-943, 30: The Mother/The Mother’s Agenda/Vol.-2/p-170, 31: "(Q) Will the Avatars still need to take birth on earth once the supramental consciousness is firmly established? (Answer) This question will be easier to answer when the supermind is manifested in living beings on earth. I had always heard that Sri Aurobindo was “the last Avatar”; but he is probably the last Avatar in a human body — afterwards, we do not know....” 23 September 1969 The Mother/TMCW-10/On the Thoughts and Aphorisms/p-253 “(Q) Has this solution any connection with the date, August fifteenth? Is there any connection between the Feast of the Assumption in the Catholic Church and the date of Sri Aurobindo’s birth? (Ans:) Yes. And he has also said it himself. The Assumption of the Virgin Mary is the divinisation of Matter. And this is the aim of the last Avatar.” TMCW-8/Questions And Answers-1956/p-269 “In the eternity of becoming, each Avatar is only the announcer, the forerunner of a more perfect realisation.” The Mother/CWM, Vol. 15, p. 185 “Disciple: One year Janmastami fell on the 15th August. Sri Aurobindo: 15th August is specially significant; that is the day of the ascension of the Virgin Mary—that implies that the physical nature is raised to divine nature. Virgin Mary refers to Nature—Jesus is the divine soul born in man; thus he is both the son of God as well as the son of man. The Catholic priests know this inner significance but they do not express that.” Sri Aurobindo’s conversation with Sri Anilbaran Roy/30th August-1926, “Krishna, Buddha and Kalki depict the last three stages, the stages of the spiritual development — Krishna opens the possibility of Overmind, Buddha tries to shoot beyond to the supreme liberation but that liberation is still negative, not returning upon earth to complete positively the evolution; Kalki is to correct this by bringing the Kingdom of the Divine upon earth, destroying the opposing Asura forces. The progression is striking and unmistakable.” CWSA-28/Letters on Yoga-I/-p-487, “Too much importance need not be attached to the details about Kalki — they are rather symbolic than an attempt to prophesy details of future history. What is expressed is something that has to come, but it is symbolically indicated, no more.” CWSA-28/Letters on Yoga-I/p-489, 32: "A farther liberation of the Nature into a divine quality and spiritual power of world- experience fills the supreme calm with the supreme kinetic bliss of knowledge, power, joy and mastery. A divine unity of supreme spirit and its supreme nature is the integral liberation. " CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-683, "But this rejection (rejection of attraction of paramdham) is not the last possible word of liberation. The integral liberation comes when this passion for release, mumuksutva , founded on distaste or vairagya, is itself transcended; the soul is then liberated both (1) from attachment to the lower action of nature and (2) from all repugnance to the cosmic action of the Divine. This liberation gets its completeness when the spiritual gnosis can act with a supramental knowledge and reception of the action of Nature and a supramental luminous will in initiation. The gnosis discovers the spiritual sense in Nature, God in things, the soul of good in all things that have the contrary appearance; that soul is delivered in them and out of them, the perversions of the imperfect or contrary forms fall away or are transformed into their higher divine truth, — even as the gunas go back to their divine principles, — and the spirit lives in a universal, infinite and absolute Truth, Good, Beauty, Bliss which is the supramental or ideal divine Nature. The liberation of the Nature becomes one with the liberation of the spirit, and there is founded in the integral freedom the integral perfection. " CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-690, "The way proposed for the integral Yoga is a lifting up and surrender of the whole being to him, by which not only do we become one with him in our spiritual existence, but dwell too in him and he in us, so that the whole nature is full of his presence and changed into the divine nature; we become one spirit and consciousness and life and substance with the Divine and at the same time we live and move in and have a various joy of that oneness. This integral liberation from the ego into the divine spirit and nature can only be relatively complete on our present level, but it begins to become absolute as we open" CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-678-679, "Therefore, also, an integral liberation . (1) Not only the freedom born of unbroken contact and identification of the individual being in all its parts with the Divine, sayujya-mukti , by which it can become free even in its separation, even in the duality; (2) not only the salokya-mukti by which the whole conscious existence dwells in the same status of being as the Divine, in the state of Sachchidananda ; (3) but also the acquisition of the divine nature by the transformation of this lower being into the human image of the Divine, sadharmya-mukti, and the complete and final release of all, the liberation of the consciousness from the transitory mould of the ego and its unification with the One Being, universal both in the world and the individual and transcendentally one both in the world and beyond all universe." CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-48, 33: CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-759, 34: CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-760, 35: "The corruption of the best (the best Souls of earth) produced the worst by that strange chemistry of the power of life which generates evil out of good even as it can also generate good out of evil….Yet even in the earthward life a higher knowledge (Psychic and Spiritual knowledge) is indeed the one thing that is throughout needful, and without it the lower sciences (of arts, of literature, of religion and of modern science) and pursuits, however fruitful, however rich, free, miraculous in the abundance of their results, become easily a sacrifice offered without due order and to false gods; corrupting, hardening in the end the heart of man, limiting his mind’s horizons, they confine in a stony material imprisonment or lead to a final baffling incertitude and disillusionment." CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-140-141, “I don’t believe in advertisement except for books etc., and in propaganda except for politics and patent medicines. But for serious work it is a poison. It means either a stunt or a boom—and stunts and booms exhaust the thing they carry on their crest and leave it lifeless and broken high and dry on shores of nowhere or it means a movement. A movement in the case of work like mine means the founding of a school or a sect or some damned nonsense. It means that hundreds and thousands of useless people join in and corrupt the work or reduce it to pompous farce from which the Truth that was coming down recedes into secrecy and silence. It is what has happened to the ‘religions’ and the reason of their failure.” 02.10.1934, SABCL/26/p-375, CWSA-35/Letters on Himself and the Ashram/p-71, Download this WEB PAGE as a PDF file: “Write to him that compliance with his request to see me is impossible. I do not see anyone — I do not speak with anybody or give oral instructions in Yoga . As for the rest, this is a special path of Yoga and only those are accepted who have a special call to it, not merely a general desire for the spiritual life. It is not a life of Sannyasa or a Yoga that can be done by Japa etc. but something much more difficult, so difficult that even those who have a call do not find it easy to go through to the end, and for those who have not the call, it would be impossible. If he likes, however, he can go on practising his Japa with an aspiration towards this path and if he gets any experiences by which a call to it becomes evident, then I can reconsider his case.” Sri Aurobindo CWSA-35/Letters on Himself and the Ashram/p-554, “When I spoke of being faithful to the light of the soul and the divine Call, I was not referring to anything in the past or to any lapse on your part. I was simply suggesting the great need in all crises and attacks, — to refuse to listen to any suggestions, impulses, lures and to oppose to them all the call of the Truth, the imperative beckoning of the Light. In all doubt and depression, to say “ I belong to the Divine, I cannot fail ”; to all suggestions of impurity and unfitness, to reply “ I am a child of Immortality chosen by Sri Aurobindo and the Mother ; I have but to be true to myself and to them — the victory is sure; even if I fell, I would be sure to rise again ” ; to all impulsions to depart and serve some other ideal, to reply “ This is the greatest, this is the Truth, this alone can satisfy the soul within me; I will endure through all tests and tribulations to the very end of the divine journey.” This is what I mean by faithfulness to the Light and the Call." Sri Aurobindo CWSA-32/The Mother with Letters on the Mother/p-104 ,

Study Circle in Detail "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 “For knowledge comes not to us as a guest Called into our chamber from the outer world; A friend and inmate of our secret self, It hid behind our minds and fell asleep And slowly wakes beneath the blows of life;” Savitri-244 " What were earth’s ages if the grey restraint Were never broken and glories sprang not forth Bursting their obscure seed, while man’s slow life Leaped hurried into sudden splendid paths By divine words and human gods revealed?" Savitri-652 "... it is not possible for the tongue of human speech to tell all the utter unity and all the eternal variety of the ananda of divine love. Our higher and our lower members are both flooded with it, the mind and life no less than the soul: even the physical body takes its share of the joy, feels the touch, is filled in all its limbs, veins, nerves with the flowing of the wine of the ecstasy, amrita . Love and Ananda are the last word of being, the secret of secrets, the mystery of mysteries."⁶ Sri Aurobindo " There is also a speech, a supramental word , in which the higher knowledge, vision or thought can clothe itself within us for expression. At first this may come down as a word, a message or an inspiration that descends to us from above or it may even seem a voice of the Self or of the Ishwara , vanı, adesa . Afterwards it loses that separate character and becomes the normal form of the thought when it expresses itself in the form of an inward speech. The thought may express itself without the aid of any suggestive or developing word and only — but still quite completely, explicitly and with its full contents — in a luminous substance of supramental perception. It may aid itself when it is not so explicit by a suggestive inward speech that attends it to bring out its whole significance. Or the thought may come not as silent perception but as speech self-born out of the truth and complete in its own right and carrying in itself its own vision and knowledge. Then it is the word revelatory, inspired or intuitive or of a yet greater kind capable of bearing the infinite intention or suggestion of the higher supermind and spirit. It may frame itself in the language now employed to express the ideas and perceptions and impulses of the intellect and the sense mind, but it uses it in a different way and with an intense bringing out of the intuitive or revelatory significances of which speech is capable. The supramental word manifests inwardly with a light, a power, a rhythm of thought and a rhythm of inner sound that make it the natural and living body of the supramental thought and vision and it pours into the language, even though the same as that of mental speech, another than the limited intellectual, emotional or sensational significance. It is formed and heard in the intuitive mind or supermind and need not at first except in certain highly gifted souls come out easily into speech and writing, but that too can be freely done when the physical consciousness and its organs have been made ready, and this is a part of the needed fullness and power of the integral perfection. " ⁷ Sri Aurobindo The Study Circle in Detail Vedic Arya: “For in the Veda the Aryan peoples are those who had accepted a particular type of self culture, of inward and outward practice, of ideality, of aspiration...All the highest aspirations of the early human race, its noblest religious temper, its most idealistic velleities of thought are summed up in this single vocable.”⁸ Sri Aurobindo Vedantic Arya: “The Aryan is he who strives and overcomes all outside him and within him that stands opposed to human advance. Self-conquest is the first law of his nature. He overcomes earth and the body and does not consent like ordinary men to their dullness, inertia, dead routine and tamasic limitations. He overcomes life and its energies and refuses to be dominated by their hungers and cravings or enslaved by their rajasic passions. He overcomes mind and its habits, he does not live in a shell of ignorance, inherited prejudices, customary ideas, pleasant opinions, but knows how to seek and choose, to be large and flexible in intelligence even as he is firm and strong in his will. For in everything he seeks truth, in everything right, in everything height and freedom .”⁹ Sri Aurobindo Integral Arya : “The perfect Arhat is he who is able to live simultaneously in all these three apparent states of existence (a consciousness which is at once transcendental, universal and individual), elevate lower into higher, receive higher into the lower, so that he may represent perfectly in the symbols of the world that with which he is identified in all parts of his being, the triple and triune Brahman .”¹⁰ Sri Aurobindo Un-Arya: “Everything that departed from this ideal (Truth and wisdom of Brahmana and Heroism and inner adventure Kshatriya ), everything that tended towards the ignoble, mean, obscure, rude, cruel or false, was termed un-Aryan .”¹¹ Sri Aurobindo Dvija: “In the ancient Indian distinction between the once born and the twice born , it is to this material man that the former description can be applied. He does Nature’s inferior works; he assures the basis for her higher activities; but not to him easily are opened the glories of her second birth.” “The ordinary man who wishes to reach God through knowledge, must undergo an elaborate training. He must begin by becoming absolutely pure, he must cleanse thoroughly his body, his heart and his intellect, he must get himself a new heart and be born again; for only the twice born can understand or teach the Vedas . When he has done this he needs yet four things before he can succeed, (1) the Sruti or recorded revelation, (2) the Sacred Teacher, (3) the practice of Yoga and (4) the Grace of God.”¹² Sri Aurobindo Sri Aurobindo confirms in The Synthesis of Yoga that if writing and speech can be Supramentalised through a few rare gifted Souls, then 'this is a part of the needed fullness and power of the integral perfection.'⁷ A twice born Soul can 'understand and teach'¹² the written truth and can conduct a Study Circle or "His speech carries a light of inner truth ," (Savitri-430). His deliberations can be fixed in Psychic and Spiritual planes of beyond the Gunas and he can utilise this as an opportunity to ascent to still higher Cosmic and Transcendent plane. The Study Circle for us is Prakriti Yajna . If it is done rightly, then there will be a large descent of Divine Will, Divine Wisdom and Divine Love. It is a means of collective Divine Union. The Earlier trend of using this as a platform of giving upadesha (advice) and lokasamgraham (gathering together of devotees) has renewed its significance before the new movement of Consciousness through Prakriti Yajna or Vedic sacrifice. In Study Circle, our firm motive is to “Ask for nothing but the divine, spiritual and supramental Truth, its realisation on earth and in you and in all who are called and chosen and the conditions needed for its creation and its victory over all opposing forces…Where there is affinity to the rhythms of the secret world-bliss and response to the call of the All-Beautiful and concord and unity and the glad flow of many lives turned towards the Divine, in that atmosphere she (Mahalakshmi) consents to abide.”¹³ This Study Circle is offered at the Lotus Feet of The Mother and Sri Aurobindo for the activation of ceaseless consecration, ceaseless askesis, ceaseless remembering of the Divine, ceaseless descent of Divine Shakti and for the generalisation and intensification of Moderate Spirituality² in humanity through the extension of Their Karma Yoga . The Gita insists that writing or oration or guidance or action of a Spiritual man should not generate offence, udbega, ¹⁶ anxiety, chinta, ¹⁴ and controversy or division of understanding, buddhi veda ¹⁵, among ordinary earth-bound man and sets himself as an example before them by doing all work with knowledge and Divine union. It further insists that his writings/oration should be truthful, satya, ¹⁶ pleasant, priya , and beneficial, hita, ‘and a careful avoidance of words that may cause fear, sorrow and trouble’¹⁷ to the collective mass. The Mother insisted⁴ that if a writing related with Spiritual truth has to inspire a wider dimension for a long period, it must descend from a very high impersonal and universal plane and must be received by the intellect without the least distortion. Or "Feeling a Truth too great for thought or speech," (Savitri-522) The Gita issues an injunction to the man of Knowledge to utilise Karma Yoga as a means of gathering together the devotees (lokasamgraham ) and not to disturb their thought basis, life basis, and work basis, which are guided by the divisible consciousness of the three gunas. The normal life basis and thought basis of men are limited within the boundary of (1) money earning, (2) procreation of a family and (3) its maintenance. They should not be persuaded to become a liberated Divine worker or live a life of higher Consciousness through rigorous self-control; ‘for impelled by his example but unable to comprehend the principle of his action, they would lose their own system of values without arriving at a higher foundation.’¹⁸ He should not create a division of their understanding on attachment to action and he should encourage them to do all action, doing them himself with knowledge, detachment and Yoga. Their minds are restless, uncontrollable and wander away from Yoga. The Gita has identified them as child Souls, bala, and further segregated them as women, striyah , those who have not renounced sense enjoyments, Shudra, those who subjected their life to lower nature, Vaisya, those who have subjected their life to wealth attachment. There are still other inferior Souls identified as men of evil conduct, duracharo, out-castes, vyapasritya , born from the womb of sin, papajonayah, and deluded souls, vimudha . The Gita proposes rigorous self-control, ugra tapah of Jnana Yoga for a few prepared twice-born Souls, dvija, and consecrated action and devotion⁵ for once-born Souls without disturbing their normal life, in order to generalise Spirituality in humanity. The Gita’s support to generalise Spirituality in humanity is: 1: “Others, those who are unfit to pursue Karma, Jnana, Sankhya and Dhyana Yoga , may hear the Truth from realised Souls and mould the mind and heart into the sense of That to which they listen with faith and concentration and these devotees also go beyond death to immortality.” The Gita-13-26, 2: “If thou art unable even to seek by practice of Karma Yoga, then be it thy supreme aim to do My work; doing all separative actions for My sake, thou shalt attain perfection.” The Gita-12.10, “Work without sacrifice leads this world of men to bondage; for sacrifice practise works, O son of Kunti , becoming free from all attachments.” The Gita-3.9 3: “If a man of very evil conduct turns to Me with a sole and entire love (bhakti ), then swiftly he becomes a Soul of righteousness and obtains eternal peace. This is My word of promise, O Arjuna , that he who loves me shall not perish.” The Gita-9.30/9.31, 4: “Those who take refuge in Me, O Partha , be they out-castes, born from the womb of sin, women, Vaisysas , even Shudras, they also attain to the highest Goal through single-minded Bhakti. ” The Gita-9.32, 5: “To those devotees who worship Me making Me alone the whole object of their thought (either through Japa or through repetition of Mantra ), to those constantly in Yoga with Me, I spontaneously bring every good and all their inner and outer opulence.” The Gita-9.22, The Gita considers that the devotees who have failed to succeed in Yoga in the past births, yogabhrasta , are born again in the house of pure, glorious and in the family of wise Yogin with memory and accumulation of past Spiritual energy. In this birth, they show interest in the written truth, Shastra, from the early part of their formative life and they again endeavour assiduously in order to succeed in Yoga or, after many births of truth seeking, a jijnasu becomes a Yogi. What are the Divine action and its coexistence of Divine silence and passivity that a Divine Worker must know and through this knowledge-based action he can be released from all error, defects and ills. One has to understand the Divine action initiated from higher planes of Consciousness, undivine action initiated from rajasic desire will and inertia of inaction initiated from tamasic indolence. He who, in Divine activity, can see the Divine passivity and this subjective action of Divine descent continues after the objective action ceases, he is a true Karma Yogi . So, he is in Yoga and a many-sided universal Divine worker involved in doing well of all creature. The inception and continuation of Divine action is free from the will of desire and all the defects of work are burned up by the fire of self-knowledge. He has abandoned all attachment to the fruits of work; ever satisfied without any kind of dependence, he does nothing but a Divine Will does action through him. He has no personal hope, personal possession; his heart, sense, mind and intellect are under perfect self-control, performs action by the movement of the body alone; he does not commit any sin. The liberated Divine Worker is satisfied with whatever comes to him, lives beyond any duality, is jealous of none, and is equal in failure and success. He is free from attachment; mind, sense and heart are firmly founded in self-knowledge and the defect of all his work is dissolved.¹⁹ The Lord projected this Karma Yoga superior²⁰ to Jnana Yoga and Dhyana Yoga as one does not have to reject life and action in order to attain the Divine. Karma Yoga reconciles surface life with inner life and further gives the message of transformation of the lower Nature of the three gunas by the pressure of higher dynamic Divine Nature, because through this transformation alone ‘a perfected Yogi lives and acts always in the Divine.’²¹ The Gita ²³ confirms that those who will do Divine work must understand three things. They are (1) right action, karma, (2) wrong action, bikarma, and (3) inaction, akarma . Right action: If one does all actions with the Soul united with the static Divine then that is identified as Divine action. Wrong action: If action is done out of personal will, attachment, desire and motive to get result, then that work is identified as undivine action. It can be corrected by not initiating any work, sarbarambha parityagi, and by consecrating the ordinary action. Inaction: If one experiences Divine descent of Shakti , when objective work is withdrawn, then that is identified as the period of subjective Divine action or inaction. One who realises inaction or passive Divine during action and subjective action or active Divine union during inaction, he is a true Yogi and universal Divine worker. Similarly, we find three types of thought in Savitri . They are (1) right thought, (2) wrong thought, (3) blank empty thought or supreme thought. 1. Right thought: "The Wise who know see but one half of Truth, The strong climb hardly to a low-peaked height, The hearts that yearn are given one hour to love." Savitri-372 2: Wrong thought: "A whisper lures to evil the human heart, It seals up wisdom’s eyes, the soul’s regard, It is the origin of our suffering here, It binds earth to calamity and pain. This all must conquer who would bring down God’s peace. This hidden foe lodged in the human breast Man must overcome or miss his higher fate. This is the inner war without escape." Savitri-448 3: Supreme thought: " Fear not to be nothing that thou mayst be all; Assent to the emptiness of the Supreme That all in thee may reach its absolute." Savitri-536 " Consent to be nothing and none, dissolve Time’s work, Cast off thy mind, step back from form and name. Annul thyself that only God may be.” Savitri-538 "A blank pure consciousness had replaced the mind." Savitri-545 Similarly, we find three types of associations in Savitri . They are (1) right association, (2) wrong association, and (3) supreme association. 1. right association: "Joy that forgot mortality for a while" Savitri-159 " Her smile could persuade a dead lacerated heart To live again and feel the hands of calm." Savitri-514 2. wrong association: " But vain are human power and human love To break earth’s seal of ignorance and death;" Savitri-315 (Death said) “It (human love) is a passion of thy yearning cells, It is flesh that calls to flesh to serve its lust; It is thy mind that seeks an answering mind And dreams awhile that it has found its mate; It is thy life that asks a human prop To uphold its weakness lonely in the world Or feeds its hunger on another’s life.” Savitri-608 3. supreme association: " A sealed identity within her woke; She knew herself the Beloved of the Supreme:" Savitri-525 “He (Divine Love) labours in the depths, exults on the heights; He (Divine Love) shall remake thy universe, O Death.” Savitri-592 "Our love is the heavenly seal of the Supreme. I guard that seal against thy rending hands." Savitri-633 In integral Yoga, the Divine action hinted in the Gita is further developed into four gradations. 1: Divine action by Soul’s union with the static Divine: “This bright perfection of her inner state Poured overflowing into her outward scene, Made beautiful dull common natural things And action wonderful and time divine. Even the smallest meanest work became A sweet or glad and glorious sacrament, An offering to the self of the great world Or a service to the One in each and all.” Savitri-532, (Psychic action) “The Immobile stands behind each daily act, (Spiritual action) A background of the movement and the scene, Upholding creation on its might and calm And change on the Immutable’s deathless poise.” Savitri-662, “A work is done in the deep silences;” Savitri-170 (Spiritual action) 2: Universal Divine action by Soul’s union with dynamic Divine Shakti : “Yes, my (Savitri’s) humanity is a mask of God: He dwells in me, the mover of my acts, Turning the great wheel of his cosmic work. I am the living body of his light, I am the thinking instrument of his power, I incarnate Wisdom in an earthly breast, I am his conquering and unslayable will.” Savitri-634, 3: Supramental Divine action by Static Divine’s (Paramatma) union with dynamic Divine Shakti (Para-prakriti) in the heart centre: "Waking at morn her lips endlessly clung to his, Unwilling ever to separate again Or lose that honeyed drain of lingering joy, Unwilling to loose his body from her breast, The warm inadequate signs that love must use." Savitri-471 "What liberty has the soul which feels not free Unless stripped bare and cannot kiss the bonds The Lover winds around his playmate’s limbs, Choosing his tyranny, crushed in his embrace? To seize him better with her boundless heart She accepts the limiting circle of his arms, Bows full of bliss beneath his mastering hands And laughs in his rich constraints, most bound, most free. This is my answer to thy lures, O Death.” Savitri-653 “The incarnate dual Power shall open God’s door, Eternal Supermind touch earthly Time.” Savitri-705 4: Cellular transformation action by large-scale invasion of dynamic Divine Shakti to static Matter: “A fiery stillness wakes the slumbering cells, A passion of the flesh becoming spirit, And marvellously is fulfilled at last The miracle for which our life was made.” Savitri-278, “The grand Illuminate seized her gleaming limbs And filled them with the passion of his ray Till all her body was its transparent house And all her soul a counterpart of his soul.” Savitri-125 Recapitulation: This study circle promises three limited actions to transform the tamasic and rajasic mind to a sattwic mind, and the unaryan Shudra and Vaisya way of life to Aryan Kshatriya (symbol of courage and new adventure) and Brahmin (symbol of Truth and Wisdom) way of life and to transform narrow carping, jealousy and intolerance into wide faith and compassion. These are identified as preliminary sattwic steps to transform undivine life to Divine Life. “For knowledge comes not to us as a guest Called into our chamber from the outer world; A friend and inmate of our secret self, It hid behind our minds and fell asleep And slowly wakes beneath the blows of life;” Savitri-244 Self-discipline by Psycho-physical³ means or external aid is dispensable in integral Yoga. Knowledge does not always visit us by any outer means like a Study Circle. Overhead Knowledge visits us positively through Divine union and embrace from above and negatively through blows, shocks and adversities of life from below. As Divine workers, we must always remember three things.¹ Whatever manifesting work done through us, small or big, either through activation of three Gunas or through Divine union, are like an infinitesimal grain of dust before the Eternal existence and not our ego but the Divine Mother is the doer of all action. If a very big work is executed through us without consecration and the Divine’s Presence, then that work is of no Spiritual value. If a very small work is done by us with the full of Divine’s Presence, then that work is of great Spiritual value. All New Creation is an infinitesimal incident of the Divine Consciousness or "Creation an incident in its consciousness," (Savitri-537) or “The whole world lives in a lonely ray of her sun.” (Savitri-276) We are given a task through Divine Call, so whatever truth, love, beauty, and delight manifest through us or whatever we create are not our own but a descent from some Transcendent Source. Similarly, all our surface emotions and surface thoughts are source from the inconscient and subconscient or from the universal forces and that we are just a puppet moved by these forces and we must remember that none of them are our own. The Powers that act through our instrumental vessel, dark or bright, are not our own. Based on our consciousness from tamasic to Spiritual plane, the invisible forces of either kind enter our system and do their destructive or creative action. When we are under the influence of three Gunas, then the asuric forces capture the human vessel to hinder our sadhana and when we are under Psychic and Spiritual influence, the invisible Beings of these higher planes assist our sadhana . We must remain aware of them and strive to tune ourselves with the highest instrumental action through Savitri’s declaration: “He dwells in me, the mover of my acts, Turning the great wheel of his cosmic work. I am the living body of his light, I am the thinking instrument of his power, I incarnate Wisdom in an earthly breast, I am his conquering and unslayable will. The formless Spirit drew in me its shape; In me are the Nameless and the secret Name.” Savitri-634 The Divine dwells in Savitri who is at once nameless, impersonal Spiritual being and Personal Psychic Being. Finally, for conducting Study Circle, we can depend on the following message of Sri Aurobindo : "As for helping [others], you can only be sure of that if you yourself have an assured basis, with the psychic being always prominent, full of faith and joy and strength, — then others can gather strength and faith and joy from such a one by speech or contact. But to arrive at that you must, as I have been telling you, open yourself to the Light and Force that come from myself and the Mother and to no other influence."²⁴ The greatest utility of the Study Circle is not to limit it to Teachings alone but to utilise it as means of movement of ascent of the Soul to travel ‘beyond the world’²² and descent of Divine Shakti to ‘save the world.’²² After the discovery of Psychic and Spiritual being, "Our words become the natural speech of Truth. " (Savitri-531) When this movement of Psychic being and Spiritual being is universalised, Savitri's "mouth was seized to channel ineffable truths." (Savitri-553) When Savitri entered the Supramental world for Inconscient transformation, "On its lips the curve of the unuttered Truth, A halo of Wisdom’s lightnings for its crown." (Savitri-573) For a Sadhak of integral Yoga, as his Soul Force increases, the sound of his voice and the intensity of light radiating from his eyes will witness considerable change. This accumulation of Soul Force is identified by Death God as a crucial condition of fitness for Immortality. So, Death God asked Savitri: "Thy voice carries the sound of infinity, Knowledge is with thee, Truth speaks through thy words; The light of things beyond shines in thy eyes . But where is thy strength to conquer Time and Death?" Savitri-663-664 OM TAT SAT References 1: “The Blessed Lord said, O Arjuna, I support this entire universe and all its Divine manifestations through great Vibhutis, Emanations, with an infinitesimal portion of My-self. ” The Gita-10.42, “Let us understand that however great may have been our efforts, our struggles, even our victories, compared with the distance yet to be travelled, the one we have already covered is nothing; and that all are equal—infinitesimal grains of dust or identical stars—before Eternity.” The Mother/Prayers and Meditations-January-8/1914, “Earthly realisations easily take on a great importance in our eyes, for they are proportionate to our external being with this limited form which makes us men. But what is an earthly realisation beside Thee, before Thee? However perfect, complete, divine it may be, it is nothing but an indiscernible moment in Thy eternity; and the results obtained by it, however powerful and marvellous they may be, are nothing but an imperceptible atom in the infinite march to Thee . This is what Thy workers must never forget, otherwise they will become unfit to serve Thee.” The Mother/Prayers and Meditations-July-17/1914, "Do not think yourself big or small, very important or very unimportant; for we are nothing in ourselves. We must only live to become what the Divine wills of us." TMCW/Vol-14/Words of the Mother-II/p-152, "You are becoming very wise and approaching the realisation that we are nothing, we know nothing and we can do nothing; only the Supreme Divine knows, does and is." TMCW/Vol-14/Words of the Mother-II/p-152, “Its absence left the greatest actions dull, Its presence made the smallest seem divine.” Savitri-305 “Our tasks are given, we are but instruments; Nothing is all our own that we create: The Power that acts in us is not our force.” Savitri-542 “A greater Personality sometimes Possesses us which yet we know is ours:” Savitri-47 2: “It is possible to give the material man and his life a moderate spirituality by accustoming him to regard in a religious spirit all the institutions of life and its customary activities.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-23-24, 3: “On the whole, for an integral Yoga the special methods of Rajayoga and Hathayoga may be useful at times in certain stages of the progress, but are not indispensable. It is true that their principal aims must be included in the integrality of the Yoga; but they can be brought about by other means. For the methods of the integral Yoga must be mainly spiritual, and dependence on physical methods or fixed psychic or psycho-physical processes on a large scale would be the substitution of a lower for a higher action.” CWSA/23/The Synthesis of Yoga-542, 4: “Personally, of all those I have read, it’s (The Synthesis of Yoga) the book that has helped me the most. It comes from a very high and very universal inspiration, in the sense that it will remain new for a long time to come.” The Mother’s Agenda-February 16, 5: “Brahmacharya (celibacy) is not binding in bhaktimarga or karmayoga , but it is necessary for ascetic jnanayoga as well as for Raja and Hatha yogas . It is also not demanded from Grihastha yogis. In this (integral) Yoga the position is that one must overcome sex , otherwise there can be no transformation of the lower vital and physical nature; all physical sexual connection should cease, otherwise one exposes oneself to serious dangers. The sex-push must also be overcome but it is not a fact that there can be no sadhana or no experience before it is entirely overcome, only without that conquest one cannot go to the end and it must be clearly recognised as one of the more serious obstacles and indulgence of it as a cause of considerable disturbance.” CWSA-31/Letters on Yoga-IV/p-542, “(Question) Am I fit for Sri Aurobindo’s Yoga? Will he take me up? (Answer by Sri Aurobindo) If by my Yoga you mean the integral Yoga leading towards the supramental realisation, you have not at present the capacity for it. All you can do at present is some preparation for it by Bhakti and self-dedication through Karma; if into this preparation you put a strong sincerity and a settled psychic aspiration, then one day you will be ready for more.” 23 February 1931/CWSA-35/Letters on Himself and the Ashram/p-544-545, 6: CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-605, 7: CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-836-837, 8: CWSA/13/Essays in Philosophy and Yoga/p-441, 9: CWSA/13/Essays in Philosophy and Yoga/p-443, 10: CWSA/13/Essays in Philosophy and Yoga/p-444, 11: CWSA/13/Essays in Philosophy and Yoga/p-441, 12: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga-23, CWSA-18/Kena and other Upanishads/p-169, 13: Sri Aurobindo/CWSA-32/The Mother and Letters on the Mother/p-8, 21, 14: The Gita-16.11, 15: “He should not create a division of their understanding in the ignorant who are attached to their works; he should set them to all actions, doing them himself with knowledge and who are attached to their works; he should set them to all actions, doing them himself with knowledge and Yoga.” The Gita-3.26, 16: The Gita-17.15, 17: CWSA/19/Essays on the Gita-489, 18: “This, no doubt, is the root of the injunction imposed in the Gita (The Gita-3.29) on the man who has the knowledge not to disturb the life basis and thought basis of the ignorant; for impelled by his example but unable to comprehend the principle of his action, they would lose their own system of values without arriving at a higher foundation.” Sri Aurobindo/CWSA-21/The Life Divine/p-58 19: The Gita-4.16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 20: “The sacrifice of knowledge, O Parantapa , is greater than any material sacrifice. Knowledge is that in which all actions culminate (not any lower knowledge, but the highest self-knowledge and God-knowledge), O Partha!” The Gita-4.33, “Works are far inferior to Yoga of the intelligence, O Dhananjaya; desire rather refuge in the intelligence...” The Gita-2.49, “The Blessed Lord said: Yoga of Knowledge and Yoga of Works both bring about the Soul’s salvation, but of the two Yoga of Works is distinguished above Yoga of Knowledge.” The Gita-5.2, 21: The Gita-6.31, 22: “He (King Aswapati) stood fulfilled on the world’s highest line Awaiting the ascent beyond the world, Awaiting the descent the world to save.” (Vedantic sacrifice of the King.) Savitri-319, 23: “One has to understand about right action, karma , as well as to understand about wrong action, bikarma , and about inaction, akarma, one has to understand; thick and tangled is the way of works. He who in action can see inaction and can see action still continuing in cessation from works, is the man of true reason and discernment among men; he is in Yoga and many-sided universal worker.” The Gita-4.17-18, 24: CWSA-31/Letters on Yoga-IV/p-318, Sri Matriniketan Ashram Sri Aurobindo Centre, Managed by The Mother’s International Centre Trust, Regd.No-146/24.11.97. Vill: Ramachandrapur, PO: Kukudakhandi-761100, Via: Brahmapur, Dist: Ganjam, State: Odisha, India www.srimatriniketanashram.com Download this WEB PAGE as a PDF file: "The first thing the physical consciousness must realize is that all the difficulties we encounter in life arise from the fact that we do not rely exclusively on the Divine to find the help we need. The Divine alone can liberate us from the mechanism of universal Nature. And this liberation is indispensable for the birth and development of the new race. Only if we give ourselves entirely to the Divine with total trust and gratitude will the difficulties be surmounted. " The Mother The Mother's Agenda/February 1, 1972 “If you say to the Divine with conviction, “ I want only You”, the Divine will arrange all the circumstances in such a way as to compel you to be sincere. Something in the being... “ I want only You. ”... the aspiration...and then one wants a hundred odd things all the time, isn’t that so? At times something comes, just... usually to disturb everything—it stands in the way and prevents you from realizing your aspiration. Well, the Divine will come without showing Himself, without your seeing Him, without your having any inkling of it, and He will arrange all the circumstances in such a way that everything that prevents you from belonging solely to the Divine will be removed from your path, inevitably. Then when all is removed, you begin to howl and complain; but later, if you are sincere and look at yourself straight in the eye... you have said to the Lord, you have said, “I want only You.” He will remain close to you, all the rest will go away. This is indeed a higher Grace. Only, you must say this with conviction. I don’t even mean that you must say it integrally, because if one says it integrally, the work is done. What is necessary is that one part of the being, indeed the central will, says it with conviction: “ I want only You. ” Even once, and it suffices: all that takes more or less long, sometimes it stretches over years, but one reaches the goal.” The Mother The Mother’s Centenary Works/Vol-6/176-177

The Ascetic's Fortress "Seeking heaven’s rest or the spirit’s worldless peace," Savitri-642 “The peculiarity of this (integral) Yoga is that until there is siddhi above, the foundation does not become perfect. Those who have been following my course (integral Yoga) had kept many of the old samskaras ; some of them have dropped away, but others still remain. There was the samskara of Sannyasa , even the wish to create an Arabinda Matha (Sri Aurobindo Monastery). Now the intellect has recognised that Sannyasa is not what is wanted, but the stamp of the old idea has not yet been effaced from prana (breath, life energy). So there was next this talk of remaining in the midst of the world, as a man of worldly activities and yet a man of renunciation. The necessity of renouncing desire has been understood, but harmony of renunciation of desire with enjoyment of Ananda has not been rightly seized by the mind.” Sri Aurobindo The Mother’s Agenda/Vol-3/p-271, “The vairagya of one who has tasted the world’s gifts or prizes but found them insufficient or, finally, tasteless and turns away towards a higher and more beautiful ideal or the vairagya of one who has done his part in life’s battles but seen that something greater is demanded of the soul, is perfectly helpful and a good gate to the Yoga. Also the sattwic vairagya which has learned what life is and turns to what is above and behind life. By the ascetic vairagya I mean that which denies life and world altogether and wants to disappear into the Indefinite and I object to it for those who come to this Yoga because it is incompatible with my aim which is to bring the Divine into life. But if one is satisfied with life as it is, then there is no reason to seek to bring the Divine into life, — so vairagya in the sense of dissatisfaction with life as it is is perfectly admissible and even in a certain sense indispensable for my Yoga. ” Sri Aurobindo CWSA-29/Letters on Yoga-II-389 (The above passage suggests that one has to reject life as it is in every form because if we support any of the activities of ordinary life, we deprive ourselves of the possibility of Divine Life.) The Agenda of the Ascetics’ Fortress “I would myself say that no man can be spiritually complete if he cannot live ascetically or follow a life as bare as the barest anchorites.”¹ Sri Aurobindo “In practice also the ascetic spirit is an indispensable element in human perfection and even its separate affirmation cannot be avoided so long as the race has not at the other end liberated its intellect and its vital habits from subjection to an always insistent animalism.”² Sri Aurobindo “This surrender may take the ascetic form, as when he leaves the ordinary life of men and devotes his days solely to prayer and praise and worship or to ecstatic meditation, gives up his personal possessions and becomes the monk or the mendicant whose one and only possession is the Divine, gives up all actions in life except those only which help or belong to the communion with the Divine and communion with other devotees, or at most keeps the doing from the secure fortress of the ascetic life of those services to men which seem peculiarly the outflowing of the divine nature of love, compassion and good.”³ Sri Aurobindo “It secured in India a society which lent itself to the preservation and the worship of spirituality, a country apart in which as in a fortress the highest spiritual ideal could maintain itself in its most absolute purity unoverpowered by the siege of the forces around it.”⁴ Sri Aurobindo “The child of immemorial ages, preserved by its vitality and truth into our modern times, it is now emerging from the secret schools and ascetic retreats in which it had taken refuge and is seeking its place in the future sum of living human powers and utilities.”⁵ Sri Aurobindo The Gita confirms that outer renunciation, sannyasa, 'is valueless'³² without inner renunciation, tyaga, and the garb of sannyasi is ' unnecessary when there is the inward freedom. In fact tyaga itself is the real and sufficient Sannyasa .'³² “He should be known as the eternal (nitya ) Sannyasin who neither hates nor desires; free from the dualities he is happily and easily released from all bondage.” (The Gita-5.3) “Sri Aurobindo shows us that one can be an ascetic by preference and not out of abnegation (or renunciation); and so he makes us understand that to be a servant of the Lord and to act only according to His will is a far higher state than any personal choice, no matter how saintly it may seem. ”²⁹ There is something in the composition of our Nature which goes beyond the first material need of humanity, of his entire preoccupation in the terrestrial needs, interests, desires, and ideals of the individual and the race. So the race cannot accept or follow for a long time to confine us entirely to a purely terrestrial way of living. So the formula of a beyond intellect, Intuition and a feeling of a Soul and Spirit return upon us and end by their complete possession. The moderate Soul seeker satisfies this appetite by devoting to it in his leisure moments or exceptional hours or latter part of his life when age shall have dulled the enthusiasm of his earthly nature or he recognises it as something behind and above his normal Nature to which he can more or less imperfectly direct his natural being. The Ascetic turns to this supraterrestrial urge as the one and only aim and law of living by diminishing and mortifying as much as possible his earthly parts in the hope of developing his celestial Nature. This also includes prolonged fasting.³ ¹ There has been a period in which this ascetic view has gained momentum and a part of humanity dwindles between the imperfect moderate living, which cannot take a large Spiritual plunge and a sick ascetic longing for celestial living, which also cannot acquire in more than a few of its best pure and happy movements. Thus, in this transition, the law of evolutionary capacity is ignored and humanity misses a reconciling equation between the Matter and the Spirit, which must exist somewhere in the Divine dispensation of our Nature. Ascetics’ Fortress is the Divine Mother’s intermediate perfect shrine of collective living developed through the practice of traditional schools of Yoga. An Ascetic is a Soul who has taken retirement from the world and the Divine Mother chooses this state for Her brief felicitous hour in the world’s play of joy and strife and discloses some of Her mystic secrets, anchorite solitude, forests with their multitudinous chant, and the lurking doors of beauty, sweetness and surprise and masked divinity’s door. He is a stranger on the sorrowful roads of Time and immortal under the yoke of death and fate. An Ascetic is a Soul seeker who climbs above his mind and lives in the calm vastness of the One. It offers a severe noble atmosphere to work and thought and measured delight as steps to climb God’s far secret height. After this realisation, our life becomes a tranquil pilgrimage and we consider each year as a mile upon the heavenly way and each dawn opens into larger light, and waking and sleep are opportunities of Soul flowerings and so can we rise to the pure unvanquished Spirit of wide vesper calm, gentle as sky and soft as flower. Asceticism or rejection of material life is a temporary necessity and a short cut, not the true solution of the problem of existence for the ascending Soul, because material life seems so much the negation of all Spiritual existence. Practice of Integral Yoga begins²⁰ with the mind’s method of abstraction, which can be followed by the practice of one or many traditional schools of Yoga. The traditional system of Yoga gives exclusive importance to the rejection of one part of the lower nature to the exclusion of others and uses that as a lever to escape into the higher nature. Brotherhood of Saints: “The aim of religion may include a social change, but it is then a change brought about by the acceptance of a common religious ideal and way of consecrated living, a brotherhood of saints , a theocracy or the kingdom of God reflecting on earth the kingdom of heaven.”⁶ Sri Aurobindo “It is the divine love which so emerges that, extended in inward feeling to the Divine in man and all creatures in an active universal equality, will be more potent for the perfectibility of life and a more real instrument than the ineffective mental ideal of brotherhood can ever be.”⁷ Sri Aurobindo “Another possible conception akin to the religious solution is the guidance of society by men of spiritual attainment, the brotherhood or unity of all in the faith or in the discipline, the spiritualisation of life and society by taking up of the old machinery of life into such a unification or inventing a new machinery.”⁸ Sri Aurobindo Brotherhood can be divided into two parts as the brotherhood of Mind and brotherhood of the Spirit; firstly, its mental concept attained momentum in the French revolution which later took refuge in Indian asceticism and Russian Marxism as mere sympathy created by love and understanding of mental knowledge; secondly, brotherhood is a weak binding force invented by the mind and cannot hold the burden of Divine Love; thirdly it does not represent the original seven fold personalities of the Divine, which needs attention for integral human development, rather brotherhood is considered as a derivative of God’s original faculty of Fatherhood; fourthly, it was also observed from The Mother’s writings, that She gave the name of the physical mind or material mind as ‘big brother’³³ who has the capacity to turn nectar into poison and crystalline water into muddy water instantly. In integral Yoga, the mental brotherhood of mere sympathy is to be substituted by the fundamental Spiritual equality, or the realisation of unity of all, realisation of all as brother Soul for a Divine purpose. The significance of brotherhood is heightened in Spirit when the Supreme instructs Savitri not to ‘shrink from any brother soul’²¹ and Savitri’s extension of hope as ‘sister of thy soul’²² during the critical hour of escape of Satyavan’s death in the midst of all difficulties. We must arrive at conscious unity of brotherhood with sunshine and the sky and with our fellow beings and the fullness of this universal relation is established in Supermind. The Law of Renunciation or The Law of Tapasya -1: “In her illumined script, her fanciful Translation of God’s pure original text, He thinks to read the Scripture Wonderful, Hieratic key to unknown beatitudes.” Savitri-193 “He saw through depths that reinterpret all, Limited not now by the dull body’s eyes, New-found through an arch of clear discovery, This intimation of the world’s delight, This wonder of the divine Artist’s make Carved like a nectar-cup for thirsty gods, This breathing Scripture of the Eternal’s joy, This net of sweetness woven of aureate fire.” Savitri-372 The whole effort of Nature through Philosophy, Religion, Science, Spiritual and Occult Science attempts to get at the right data upon which it will be possible to resolve all problems of existence as satisfactorily as the best available knowledge. Integral Yoga excludes none of them but rather uncovers their central truth, central purpose, and central faith and welds them strongly to the harmony of their eternal Source. Integral Yoga accepts and recommends the practice of the traditional Shastra wholly to experience the basic Divine realisation of Jivatma's union with Paramatma , till integral Shastra and integral methods are evolved to experience comprehensive, all-inclusive and all the revelatory aspects of Divine realisations. The advantages of traditional Shastra are; firstly, the traditional teachings are supposed to be fixed, gives the name of the high roads of destination and the already explored directions and expresses the knowledge and experiences of many centuries systematised, organised, made attainable to the beginner; secondly, the ancient wisdoms of the East are all the right means of the basic truths or root Knowledge of all existence which ought to be the guiding principle of all Time; thirdly, the character of the higher states of the Soul and their greater worlds of Spiritual Nature are shadowed in the Gita, the Upanishad and the Veda in figures, hints and symbols and these can be utilised towards the ascension of the Soul from physical into vital, from the vital into the mental Purusha , from mental into Knowledge-Soul and from that Self of Knowledge into the bliss Purusha , thus, completing the Soul’s ascension; fourthly the Gita declares that the Yogin in his progress must pass beyond the written truth, sabdabrahmativartate , beyond all that he has heard and all that he has yet to hear, srotavyasya srutasya ca ; fifthly, Indian Spiritual writings lay stress upon the quality of the four-fold Soul force, chaturvarna, from which the four-fold action flows, and upon its truth, fearlessness, purity, love, compassion, benevolence, absence of will to hurt and opens the passage of actions of their free out flowing; sixthly, a sadhaka of Integral Yoga can include a good part of his development a richly varied experience of the truths of many Scriptures and make the future opulent with all that is best in the past; lastly, he will accept all the ancient disciplines as they rest upon eternal truths and he will give them an orientation in conformity with his integral aim of perfecting life, consciousness and Self. The disadvantage of traditional Shastra is that, firstly, if we turn always to few distinct truths, symbols or particular discipline into hard and fast dogmas then our Spirituality is arrested in infancy and deprives itself from entry into the science of the Infinite; secondly, a sadhaka of integral Yoga will use but cannot bind himself to any written truth as all written truth is a partial manifestation of the Infinite knowledge and endless Truth and he organises it anew for the present and future and the same problem is approached from a new starting point; thirdly, in traditional teaching all the lines of Yoga oppose and object against a new practice, the new Yogic teaching, the adoption of a new formula as it is not consistent with the fixed norms of Shastra ; so a Sadhaka of integral Yoga must be fully aware of the compelling cause of refusal of so many other schools of self-discipline to regard even the possibility of realising the new and difficult object of integral Yoga wholly; fourthly, there are certain traditional teachings in which Yoga can be used for self-indulgence and hurting others instead of self-conquest and doing of good of all creatures. In Integral Yoga, self-conquest is realised through rigorous self-control and doing good to all creatures is activated by the inner movement of universal Consciousness. The Shastra of integral Yoga recommends that ‘each man in this path has his own method of Yoga’¹¹ or ‘each man is able to follow his own path of Yoga;’¹² secondly, there are certain broad catholic norms common for all Sadhakas which enable us to construct a scientific method of synthetic Yoga and these must take as much as possible the form of general truths, general statements of principle, the most powerful broad directions of effort and development rather than a fixed system which has to be followed mechanically as a routine; thirdly, it provides further guideline that all written truth and practices cannot be too strictly formulated and it must be constantly renovated and revived by a fresh instreaming of Spiritual experience and descended overhead knowledge; fourthly integral Yoga authorises absolute freedom to each sadhaka to restate knowledge in new terms and new combinations²⁸ and since it not only seeks the Divine but also calls upon the Divine to unfold in human life, so the Shastra of integral Yoga must provide for an infinite liberty in the receptive human Soul to extend his unending Spiritual experience; fifthly, this Shastra ‘will not lend itself either to any predilection or distaste for any particular idea or truth, and refuse to be attached even to those ideas of which it is most certain or to lay on them such an undue stress as is likely to disturb the balance of truth and depreciate the values of other elements of a complete and perfect knowledge;’¹³ sixthly, all editing work of books intended to pursue integral Yoga must confirm its norm that emphasizes, “We must hate none, despise none, be repelled by none; for in all we have to see the One disguised or manifested at his pleasure. He is little revealed in one or more revealed in another or concealed and wholly distorted in others according to His will and His knowledge of what is best for that which He intends to become in form in them and to do in works in their nature;”¹⁴ seventhly, the Shastra of integral Yoga will integrate our fragmented personality and fragmented knowledge and discover unity and universalisation of all Deity, Guru , Avataras, Shastra and Teachings by uncovering their central truth, central faith and central dynamic force; it does not cut the roots of the Sciences, the Arts and the Life but to lift them out of their limitations, supply a new source of creative Spiritual power and illumination by which they can be carried more swiftly and profoundly towards their absolute light in knowledge and their yet undreamed possibilities and the most dynamic energy of content and form and practice; eighthly, it reminds us that the Spirit’s unending riches, opulences and splendours cannot be exhausted by all the inspired narrations, exulted writings of Seers and Saints of all Time and all the mental formulations of truth born out of exclusive concentration and higher formulations can break down under the test of new suggestions from the Infinite; ninthly the Shastra of an integral Yoga recommends that during this endeavour and tapasya the integral Yogi will transcend all effort, all self-discipline, all set method and it will be replaced by ‘natural, simple, powerful and happy disclosing of the flower of the Divine out of the bud of a purified and perfected nature;’¹⁵ he will also transcend all set goals because the progress, the growth and expansion are identified as infinite and lastly in the final journey of the Soul’s infinity and freedom all outward standards are replaced or laid aside and there is left only a spontaneous and integral obedience to the Divine with whom he is in conscious union and a spontaneous action fulfilling the integral Spiritual truth of his Being and Nature. The Law of Renunciation or The Law of Tapasya -2: “A matted forest head invaded heaven As if a blue-throated ascetic peered From the stone fastness of his mountain cell Regarding the brief gladness of the days; His vast extended spirit couched behind.” Savitri-391 “The strong king-sages from their labour done, Freed from the warrior tension of their task, Came to her serene sessions in these wilds; The strife was over, the respite lay in front. Happy they lived with birds and beasts and flowers And sunlight and the rustle of the leaves, And heard the wild winds wandering in the night, Mused with the stars in their mute constant ranks, And lodged in the mornings as in azure tents, And with the glory of the noons were one.” Savitr-381 “I (Satyavan) sat with the forest sages in their trance: There poured awakening streams of diamond light, I glimpsed the presence of the One in all. But still there lacked the last transcendent power And Matter still slept empty of its Lord.” Savitri-405 “A curse is laid on the pure joy of life: Delight, God’s sweetest sign and Beauty’s twin, Dreaded by aspiring saint and austere sage, Is shunned, a dangerous and ambiguous cheat, A specious trick of an infernal Power It tempts the soul to its self-hurt and fall.” Savitri-629 All traditional Yoga aims at escape into higher Nature by rejection of lower Nature. Integral Yoga aims at the transformation of the lower Nature and its elevation into higher Nature by the descent of the Divine Shakti . Lower Nature is that which acts through limitation and division of the three gunas and is of the nature of Ignorance and culminates in the life of the ego. Higher nature is that which acts by unification and transcendence of limitation and is of the nature of Knowledge and culminates in the Life Divine. All traditional Yoga aims at individual liberation and perfection through great solitaries and after attaining it, we have the great spiritual Teachers who have liberated others. Integral Yoga aims at universalisation of the above realisation through ‘great dynamic Souls’¹⁶ who feel themselves stronger in the might of the Spirit than all the forces of material life and have thrown themselves upon the world, grappled with it in loving wrestle and striven to compel its consent to its own transfiguration. The condition in which all traditional Yoga proceeds is seclusion from ordinary activities, isolation from the mass through the garb of Sannyasin ; the condition in which integral Yoga proceeds by accepting and embracing this garb of the world, its problems and its difficulties and its complexities entirely where seclusion and isolation are a provisional necessity. The former culminates in renunciation of life because the ordinary mentalised human-animal life is either demoniac or Divine and undivine mixed whereas the latter culminates in the fulfilment of life, a life released, transformed and uplifted. The difficult and unavoidable task of integral Yoga differs from other world-shunning or heaven-seeking disciplines in the sense that it cannot afford to leave unsolved the problem of outward works of Life and ally it firmly to the divinities of Love and Knowledge. Hathayoga ²⁵ aims at the conquest of life and the body by combining the food sheath and the vital sheath, whose equilibrium is the foundation of all Nature’s workings in the human being. It aims at the supernormal perfection of physical life and its capacities, and goes beyond it into the domain of mental life. The whole aim of the Hathayoga is the fixed scientific processes to give to the Soul in the physical body the power, the light, the purity, the freedom, the ascending scales of Spiritual experience which would naturally be open to it, if it dwelt here in the subtle and the developed causal vehicle. The object of the Asana is to get rid of the restlessness imposed on the body and to force it to hold the Pranic energy instead of dissipating and squandering it. The object of Pranayama is to purify the nervous system, to circulate the life-energy through all the nerves without obstruction, disorder or irregularity, and to acquire a complete control of its functioning, so that the mind and will of the Soul inhabiting the body may be no longer subject to the body or life or their combined limitations. Rajayoga aims at the liberation and perfection of the mental being, the control of emotional and sensational life, and the mastery of the whole apparatus of thought and consciousness. It aims at a supernormal perfection and enlargement of the capacities of the mental life and goes beyond it into the Spiritual existence which withdraws into a subliminal plane at the back of our normal experiences without descending and possessing our whole outer existence. The object of Rajayoga is also to draw away the mind from the outward and the mental world into silent communion of Soul and unity with the Divine and it sometimes deviates from the main purpose to the practice and use of occult powers, siddhis . The object of self-discipline Yama of Rajayoga is to create a moral calm, a void of the passions, and so prepare for the death of rajasic egoism and the conquest of passions and desires in the human being. The object of self-discipline Niyamas of Rajayoga are equally a discipline of the mind by regular practices of which the highest is meditation on the Divine Being, and to create a sattwic calm, purity and preparation for concentration upon which the secure pursuance of the rest of the Yoga can be founded. The Karmayoga aims at the dedication of every human activity to the Supreme Will. It begins by the renunciation of all egoistic aim for our works, all pursuit of action for an interested aim or for the sake of a worldly result. By this renunciation, it so purifies the mind and the will that we become easily conscious of the great Universal Energy as the true doer of all our actions and the Lord of that Energy as their ruler and director with the individual as only a mask, an excuse, an instrument or, more positively, a conscious Divine centre of action, wisdom and love. The choice and direction of the act are more and more consciously left to the Supreme Will and this universal Energy. To That our works as well as the results of our works are finally abandoned. The object is the release of the Soul from its bondage to appearances and to the reaction of phenomenal activities. The traditional Jnana Yoga leads to the rejection of phenomenal worlds from the consciousness as creation of Maya , an illusion and the final emergence without return of the individual Soul in the Supreme. This Yoga begins²⁰ by the method of intellectual reflection, vicara , to arrive at right discrimination, viveka . The path of Integral Jnana Yoga aims at realisation and identification with the pure, unique, immutable and imperishable Supreme Self, not only in one’s own being but in all beings and, finally, the realisation of even the phenomenal aspects of the world as a play of the Divine Consciousness and not something entirely alien to its true nature. The Bhaktiyoga, the path of Devotion, aims at the enjoyment of the supreme Love and Bliss and utilises normally the conception of the Supreme Lord in His personality as the Divine Lover and Enjoyer of the universe. The world is then realised as a play of the Lord, with our human life as its final stage, pursued through the different phases of self-concealment and self-revelation. This path, too, as ordinarily practiced, leads away from world-existence to absorption of another kind than the Monist’s in the Transcendent and Supra-cosmic. The Tantric system aims at liberation, full perfection and enjoyment of the Spiritual power, light and joy in human existence, and experience in which liberation and cosmic action and enjoyment are unified in a final overcoming of all oppositions and dissonances. The aim of Integral Yoga is to make the Spiritual life and its Spiritual experiences fully active and utilisable in the waking state, extending over all the functions of normal life. The perfection of the body, the highest results of Hathayoga and the perfection of the mind, the highest achievement of Rajayoga and the development of general physical and mental faculties and experiences attainable by humanity are also included in the scope of integral Yoga. Each school of Yoga selects their own gate of escape by turning certain activities of lower Nature towards the Divine. Hathayoga ² ⁵ selects the body and vital functioning, Rajayoga selects chitta, psychic prana, the triple path of Works, of Knowledge and of Love uses will, intellect and emotion as starting point and seeks by their conversion, to arrive at the liberating Truth. The Gita proposes rejection of five things that of desire, kama , attachment, sangam , ego, ahamkara , dualities dwanda and the three gunas as conditions of attaining liberation, mukti . The Tantric Yogin, instead of rejecting the lower Nature, confronts, seizes and conquers it. Integral Yoga, in its preliminary state, recommends renunciation of three things utterly, that of the desire, ego and attachment and with the Soul development, Tantric method can complement it. Man, in his effort at self-transcendence, has to seize on some one spring or some powerful leverage in the complicated and complex instrument of his nature; this spring or lever he touches in preference to others and uses it to set the human machine in motion towards the end he has in view. In his choice, it is always Nature that should be his guide. The lever action of Japa Yoga is physical mind; Hathayoga depends on the nervous system of vital mind; Rajayoga leans on purification of chitta ; Karma, Jnana and Bhakti Yoga use will, intellect and emotion; Tantra disciplines desire as its most powerful leverage. The distinct character of man is that he is a mental being and not merely a vital creature and here Nature should turn at her highest and widest in him. Integral Yoga centres its consciousness on the Psychic being, the inner heart of deepest feeling and the Spiritual being, the highest mind of thought and light and will and uses either of them as our leverage to lift the nature wholly towards the Divine. With the opening of the Psychic and Spiritual being, the self-control becomes rigorous²³ and with the opening of the Supramental being, this self-control becomes absolute.²⁴ Each Schools of Yoga has its own method, processes of which Hathayogic is of psycho-physical science, Rajayogic is that of mental and psychic, its method is the stilling of the waves of consciousness, its manifold activities, cittvrutti , first, through a habitual replacing of the turbid rajasic activities by the quiet and luminous sattwic , then, by the stilling of all activities; the way of Karma Yoga is of Spiritual and Dynamic, the way of Jnana Yoga is that of Spiritual and Cognitive, the way of Bhakti Yoga is that of Spiritual, aesthetic and emotional, the method of Tantra is to raise nature in man into manifest power of Spirit and apply the intimate secrets of the Will-in-Power; the way of Tantric Dakshina marga is Nature in man liberating itself by right discrimination in power and practice of its own energies, elements and potentialities and the Tantric Vama marga is the Nature in man liberating itself by a joyous acceptance in power and practice of its own energies, elements and potentialities; the method of Sankhya is that the Purusha learns not to identify himself with Prakriti. The Monist fixes his path on the exclusive knowledge; the Dualist or the partial Monist turns to the path of Devotion and directs us to shed the lower ego and material life. The method of Integral Yoga is Psychic, Spiritual and Supramental which is derived from the central principles of Vedantic school whose methods are in knowledge; it is either knowledge through discernment or knowledge of the heart expressed in love and faith or a knowledge in the will working out through action. The point of contact of the individual consciousness with the Divine decides the type of Yoga we practice. Yoga is the union of that which has become separated in the play of the universe with its own true self, origin and universality. This contact may take place at any point of the complex and intricately organised consciousness which we call our personality. It may be effected in the physical through the body; in the vital through the action of those functioning which determine the state and the experiences of our nervous being; through the mentality, whether by means of the emotional heart, the active will or the understanding mind, or more largely by a general conversion of the mental consciousness in all its activities. Tantra lays its hand firmly on many of the main springs of human quality, desire, action and it subjects them to an intensive discipline. Integral Yoga is accomplished through a direct awakening to the Universal or Transcendent Truth and Bliss by the conversion of the central ego in the mind. Its three progressive stages are that of (1) attempt of ego to enter contact with the Divine through personal effort, (2) laborious preparation and working of the Divine Force in the whole lower Nature to become higher Nature and (3) wholly blissful and rapid eventual transformation. Integral knowledge unifies Sachchidananda in all the manifest planes, whereas traditional knowledge admits this truth in theory but practically fails, as if oneness were not equal everywhere. It finds it in the unmanifest Absolute and rejects it in the manifestation; finds it purer in Impersonal than in Personal; complete in Nirguna and not so complete in Saguna ; satisfyingly present in the silent and inactive Brahman and not so satisfyingly present in the active Brahman . The Integral Yoga of knowledge makes no such division. It finds (1) the same absolute oneness in the Unmanifest and the Manifest (2) in the Impersonal and the Personal, (3) in Nirguna and Saguna , (4) in the infinite depths of universal silence and the infinite largeness of the universal action, (5) in the Purusha and Prakriti ; (6) in the Divine Presence and the works of the Divine Power and Knowledge; (7) in the eternal manifestness of the one Purusha and the constant manifestation of many Purushas ; (8) in the inalienable unity of Sachchidananda keeping constantly real to itself its own manifold oneness and in the apparent divisions of mind, life and body in which oneness is constantly, if secretly real and constantly seeks to be realised; (9) to possess Him and be possessed by Him in ourselves and in all things in the term of self-mastery, swarat and all-empire, samrat; (10) to enjoy Him in all experience of passivity and activity, of peace and power, of unity and difference. (11) For it, Personality and Impersonality are two wings of its Spiritual ascension. (12) All unity is to it an intense, pure and infinite realisation, all difference an abundant, rich and boundless realisation of the same Divine and Eternal Being. (13) All that is mystic, true and Divine behind polytheism and monotheism falls within the scope of its seeking. (14) It accepts all jarring sects, religions, science and philosophies as one of the faces of the Eternal Reality and discovers the One Truth that binds them together. All Religions and Yogic Schools in India use largely psycho-physical methods or external self-disciplines for inner development and depend more or less upon it for their practices. The secret power of Mantra, Japa, sacred syllable, name of the mystic formula is the central truth of all the complex psycho-physical Science and practice of which Rajayoga and Tantra give us a comprehensive method. These are preparatory objects of thought concentration, forms, and verbal formulas of thought, significant names, all of which have to be used by the mind and transcended. The mystic formula AUM represents the Brahman in three statuses, the Waking Self, the Dream Self, the Sleep Self and the whole potent sound rises to beyond the three states, the fourth of Turiya , of which all these are derivations of relative experience. The Self-disciplines of Integral Yoga ‘must be mainly spiritual and dependence on fixed psychic or psycho-physical process on large scale would be the substitution of a lower for a higher action.’² ⁷ All traditional Yoga proceeds in its method by three principles of practice; first, purification , that is to say, the removal of all aberrations, disorders, obstructions brought about by the mixed and irregular action of the energy of being in our physical, vital, moral, aesthetic, emotional, ethical and intellectual mind; secondly, concentration, that is to say, the bringing to its full intensity and the mastered and self-directed employment of that energy of being in us for a definite end; thirdly, liberation , that is to say, the release of our being from the narrow and painful knots of the individualised energy in a false and limited play, which at present are the law of our bound nature. Concentration has two necessities: the first is the one pointed concentration by fixing the will and thought on the Eternal and Real by turning the mind from dispersed movement of thought, running after many branching desires, led away in the track of the senses and the outward mental response to the phenomena; secondly, the inner, hidden and higher truth can only be seized by an absolute concentration of the mind and will on its object and, once attained, to hold it habitually and securely unite oneself with it. Rajayogic concentration is divided into four stages; (1) it commences with the drawing both the mind and senses from outward things, (2) proceeds to the holding of the one object of concentration to the exclusion of all other ideas and mental activities, (3) then to the prolonged absorption of the mind in this object, finally, (4) to the complete ingoing of the consciousness by which it is lost to all outward mental activity in the oneness of Samadhi . The concentration of Integral Yoga is divided into three stages; firstly, with the help of concentration we can know the secret behind anything or all things, but here we must use this power to know the one Thing-in itself, the Divine; secondly, by concentration the whole will can be gathered up for the acquisition of all that are still beyond us, this power in us can be sufficiently trained, single-minded, sufficiently sincere and faithful towards the acquisition of the One object worthy of pursuit; thirdly by concentration the mass of weakness, fear, perversion can become strength, courage, a great purity or a single universal soul of Love; we can then use this power to transcend above all things, above all attributes, and become the pure and absolute Being. Recapitulation: “This, the final aim of the ascetic Yoga which refuses life, is evidently not our aim (aim of Integral Yoga). By alternative choice we can have an activity perfect enough in outward appearance along with an entire inner passivity, peace, mental silence, indifference and cessation of the emotions, absence of choice in the will.”⁹ Sri Aurobindo “India had three fortress of a communal life, the village community, the larger joint family and the order of the Sannyasins ; all these are broken or breaking with the stride of egoistic conceptions of social life; but is not this after all only the breaking of these imperfect moulds on the way to a larger and diviner communism?”¹⁰ Sri Aurobindo “The real Tyaga is action with a renunciation of desire and that too is the real Sannyasa . ”¹⁷ Sri Aurobindo “The liberated worker who has given up his works by the inner sannyasa to a greater Power is free from Karma . Action he will do, for some kind of action, less or more, small or great, is inevitable, natural, right for the embodied soul, — action is part of the divine law of living, it is the high dynamics of the spirit. The essence of renunciation, the true Tyaga , the true Sannyasa is not any rule of thumb of inaction but a disinterested soul, a selfless mind, the transition from ego to the free impersonal and spiritual nature. The spirit of this inner renunciation is the first mental condition of the highest culminating sattwic discipline.”¹⁸ Sri Aurobindo “The true Sannyasa of action is the reposing of all works on the Brahman . “He who, having abandoned attachment, acts reposing (or founding) his works on the Brahman , brahmanyadhya karmani, is not stained by sin even as water clings not to the lotus-leaf.” Therefore the Yogins first “do works with the body, mind, understanding, or even merely with the organs of action, abandoning attachment, for self-purification, sangam tyaktva atmasuddhaye . By abandoning attachment to the fruits of works the soul in union with Brahman attains to peace of rapt foundation in Brahman , but the soul not in union is attached to the fruit and bound by the action of desire.”¹ ⁹ Sri Aurobindo "Renunciation is the way to this perfection and the man who has thus inwardly renounced all is described by the Gita as the true Sannyasin ."²⁶ Sri Aurobindo The above message hints that before the pressure of a Supramental energy, all the intermediate creations of village community, large and small family life and ascetic unfulfilled life will break and it will pave the passage clear for the Divine collectivity where each individual inmate will have direct contact with the Divine. He will be related with other individuals of the same community only with the Divine Consciousness, Love, Beauty, Peace, Silence and Joy. Savitri epic projects³⁰ Mundane perfection, Moderate Spirituality, Illusionists and Nirvanists as escapists and their truth as 'soul slaying' and recognises ancient Vedantic doctrine, which can resolve all problems of existence and its truth as 'Soul saving.' If humanity aspires to attain the highest state of Godhead, then he has to come across the rigorous training of The Mother’s intermediate station of the Ascetics’ Retreat. The central Truth of ascetic living is identified as Concentration, samyama , and the increase of concentration is related with increase of consecration of a Divine centre. Thus, Ascetics’ Fortress can rightly confront the compromise of insistent animalism of mundane and moderate living and give way to consecrated Spirituality of the Divine Centre. The importance of the Ascetics’ Fortress and its indispensability in the world has to be realised in its own realm of conquest of the Divine by renunciation of all lower and divided consciousness. Apart from the traditional ascetic’s recoil from physical life there is another exaggeration of belittling and degradation of both the individual and the universe and there is a natural consequence of cessation of both cosmos and individuality by attainment of the Transcendent. He is disgusted with the mud of the Matter, revolted by the animal grossness of Life, impatient of the self-imprisoned narrowness and downward vision of Mind. Integral Yoga of unity of Brahman avoids these divisions. Here, an Integral Ascetic need not give up bodily and mental life to attain the Spiritual experiences and preservation of individual activities are consistent with his comprehension of Cosmic Consciousness and his attainment of the Transcendent and Supracosmic reality. Similarly he has to exceed the traditional ascetic’s limitation (1) of saintly inactivity by dynamisation of Divine will and realise God as the Doer of all action who demands action from all; (2) the traditional ascetic’s realisation of God’s bright shadow or brief illumination in sainthood’s brilliant cell is to be substituted by the direct contact with the Divine All; (3) the integral Ascetic will not reject the life of the world but attain the fullness of surrender by accepting, uplifting and transforming life; his realisation involves a complete and absolute recognition of his unity and oneness with man; (4) and he regards the world not as an invention of the devil or a self-delusion of the Soul, but as a partial manifestation of the Divine and he will realise the fullness of Divine Love by integrating the Personal and Impersonal aspects of the Divine. (5) Sri Aurobindo has pointed out, "Every ascetic movement since the time of Buddha has left India weaker and for a very obvious reason . Renunciation of life is one thing, to make life itself, national, individual, world-life greater & more divine is another. You cannot enforce one ideal on the country without weakening the other. You cannot take away the best souls from life & yet leave life stronger & greater. Renunciation of ego, acceptance of God in life is the Yoga I teach, — no other renunciation."²⁹ The best and intense figure of sainthood clamped in rigid hieratic lines is not the ideal of an integral Ascetic and he enters a larger Psychic and Spiritual relation with World, Self and God, more deep and plastic in its essence, more wide and all-embracing action in its movements, awakens himself towards streams of diamond light, glimpses the presence of the One and the extension of his liberty and its results in others and ultimately complete generalisation in mankind would be the inevitable outcome as well as the broadest utility of his liberation and perfection. OM TAT SAT References: 1: SABCL-26/On Himself/p-130, 2: CWSA-21/The Life Divine/p-27, 3: CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-573-74, 4: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-28-29, 5: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-5, 6: CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-617, 7: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-166, 8: CWSA-22/The Life Divine/p-1096, 9: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-403, 10: SABCL-17/The Hour of God/p-118, 11: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-46, 12: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-57, 13: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-315, 14: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-223, 15: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-87, 16: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-27, 17: CWSA-19/Essays on the Gita/p-494 , 18: CWSA-19/Essays on the Gita/p-497, 19: CWSA-19/Essays on the Gita/p-185, 20: “One must first find one’s soul, this is absolutely indispensable, and identify oneself with it. Later one can come to the transformation. Sri Aurobindo has written somewhere: “Our Yoga begins where the others end.” Usually yoga leads precisely to this identification, this union with the Divine — that is why it is called “yoga”. And when people reach this, well, they are at the end of their path and are satisfied. But Sri Aurobindo has written: we begin when they finish; you have found the Divine but instead of sitting down in contemplation and waiting for the Divine to take you out of your body which has become useless, on the contrary, with this consciousness you turn to the body and to life and begin the work of transformation — which is very hard labour. It’s here that he compares it with cutting one’s way through a virgin forest; because as nobody has done it before, one must make one’s path where there was none. But to try to do this without having the indispensable directive of the union with the Divine within, within one’s soul, is childishness.” TMCW-7/Questions and Answers-1955/p-350-351, 21: Savitri-701, 22: Savitri-720, 23: “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.” The Mother's Centenary Works (second edition)/Vol-10/p-15, 24: "Nevertheless, there is somewhere an absolute control , a real Ishwara. He is aware of it and knows that if he can find it, he will enter into control, become not only the passive sanctioning witness and upholding soul of her will, but the free powerful user and determiner of her movements. But this control seems to belong to another poise than the mentality. Sometimes he finds himself using it, but as a channel or instrument; it comes to him from above. It is clear then that it is supramental, a power of the Spirit greater than mental being which he already knows himself to be at the summit and in the secret core of his conscious being. To enter into identity with that Spirit must then be his way to control and lordship. He can do it passively by a sort of reflection and receiving in his mental consciousness, but then he is only a mould, channel or instrument, not a possessor or participant in the power. He can arrive at identity by an absorption of his mentality in inner spiritual being, but then the conscious action ceases in a trance of identity. To be active master of the nature he must evidently rise to some higher supramental poise where there is possible not only a passive, but an active identity with the controlling spirit. To find the way of rising to this greater poise and be self-ruler, Swarat, is a condition of his perfection." CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-637-638, 25: "There are successive curves, each second of which would have to be noted down; and in the course of one of these curves, something is suddenly found. For example, at the beginning of The Yoga of Self-Perfection, Sri Aurobindo reviews other yogas, beginning with Hatha Yoga. I had just translated this when I remembered Sri Aurobindo saying that Hatha Yoga was very effective but that it amounted to spending your whole life training your body, which is an enormous time and effort spent on something not essentially very interesting. Then I ‘looked’ at it and said to myself, ‘But after all,’ (I was looking at life as it is, as people ordinarily live it) ‘one spends at least 90% of one’s life merely to PRESERVE one’s body, to keep it going! All this attention and concentration on an instrument which is put to hardly any use.’ Anyway, I was looking at it with that attitude, when suddenly all the cells of my body responded, in such a spontaneous and WARM way.... How to say it? Something so ... so moving. They told me, ‘But it’s the Lord who is looking after Himself in us!’ Each one was saying: ‘But it’s the Lord who is looking after Himself in us!’" The Mother's Agenda/May 19, 1961, 26: CWSA-19/Essays on the Gita/p-530, 27: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-542, 28: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-56, 29: CWSA-36/Autobiographical Notes/p-222, "In The Synthesis of Yoga , Sri Aurobindo says that this idea of good and bad, of pure and impure, is a notion needed for action; but the purists, such as Chaitanya, Ramakrishna and others, do not agree. They do not agree that it is indispensable for action. They simply say: your acceptance of action as a necessary thing is contrary to your perception of the Divine in all things. (Q): How can the two be reconciled? I recall that once I tried to speak of this, but no one followed me, no one understood, so I did not insist. I left it open and never pursued it further, for they could not decipher anything or find any meaning in what I was saying. But now I could give a very simple answer: Let the Supreme do the work. It is He who has to progress, not you! (Q): Ramdas does not at all consider that the world as it is, is good. No, but I know all these people, I know them thoroughly! I know Chaitanya, Ramakrishna and Ramdas thoroughly. They are utterly familiar to me. It doesn’t bother them. These are people who live with a certain feeling, who have an entirely concrete experience and live in this experience, but they don’t care at all if their formation – they have not even crystallized it, they leave it like that, vague – contains things that are mutually contradictory, because, in appearance, they reconcile them. They do not raise any questions, they do not have the need for an absolutely clear vision ; their feeling is absolutely clear, and that’s enough for them. Ramakrishna was like that; he said the most contradictory things without being bothered in the least, and they are all exactly and equally true...But this crystal clear vision Sri Aurobindo had, where everything is in its place, where contradictions no longer exist – they never soared to that height. This was the thing, this really crystalline, perfect supramental vision, even from the standpoint of understanding and knowledge. They never went that far." The Mother's Agenda/June 22, 1958, “Sri Aurobindo shows us that one can be an ascetic by preference and not out of abnegation (or renunciation); and so he makes us understand that to be a servant of the Lord and to act only according to His will is a far higher state than any personal choice, no matter how saintly it may seem. ” The Mother/The Mother’s Centenary Works (second edition)/Vol-10/p-300 30: “I think Sri Aurobindo deliberately made this Death very vulgar to discourage all the Illusionists and Nirvanists.” The Mother/The Mother’s Agenda-6/164, (Death said) “But Mind, a glorious traveller in the sky, Walks lamely on the earth with footsteps slow; Hardly he can mould the life’s rebellious stuff, Hardly can he hold the galloping hooves of sense:” Savitri-615 (Mundane personality of Death) Death said to Para-prakriti Savitri: “What knowst thou of earth’s rich and changing life Who thinkst that one man dead all joy must cease? Hope not to be unhappy till the end: For grief dies soon in the tired human heart; Soon other guests (human admirers) the empty chambers fill.” Savitri-637, (Moderate persanality of Death) (Death said) “If thou desirest immortality, Be then alone sufficient to thy soul: Live in thyself; forget the man thou lov’st. My last grand death shall rescue thee from life; Then shalt thou rise into thy unmoved source.” Savitri-594 (Ascetic personality of Death) 31: “Ascetic methods are things like repeated fasting , compelling yourself to endure the cold...in fact, to torture your body a little. This indeed gives you only a spiritual pride, nothing more. It masters nothing at all. It is infinitely easier. People do it because it is very easy, it is simple. Just because the pride is quite satisfied and the vanity can get puffed up, it becomes very easy. One makes a great demonstration of his ascetic virtues, and so considers himself an extremely important personage, that helps him to endure many things.” The Mother/TMCW/6/428-429, “ Prolonged fasting may lead to an excitation of the nervous being which often brings vivid imaginations and hallucinations that are taken for true experiences; such fasting is frequently suggested by the vital Entities because it puts the consciousness into an unbalanced state which favours their designs. It is therefore discouraged here. The rule to be followed is that laid down by the Gita which says that “Yoga is not for one who eats too much or who does not eat”; a moderate use of food sufficient for the maintenance and health and strength of the body.” Sri Aurobindo/ CWSA-28/Letters on Yoga-I-575-576, “But fasting i s above all good for those who believe in it — as everything. When you have the faith that this will make you progress, is going to purify you, it does you good. If you don’t believe in it, it doesn’t do much, except that it makes you thin.” The Mother/TMCW-7/Questions and Answers-1955/p-62, “To make your sadhana depend upon not eating is to make a great mistake. When people fast like that, they get into an abnormal condition and can easily mistake imaginations and delusions for true experiences. Much fasting in the end weakens the nervous system. So you must drop this habit of not eating for days together. For Yoga it is a mistake to eat too much but a mistake also to eat nothing or too little. If you eat too much, you become heavy and tamasic; if you fast or eat too little, you excite the vital energies and finally overexcite them, but at the same time you weaken the body and the nerves; both are bad for sadhana. You should eat regularly a moderate but sufficient amount of food; it is only if there is illness or disturbance of digestion that a low diet or not eating sometimes becomes necessary, but fasting even for the purpose of resting the stomach should not last more than a day… For your sadhana you have to use, not outward means like this , but quietness, sincere peaceful aspiration, openness to the Mother.” CWSA-31/Letters on Yoga-IV/p-430-431, “The spiritual seeker often, like the Jain ascetics, seeks refuge in long and frequent fasts which lift him temporarily at least out of the clutch of the body’s demands and help him to feel in himself a pure vacancy of the wide rooms of the spirit. But all this is not liberation and the question may be raised whether, not only at first but always, the divine life also must submit to this necessity. But it could only deliver itself from it altogether if it could find out the way so to draw upon the universal energy that the energy would sustain not only the vital parts of our physicality but its constituent matter with no need of aid for sustenance from any outside substance of Matter. It is indeed possible even while fasting for very long periods to maintain the full energies and activities of the soul and mind and life, even those of the body, to remain wakeful but concentrated in Yoga all the time, or to think deeply and write day and night, to dispense with sleep, to walk eight hours a day, maintaining all these activities separately or together, and not feel any loss of strength, any fatigue, any kind of failure or decadence. At the end of the fast one can even resume at once taking the normal or even a greater than the normal amount of nourishment without any transition or precaution such as medical science enjoins, as if both the complete fasting and the feasting were natural conditions, alternating by an immediate and easy passage from one to the other, of a body already trained by a sort of initial transformation to be an instrument of the powers and activities of Yoga.” CWSA-13/ Essays in Philosophy and Yoga/p-544-545, 32: "That equality, impersonality, peace, joy, freedom do not depend on so outward a thing as doing or not doing works. The Gita insists repeatedly on the difference between the inward and the outward renunciation, tyaga and sannyasa. The latter, it says, is valueless without the former, hardly possible even to attain without it, and unnecessary when there is the inward freedom. In fact tyaga itself is the real and sufficient Sannyasa. “He should be known as the eternal Sannyasin who neither hates nor desires; free from the dualities he is happily and easily released from all bondage.” (The Gita-5.3) The painful process of outward Sannyasa, duhkham aptum, (The Gita-5.6) is an unnecessary process." CWSA-19/Essays on the Gita/p-184-185, 33: "Then someone came.... There are symbolic people in these "dreams"; they seem to be made up of various parts of the beings of those around me, people who have a particular relationship with me and bring a particular help to the Work. They are symbolic characters and always the same: one of them is tall and thin, some are small, there are young ones, old ones.... I can't say it's this person or that person, but rather that something IN this or that person is represented in these characters. And one of them is like a "big brother" – he helps out in certain circumstances; if there's a boat, for instance, the big brother steers it. So he came up to me and said, "Yes, I know the method," and began to try. "Stop, for heaven's sake!" I said. "You'll spoil everything; to make it work I have to say: I WANT TO GO THERE. When he began trying to bring me across with his own methods, the water grew muddy again and I started to sink!" No no no!" I protested. "Don't do that, that's not it at all! THAT has to ..." (although I wasn't formulating it to myself, what I meant was the sense of a certain higher Will) "THAT has to say: I WANT TO GO THERE; then it works." After that, the experience changed, other things happened. But what I have just related is certainly part and parcel of that experience the other day [the two rooms, one inside the other], because the two were coexistent. And the water was so real! The experience was so real that I could feel the coolness of the water; I had the pleasant sensation of sitting on something very soft and cool and swift, carrying me along. It must be part of the same series of experiences. And I know I was in a state of knowledge, because I suddenly knew who certain people here – people I have known for a very, very long time – were the reincarnations of (I had never tried to find that out, it just came). I was almost calling them by their former names.... Yes, a special state, a state of knowledge – but not spiritual knowledge: a knowledge related to the material world. In such visions, water always represents the vital. When everything is harmonious with the water, it means the vital is harmonious. It was delightful (it happened around 1:30 in the afternoon): sitting on the water the way you would sit on a chair! And the water was so clear, crystal clear, transparent, rippled with tiny waves; the depths were dark blue, but the surface was perfectly clear, transparent, almost colorless. Then when the "big brother" came, boasting that he knew how to do it too, and would take me across, the water began to get muddy, as river water always is – a dirty grayish yellow. It must be the continuation of that experience the other day. I was beginning to find the key. (Q) What does this "big brother" represent? Material knowledge, I think – I mean the higher use of the physical mind, which keeps you from entering the true room.95 Because I simply kept repeating, "I have to say: I WANT TO GO THERE ..." (in other words, it was a crystal clear, imperative will coming from the highest level) ... "I have to say: I WANT TO GO – not that, not your methods!" (Mother laughs.)" The Mother's Agenda/June 2, 1962, Download this WEB PAGE in PDF format: “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 Sri Aurobindo CWSA-32/The Mother and Letters on the Mother-142-143 “A long, difficult stage of constant effort, energism, austerity of the personal will, tapasya has ordinarily to be traversed before a more decisive stage can be reached in which a state of self-giving of all the being to the Supreme and the Supreme Nature can become total and absolute.” Sri Aurobindo CWSA-22/The Life Divine/p-963-964 "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

This poetry book “Tattvamasi” is the "Song of Soul..." of S. A. Maa Krishna and parts aside the veil slightly to give a brief glimpse of her intense Sadhana and of her Soul’s triple union of the Divine in Supra-Physical, Supra-Terrestrial and Supra-Cosmic planes. The Seeker will be able to identify that all the personal relationships with the Divine as Play-mate, Friend, Master, Mother, Lover and Beloved have been experienced. In it stands the realisation of the Divine as the Impersonal and Absolute Brahman as well as the child in the lap of his Mother to the union with the Supreme as the Beloved. The poems voice the integral aspiration of the Soul within each of us and marks the journey to experience the Individual, Cosmic and Transcendent Divine that awaits us all as we plunge into the Yoga of the Lord Sri Aurobindo and the Divine Mother. To read, contemplate and meditate in the atmosphere of this book will allow the Sadhaka to be open to the transformative higher Consciousness of the Divine Mother that descends, purifies and spreads within all.

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

Ashram News "All ocean lived within a wandering drop," Savitri-101 Flower Offering on 27th October 2026 Past Editions "If the chamber’s door is even a little ajar, What then can hinder God from stealing in Or who forbid his kiss on the sleeping soul? Already God is near, the Truth is close:" Savitri-649 “A Power into mind’s inner chamber steal , A charm and sweetness open life’s closed doors And beauty conquer the resisting world, The Truth-Light capture Nature by surprise, A stealth of God compel the heart to bliss And earth grow unexpectedly divine." Savitri-45 November 2025 “Even when we fail to look into our souls Or lie embedded in earthly consciousness, Still have we parts that grow towards the light, Yet are there luminous tracts and heavens serene And Eldorados of splendour and ecstasy And temples to the godhead none can see.” Savitri-46-47 “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 October 2025 "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." Savitri-170 “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 December 2025 Announcements 10 October 2026 (Question asked to ChatGPT.): For pursuing Sri Aurobindo's Integral Yoga, which three websites you recommend that can provide help? 19 October 2026 (Question asked to Google's AI Assistant): Will you kindly make an honest study and confirm whether ChatGPT has rightly assessed the view for Integral Yoga seekers? 21 October 2026 Bonne Fete Saswati Announcement 1: Sri Matriniketan Ashram Silver Jublee, 01.02.2028 Proposed 115th issue of The Descent on 01.02.2028 in the link : Earth_spiritual_history | Matriniketanashram Updated Contact page: link: CONTACT | Matriniketanashram “If you want to know what is really happening in the world, you should not read newspapers of any sort, for they are full of lies." “To read a newspaper is to take part in the greatest collective falsehoods.” The Mother TMCW-17/More Answers from the Mother/p-323 “One drop of truth is worth more than an ocean of false information.” The Mother TMCW-14/Words of the Mother-II/p-201 (Integral Yoga proposes that ordinary life can be transformed into Divine life by rejecting the former. Those who attempt to reconcile ordinary life with Divine life, waste their valuable time. The above message hints that those who see entertainment and news channels in the popular net service afflict life with inferiority and are far from becoming instruments of Truth.) “Question by a disciple: Z told me that if I had no time to read newspapers, I should at least glance at them. I asked him, “Is it a law that we must read newspapers?” He answered, “I have to know what is going on in the world too; I am not a sannyasi.” Answer given by The Mother: I am not a sannyasi and I never read a newspaper! ... I don’t have time for it. It is difficult to read newspapers without having the consciousness descend to a very ordinary level. Only when the consciousness is firmly established in union with the Divine is it possible to read newspapers without any risk of falling into a lower consciousness.” The Mother TMCW-17/P-19, 5 December 1933 "Sweet Mother, How can we know the truth of the facts when reading newspapers? What is the best way of knowing the truth of the world? The best way is to find the truth in ourselves — then we shall be able to see the Truth wherever it is.... Blessings." The Mother TMCW-16/Some Answers from the Mother/P-419, “Rules like these [not reading newspapers, eating a fixed diet, keeping only a few things] are intended to help the vital and physical to come under the discipline of sadhana and not get dispersed in fancies, impulses, self-indulgences; but they must be done simply, not with any sense of superiority or ascetic pride, but as a mere matter of course. It is true also that they can be made the occasion of a too great mental rigidity — as if they were things of supreme importance in themselves and not only a means. Put in their right place and done in the right spirit, they can be very helpful for their purpose.” Sri Aurobindo CWSA-29/Letters on Yoga-II/p-383, “If one is always in the inner consciousness, then one can be not dispersed even when doing outward things — or if one is conscious of the Divine at all times and in all one does, then also can one read newspapers or do much correspondence without dispersion. But even then though there is not dispersion, yet there is less intensity of consciousness when reading a newspaper or writing a letter than when one is not putting part of oneself into quite external things. It is only when the consciousness is quite siddha that there is not even this difference. That does not mean one should not do external things at all, for then one gets no training in joining the two consciousnesses.” Sri Aurobindo CWSA-31/Letters on Yoga-IV/p-324-325

“But the difficulty is to find the “some one” who knows Sri Aurobindo thoroughly…(and subsequently) who is capable of receiving His inspirations directly…capable of understanding Sri Aurobindo’s inspiration and transmitting it…and has at the same time very strong character… (and if possible) to have His genius… For years I have been looking for that man, without finding him.” The Mother The Mother’s Agenda-8/175, The Mother’s Agenda-2/206, “If you really want to please Me (I believe you do!),… concentrate on the book on Sri Aurobindo —you can’t imagine how much I am interested! And as I LOOK, I see into the future (not with this little consciousness), I see that it’s a thing of GREAT importance. It will have a great action. So, I want to clear the way for you now, for us to have time.” The Mother The Mother’s Agenda-2/156 "As for reading the works of Sri Aurobindo , it opens the door of the future to us.” The Mother TMCW-12/On Education/p-214 Read More Integral Yoga in Brief “For in a Yoga which embraces all life completely and without reserve, the full use of Samadhi comes only when its gains can be made the normal possession and experience for an integral waking of the embodied soul in the human being.” Sri Aurobindo CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-526-527 “The reason is that the old Yogins when they went above the spiritual mind passed into samadhi, which means that they did not attempt to be conscious in these higher planes — their aim being to pass away into the Superconscient and not to bring the Superconscient into the waking consciousness, which is that of my Yoga .” Sri Aurobindo CWSA-35/Letters on Himself and the Ashram/p-286 Integral Yoga is neither a popular Religion nor a popular Yoga, but this specialised Yoga is meant for destined Souls, those who are linked with it from past births. "It is not therefore important that the mission should be widespread." (CWSA-28/Letters on Yoga-I/p-288) Its mission is 'to call back the souls of the strong to the Lila of Krishna & Kali. ' (CWSA-36/ Autobiographical Note/p-222) Sri Aurobindo pointed out that, “Buddhism only became a popular religion when Buddha had taken the place of the supreme Deity as an object of worship.” (CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga-556) The Mother pointed out that “The Divinity mentioned by Sri Aurobindo is NOT A PERSON, but a condition to be shared and lived by all those who prepare themselves for it." (TMCW-15/Words of The Mother-III/p-104) Here in this Yoga, All Life is ceaseless Divine Union by ceaseless renunciation of lower Nature, ceaseless rigorous self-control, ceaseless remembrance of the highest Divine, ceaseless consecrated action and ceaseless descent of Divine Force. Integral Yoga proposes rigorous self-control of the body by Integral Physical Education , rigorous Self-control of the Psychic Prana by Integral Vital Education , and rigorous Self-control of the Intellect by Integral Mental Education . It also includes and enforces Psychic Education , Spiritual Education , Universal Education , Supramental Education , Bliss Self Education , Subconscient Education and Inconscient Education in its scope. Integral Yoga proposes to utilise the smallest work, the tiniest thought, the smallest and the most fragile human love, the present moment, the present space of habitation, as a means of the highest descent of Divine Will, Divine Wisdom, Divine Love, and Divine Force or " Insignificant her means, infinite her work" (Savitri-178). It recognises that all the external events are transient and short-lived phenomena, but are necessary for new manifestation and can be utilised as a means of the highest Divine union. “Even the youngest child-thought of the mind Incarnated some touch of highest things.” (Savitri-328) Integral Yoga begins after the opening of either the Psychic being in the heart centre or a Spiritual being above the head through the double movement of rigorous Self-control by the rejection of lower Nature and complete surrender by Purusha and Prakriti Yajna . The Spiritual being opens first by Vedantic Sacrifice of Karma, Jnana and Bhakti Yoga by pacification of volitional, intellectual and emotional mind respectively and after the Spiritual being is opened, by its descent as Shakti, the Psychic being opens. The Psychic being opens first by Vedic sacrifice of Tantra, Hatha and Raja Yoga by activation of the mind or by Psycho-physical self-discipline and concentration in the lotus of the heart. After the Psychic being is opened, by its ascent the Spiritual being opens. Integral Yoga identifies that Vedantic sacrifice/Purusha Yajna is safe for beginners of Yoga/developing Souls and Vedic sacrifice/Prakriti Yajna is safe for those who have pursued Yoga rigorously in past births or for twice-born Souls who live in waking trance. First opening of the Psychic being is considered unsafe due to the presence of the desire Soul surrounding it. In Integral Yoga, the Psychic Heart Centre is given more importance than the more superior Spiritual Being and the most superior Supramental Being. For transformation action, the Psychic being is Spiritualised and Supramentalised. Here, The Mother and Sri Aurobindo are the symbols of the comprehensive movement of Consciousness and the physical embodiment of the Divine. If a Sadhaka is more open towards Sri Aurobindo through intellect, then his Spiritual being will open first. If he is more open towards the Mother in the heart, then his Psychic being will open first. Sri Aurobindo proposes, “For the opening of the psychic being, concentration on the Mother and self-offering to her are the direct way.”⁴³ And He further proposes that if one has relatively pure vital Nature, then “it is perhaps the safest to open by concentration the heart-lotus first so as to have the psychic influence from the beginning.”⁴³ In integral Yoga, Consciousness is moved between Psychic and Spiritual planes by activating both Purusha and Prakriti Yajna and by this movement, the gulfs in the intermediate plane of consciousness are rent and a passage is made by which the highest Consciousness can move freely between Bliss/Supramental Self and Inconscient/Subconscient Self. In this Yoga ten sheaths or Koshas are purified, transformed and perfected by the pressure of ten Selves known as Inconscient, Subconscient, true physical, true vital, true mental, Psychic, Spiritual, Universal, Supramental and Bliss Self. This Yoga asks the waking mind/Intellect to be entirely Spiritualised and even in the waking state ‘the enlarging man is able to live in his several subtle bodies as well as in his physical body, to be aware of them and in them, to use their senses, faculties, powers, to dwell in possession of supra-physical truth, consciousness and experience.’³³ 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 purification and 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. ("Heaven’s leaning down to embrace from all sides earth," Savitri-716, “It (dynamic Spirit) is within, below, without, above.” Savitri-98) This descent of Divine Force from four higher Selves above the head to six lower Sheaths below the head and ‘the emergence of the concealed supramental force’³² in all the ten Selves are the normal state of the greatest integral Yogi, yoginam api sarvesam ,¹⁴ and the highest secret, rahasyam uttamam, ¹⁵ manifested in normal human life. 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’³⁴ 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’³⁵ or opening of Inconscient Self is identified as ‘last and mightiest transformation.’³⁶ 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 cells receive 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.’³⁷ 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’³⁸ 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 vigorously from within the ten Selves and most vigorously from below the feet by the opening of Subconscient and Inconscient Selves. Yogic trance is the aim of most traditional Yoga, which is an escape from waking existence into higher/highest Consciousness, but in integral Yoga, Yogic trance is a means, not an aim, of enlarging and raising the whole seeing and living into active and waking consciousness. The double utility of trance in integral Yoga is that (1) through entry into Samadh i, Spiritual experiences can be heightened in their range and intensities in all the above ten Selves and (2) the height of Spiritual experience attained can ‘be brought as much as possible into the waking consciousness.’³⁹ The full use and benefit of Samadhi are gained when it becomes a normally possessed movement of consciousness in a waking trance. OM TAT SAT References are available in the Manuscript ‘The Bhagavad Gita and Integral Yoga ’ (page 453) Download this WEB PAGE as a PDF file: The Practice of Integral Yoga Integral Yoga in Detail “Sri Aurobindo had already realised in full two of the four great reali s ations on which his Yoga and his spiritual philosophy are founded. (1) The first he had gained while meditating with the Maharastrian Yogi Vishnu Bhaskar Lele at Boroda in 1908; it was the realisation of the silent spaceless and timeless Brahman gained after a complete and abiding stillness of the whole consciousness and attended at first by an overwhelming feeling and perception of the total unreality of the world, though this feeling was disappeared after his (2) second realization which was that of the cosmic consciousness and of the Divine as all beings and all that is, which happened in the Allipore jail and of which he has spoken in his speech at Uttarapara . To the other two realisations, (3) that of the supreme Reality with the static and dynamic Brahman as its two aspects and (4) that of the higher planes of consciousness leading to the Supermind he was already on his way in his meditations in the Alipore jail .” Sri Aurobindo SABCL/Vol-26/p-64 CWSA-36/Autobiographical Notes/p-94 , Read More Mind Map of Integral Yoga Mind map is a creation of scientific mind regarding which Sri Aurobindo wrote, "Yes, the scientific mind does not lead very far [in spiritual life]; it only multiplies experiences but brings neither the realisation, nor the knowledge.” CWSA-31/ Letters on Yoga-IV/p-75 "A map of subtle signs surpassing thought Was hung upon a wall of inmost mind." Savitri-88 "Man’s eyes could look into the inner realms; His scrutiny discovered number’s law And organised the motions of the stars, Mapped out the visible fashioning of the world, Questioned the process of his thoughts or made A theorised diagram of mind and life. " "Savitri-361 Handbook Handbook1&2 of The Synthesis of Yoga Handbook 1 & 2 of The Life Divine Handbook 1 & 2 of The Mother Handbooks 1&2 of Savitri (The above eight Handbooks partly fulfill The Mother's requirement that those who want to do Her work must have a thorough knowledge of Sri Aurobindo . A thorough knowledge on The Mother and Sri Aurobindo can be gained from within by development of sevenfold concentrations and from without by extensive study and practice of Their Teachings.) The Life Divine in brief Central Truth of Integral Yoga Satyavan's Yoga Savitri's Yoga The Central Truth of Savitri or The Divine Love The Integral Yoga & Sanatana Dharma Changing of the (Finite) world with the Tune of the Infinite The Mother's children are ready for Cellular Transformation The Earth's future and injunction issued to the Sadhaka of Integral Yoga Tracing the Root formula of Divine Life Main Formula of Integral Yoga Six elements of Perfection Central Truth of Divine Life Central Truth of Integral Education The Bhagavad Gita and Integral Yoga The Spiritual History of Earth Savitri Summery (webpage) "Yoga develops power, it develops it even when we do not desire or consciously aim at it; and power is always a double-edged weapon which can be used to hurt or destroy as well as to help and save. Be it also noted that all destruction is not evil." Sri Aurobindo CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-300 “Intellectually, I don’t at all believe in taking others’ misfortunes upon oneself- that’s childish. But certain vibrations in the world must be accepted, exhausted and transformed. Inwardly, that’s the work I have been doing all my life- consciously, gloriously. But now it’s on a purely physical level, independent of all the realities of other worlds: it is in the body, you see. And this has given me a key, one of the necessary keys to the Work .” The Mother The Mother’s Agenda/Vol-3/p-303 The Synthesis of Yoga book proposes that all written truth and living Spiritual teachers are partial guides and secure effective narrow practice respectively. In the life of a twice-born Soul, their presence is reinforced and complemented by awakening the ‘the eternal Veda secret in the heart of every man’ and awakening of the inner Guru , Jagad Guru and Supreme Guru who dwells in his universalised Psychic heart centre. Or his heart's worship is extended either " to the divine Teacher within (Primary Source) or to the human Master (Secondary Source) in whom the divine Wisdom is embodied,... " Savitri book proposes that the Psychic being in the heart centre is greater than God and Guru and it can change individual and collective destiny. (Refer: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-57, 55, 61, CWSA-19/Essays on the Gita/p-415, Savitri-375) “Meanwhile certain general lines have to be formed which may help to guide the thought and practice of the sadhaka . But these must take as much as possible the form of general truths, general statements of principle, the most powerful broad directions of effort and development rather than a fixed system which has to be followed as a routine. All Shastra is the outcome of past experience and a help to future experience. It is an aid and a partial guide. It puts up signposts, gives the names of the main roads and the already explored directions, so that the traveller may know whither and by what paths he is proceeding." Sri Aurobindo CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-57

“In transparent systems bodied termless truths, The Timeless made accountable to Time” Savitri-273 Accountability in Sadhana “The ordinary man who wishes to reach God through knowledge, must undergo an elaborate training. He must begin by becoming absolutely pure, he must cleanse thoroughly his body, his heart and his intellect, he must get himself a new heart and be born again; for only the twice born can understand or teach the Vedas . When he has done this he needs yet four things before he can succeed, (1) the Sruti or recorded revelation, (2) the Sacred Teacher, (3) the practice of Yoga and (4) the Grace of God.” Sri Aurobindo CWSA-18/Kena and other Upanishads/p-169 (We have divided accountability in Sadhana into nine parts. 1: Sri Aurobindo’s Accountability of His own Sadhana : 2: The Mother’s Accountability of Her own Sadhana : 3: The Mother’s accountability of Sadhana after Sri Aurobindo's earthly departure of body: 4: The Mother's Account on The Synthesis of Yoga : 5: Accountability of a Sadhaka of Integral Yoga: 6: Instructions issued to a Sadhaka in The Synthesis of Yoga: 7: The Difficult Task given to a Sadhaka of The Synthesis of Yoga : 8: The more Difficult task given to a Sadhaka of The Synthesis of Yoga : 9: The Most Difficult Task for a Sadhaka of The Synthesis of Yoga : ) " Be honest towards yourself — (no self-deception). Be sincere towards the Divine — (no bargaining in the surrender). Be straightforward with humanity — (no pretence and show)." The Mother TMCW/The Words of the Mother-II/p-70 “But whatever his (Sadhaka’s) aim, however exalted his aspiration, he has to begin from the law of his present imperfection, to take full account of it and see how it can be converted to the law of a possible perfection.” Sri Aurobindo CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-631, “Each time you have to make progress, you have to undergo an examination.” The Mother TMCW-14/Words of the Mother-II/p-43, Accountability in Sadhana “She (life) wrote the account of all that she had lost,” Savitri-117 (Accountability to the Self.) “The Voice replied: “Is this enough, O spirit? And what shall thy soul say when it wakes and knows The work was left undone for which it came? Or is this all for thy being born on earth Charged with a mandate from eternity, A listener to the voices of the years, A follower of the footprints of the gods, To pass and leave unchanged the old dusty laws?” Savitri-475 (Accountability to the Self) “To account for the Actual’s unaccountable sum,” Savitri-269 (Accountability to the Divine) “Is this then the report that I must make, My head bowed with shame before the Eternal’s seat, — His power he kindled in thy body has failed, His labourer returns, her task undone?” Savitri-476 (Accountability to the Divine.) “And in the transactions of our positive consciousness, even Unity has to make its account with Multiplicity; for the Many also are Brahman.” CWSA/21/The Life Divine-39 (Accountability to the world) “In transparent systems bodied termless truths, The Timeless made accountable to Time” Savitri-273, “He (Avatar) has given his life and light to balance here The dark account of mortal ignorance… Pays with the body’s death his soul’s vast light… He dies that the world may be new-born and live.” Savitri-445-447 (An Avatar’s accountability to the world.) “We must fill the immense lacuna we have made,” Savitri-56 “To work for your perfection, the first step is to become conscious of yourself, of the different parts of your being and their respective activities. You must learn to distinguish these different parts one from another, so that you may become clearly aware of the origin of the movements that occur in you, the many impulses, reactions and conflicting wills that drive you to action. It is an assiduous study which demands much perseverance and sincerity. For man’s nature, especially his mental nature, has a spontaneous tendency to give a favourable explanation for everything he thinks, feels, says and does. It is only by observing these movements with great care, by bringing them, as it were, before the tribunal of our highest ideal, with a sincere will to submit to its judgment, that we can hope to form in ourselves a discernment that never errs. For if we truly want to progress and acquire the capacity of knowing the truth of our being, that is to say, what we are truly created for, what we can call our mission upon earth, then we must, in a very regular and constant manner, reject from us or eliminate in us whatever contradicts the truth of our existence, whatever is opposed to it. I n this way, little by little, all the parts, all the elements of our being can be organised into a homogeneous whole around our psychic centre. This work of unification requires much time to be brought to some degree of perfection. Therefore, in order to accomplish it, we must arm ourselves with patience and endurance, with a determination to prolong our life as long as necessary for the success of our endeavour.” The Mother/TMCW-12/On Education/p-3-4, “A mass of new material is flowing into us; we have not only to assimilate the influences of the great theistic religions of India and of the world and a recovered sense of the meaning of Buddhism , but to take full account of the potent though limited revelations of modern knowledge and seeking; and, beyond that, the remote and dateless past which seemed to be dead is returning upon us with an effulgence of many luminous secrets long lost to the consciousness of mankind but now breaking out again from behind the veil.” CWSA-19/Essays on the Gita/p-10, “I regard the spiritual history of mankind and especially of India as a constant development of a divine purpose, not a book that is closed, the lines of which have to be constantly repeated. Even the Upanishads and the Gita were not final though everything may be there in seed. In this development the recent spiritual history of India is a very important stage and the names I mentioned [Ramakrishna and Vivekananda] had a special prominence in my thought at the time — they seemed to me to indicate the lines from which the future spiritual development had most directly to proceed, not staying but passing on. I do not know that I would put my meaning exactly in the language you suggest. I may say that it is far from my purpose to propagate any religion new or old for humanity in the future. A way to be opened that is still blocked, not a religion to be founded, is my conception of the matter.” CWSA-28/Letters on Yoga-I/p-411, “So each one must find those activities which increase his aspiration, his consciousness, his deeper knowledge of things, and those which, on the contrary, mechanise him and bring him back more thoroughly into a purely material relation with things.” TMCW-8/Questions and Answers-1956/p-159, “But he (Sadhaka) has to take account of the world and its activities , learn what divine truth there may be behind them and reconcile that apparent opposition between the Divine Truth and the manifest creation which is the starting-point of most spiritual experience.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-119, “The mind therefore must try to give to itself some account of this decisive transformation of the embodied consciousness, this radiant transfiguration and self-exceeding of our ever aspiring nature. The description mind can arrive at, can never be adequate to the thing itself, but it may point at least to some indicative shadow of it or perhaps some half-luminous image.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-474, “As in Science, so in metaphysical thought, that general and ultimate solution is likely to be the best which includes and accounts for all so that each truth of experience takes its place in the whole: that knowledge is likely to be the highest knowledge which illumines, integralises, harmonises the significance of all knowledge and accounts for , finds the basic and, one might almost say, the justifying reason of our ignorance and illusion while it cures them; this is the supreme experience which gathers together all experience in the truth of a supreme and all-reconciling oneness. Illusionism unifies by elimination; it deprives all knowledge and experience, except the one supreme merger, of reality and significance.” CWSA-21/The Life Divine/p-485, “He (Death) said, “Art thou indeed so strong, O heart, O soul, so free? And canst thou gather then Bright pleasure from my wayside flowering boughs, Yet falter not from thy hard journey’s goal, Meet the world’s dangerous touch and never fall? Show me thy strength and freedom from my laws.” Savitri-636 (Accountability demanded by the Death God.) (Death said) “So prove thy absolute force to the wise gods, By choosing earthly joy! For self demand And yet from self and its gross masks live free. Then will I give thee all thy soul desires, All the brief joys earth keeps for mortal hearts.” Savitri-636 (Accountability demanded by the Death God.) (Death said) “O soul who flutterest to escape my net? Who then art thou hiding in human guise? Thy voice carries the sound of infinity, Knowledge is with thee, Truth speaks through thy words; The light of things beyond shines in thy eyes. ” Savitri-663 (Death God’s account on Savitri) (Satyavan said) “O thou who com’st to me out of Time’s silences, Yet thy voice has wakened my heart to an unknown bliss, Immortal or mortal only in thy frame, For more than earth speaks to me from thy soul And more than earth surrounds me in thy gaze, How art thou named among the sons of men?” Savitri-400 (Satyavan's account on Savitri.) (Narad said) "His speech carries a light of inner truth, And a large-eyed communion with the Power In common things has made veilless his mind, A seer in earth-shapes of garbless deity." Savitri-430 (Narad's account on Satyavan) “His (Satyavan’s) eyes keep a memory from a world of bliss.” Savitri-430 “And from her (Savitri’s) eyes the Eternal’s bliss shall gaze.” Savitri-346 "A lost world-rapture lingers in her eyes," Savitri-118 (King Aswapati's Spiritual experience in life.) "The All-Blissful sat unknown within the heart;" Savitri-43 (of King Aswapati) Sri Aurobindo’s Accountability of His own Sadhana : “Sri Aurobindo had already realised in full two of the four great realisations on which his Yoga and his spiritual philosophy are founded. (1) The first he had gained while meditating with the Maharastrian Yogi Vishnu Bhaskar Lele at Boroda in 1908; it was the realisation of the silent spaceless and timeless Brahman gained after a complete and abiding stillness of the whole consciousness and attended at first by an overwhelming feeling and perception of the total unreality of the world, though this feeling was disappeared after his (2) second realisation which was that of the cosmic consciousness and of the Divine as all beings and all that is, which happened in the Allipore jail and of which he has spoken in his speech at Uttarapara . To the other two realisations, (3) that of the supreme Reality with the static and dynamic Brahman as its two aspects and (4) that of the higher planes of consciousness leading to the Supermind he was already on his way in his meditations in the Alipore jail. ” Sri Aurobindo/SABCL/Vol-26/p-64/CWSA-36/Autobiographical Notes/p-94 “The account given here of the supreme spiritual and supramental forms of highest Nature action corresponding to the gunas is not derived from the Gita, but introduced from spiritual experience. The Gita does not describe in any detail the action of the highest Nature, rahasyam uttamam; it leaves that for the seeker to discover by his own spiritual experience. It only points out the nature of the high sattwic temperament and action through which this supreme mystery has to be reached and insists at the same time on the overpassing of Sattwa and transcendence of the three gunas.” CWSA-19/Essays on the Gita/p-467, “All strong natures have the rajasik active outgoing force in them and if that were sufficient to unfit for the Yoga, very few of us would have had a chance. As for the doubt of the physical mind as to whether the thing is possible, who has not had it? In my own case it pursued me years and years and it is only in the last two years (written on 16th April 1923) that the last shadow of doubt, not latterly of its theoretical feasibility, but of the practical certainty of its achievement in the present state of the world and of the human nature, entirely left me.” CWSA-36/Autobiographical Notes-360, “This is a difficult lesson to learn (rejection of revolt and impatience), but you must learn it. I do not find fault with you for taking long over it, I myself took full twelve years to learn it thoroughly, (written in the year 1919) and even after I knew the principle well enough, it took me quite four years and more to master my lower nature in this respect. But you have the advantage of my experience and my help; you will be able to do it more rapidly, if you consciously and fully assist me, by not associating yourself with the enemy Desire; jahi kamam durasadam, remember that utterance of the Gita, it is a keyword of our Yoga.” CWSA-36/Autobiographical Notes/p-229, “My yoga begun in 1904 had always been personal and apart; those around me knew I was a sadhak but they knew little more as I kept all that went on in me to myself. It was only after my release that for the first time I spoke at Uttarpara publicly about my spiritual experiences. Until I went to Pondicherry I took no disciples; with those who accompanied me or joined me in Pondicherry I had at first the relation of friends and companions rather than of a guru and disciples; it was on the ground of politics that I had come to know them and not on the spiritual ground. Afterwards only there was a gradual development of spiritual relations until the Mother came back from Japan and the Ashram was founded or rather founded itself in 1926. I began my yoga in 1904 without a guru; in 1908 I received important help from a Mahratta yogi and discovered the foundations of my sadhana; but from that time till the Mother came to India I received no spiritual help from anyone else. My sadhana before and afterwards was not founded upon books but upon personal experiences that crowded on me from within . But in the jail I had the Gita and the Upanishads with me, practised the yoga of the Gita and meditated with the help of the Upanishads; these were the only books from which I found guidance; the Veda which I first began to read long afterwards in Pondicherry rather confirmed what experiences I already had than was any guide to my sadhana. I sometimes turned to the Gita for light when there was a question or a difficulty and usually received help or an answer from it, but there were no such happenings in connection with the Gita as are narrated in the book. It is a fact that I was hearing constantly the voice of Vivekananda speaking to me for a fortnight in the jail in my solitary meditation and felt his presence, but this had nothing to do with the alleged circumstances narrated in the book, circumstances that never took place, nor had it anything to do with the Gita. The voice spoke only on a special and limited but very important field of spiritual experience and it ceased as soon as it had finished saying all that it had to say on that subject.” CWSA-36/Autobiographical Notes/p-98-99 (Sri Aurobindo's above explanation can be compared with the Mother's experience: "Since my earliest childhood, experiences have come like that: something massive takes hold of you and you don’t need to believe or disbelieve, know or not know —bam! There’s nothing to say; you are facing a fact... Once, during those last difficult years, Sri Aurobindo told me that this was precisely what gave me my advantage and why (how to put it?) there were greater possibilities that I would go right to the end ." The Mother/The Mother's Agenda/01.05.1958) “The physical Nature does not mean the body alone but the phrase includes the transformation of the whole physical mind, vital, material nature – not by imposing Siddhis [occult powers] on them, but by creating a new physical nature which is to be the habitation of the supramental being in a new evolution. I am not aware that this has been done by any Hathayogic or other process. Mental or vital occult power can only bring Siddhis of the higher plane into the individual life – like the Sannyasi who could take any poison without harm, but he died of a poison after all when he forgot to observe the conditions of the Siddhi. The working of the supramental power envisaged is not an influence on the physical giving it abnormal faculties but an entrance and permeation changing it wholly into a supramentalised physical. I did not learn the idea from Veda or Upanishad, and I do not know if there is anything of the kind there. What I received about the Supermind was a direct, not a derived knowledge given to me; it was only afterwards that I found certain confirmatory revelations in the Upanishad and Veda.” CWSA-35/Letters on Himself and the Ashram/p-108-109 “Not inexplicable certainly; it was the condition of silence of the mind to which he (Sri Aurobindo) had come by his meditation for 3 days with Lele in Baroda and which he kept for many months and indeed always thereafter, all activity proceeding on the surface; but at that time there was no activity on the surface. Lele told him to make namaskar to the audience and wait and speech would come to him from some other source than the mind. So in fact, the speech came, and ever since all speech, writing, thought and outward activity have so come to him from the same source above the brain-mind.” CWSA-36//Autobiographical Notes/p-111 The Mother’s Accountability of Her own Sadhana : “It was in 1910 that I had this sort of reversal of consciousness about which I spoke the other evening – that is, the first contact with the higher Divine – and it completely changed my life. From that moment on, I was conscious that all one does is the expression of the indwelling Divine Will. But it is the Divine Will AT THE VERY CENTER of oneself, although for a while there remained an activity in the physical mind. But this was stilled two or three days after I saw Sri Aurobindo for the first time in 1914, and it never started up again. Silence settled. And the consciousness was established above the head. In the first experience [of 1910], the consciousness was established in the psychic depths of the being, and from that poise issued the feeling of no longer doing anything but what the Divine wanted – it was the consciousness that the divine Will was all-powerful and that there was no longer any personal will, although there was still some mental activity and everything had to be made silent. In 1914, it was silenced, and the consciousness was established above the head. Here (the heart) and here (above the head), the connection is constant. (Q) Does one exclude the other? They exist simultaneously; it’s the same thing. When you start becoming truly conscious, you realize that it depends upon the kinds of activities you have to do. When you do a certain kind of work, (1) it is in the heart that the Force gathers to radiate outwards, and when (2) you do another kind of work, it is above the head that the Force concentrates to radiate outwards, but the two are not separate: the center of activity is here or there depending upon what you have to do.” The Mother’s Agenda-6.6.1958 “I destroyed whatever was left – there were five thick volumes in which I had written every single day (there was some repetition, of course): the outcome of my concentrations…. Five thick notebooks, year after year.... Even here I kept on writing for a while. I wrote a lot in Japan. Anyway, everything of general interest was kept. But that's why there are gaps in the dates, otherwise it would be continuous – it was monumental, you know! It's only here that people started wanting to keep and keep and keep. (Mother makes a gesture of throwing everything over her shoulder.) The world is moving fast, the world is moving fast, fast, fast – why keep anything? ” The Mother’s Agenda/Vol-3/p-347, “I began my sadhana at birth, without knowing that I was doing it. I have continued it throughout my whole life, which means for almost eighty years (even though for perhaps the first three or four years of my life it was only something stirring about in unconsciousness). But I began a deliberate, conscious sadhana at about the age of twenty-two or twenty-three, upon prepared ground. I am now more than eighty years old: I have thought of nothing but That, I have wanted nothing but That, I had no other interest in life, and not for a single minute have I ever forgotten that it was THAT that I wanted. There were not periods of remembering and forgetting: it was continuous, unceasing, day and night, from the age of twenty-four – and I had this experience for the first time about a week ago! So, I say that people who are in a hurry, people who are impatient, are arrogant fools.” The Mother/The Mother’s Agenda/01.05.1958, “The Divine puts on an appearance of humanity, assumes the outward human nature in order to tread the path and show it to human beings, but does not cease to be the Divine. It is a manifestation that takes place, a manifestation of a growing divine consciousness, not human turning into divine. The Mother was inwardly above the human even in childhood, so the view held by “many” is erroneous.” Sri Aurobindo/CWSA-32/The Mother and Letters on the Mother/p-31-32 “When I was five years old ...well I began with a consciousness. Of course I had no idea what it was. But my first experience was of the consciousness here (gesture above the head), which I felt like a Light and a Force; and I felt it there at the age of five. It was very pleasant sensation. I would sit in a little armchair made especially for me, all alone in my room, and I had a very pleasant feeling of something very strong, very luminous, and it was here (above the head) .... Then I would pull it down, for it was...it was truly my raison d’être.” The Mother/The Mother’s Agenda, July 25, 1962, "At any rate, I find it’s better to be the master rather than the slave. The feeling of being pulled by strings and being made to do things you may or may not want to do is a rather unpleasant sensation.... It’s quite irksome. Well, I don’t know, I, for one, found it quite irksome even when I was a small child. When I was five , I began finding it wholly intolerable, and I sought a way for it to be otherwise – without anyone being able to tell me anything. Because I knew no one capable of helping me, and I didn’t have the luck you have – someone who can tell you, ‘Here is what you must do.’ There was no one to tell me. I had to find it all by myself. I found it. I began at the age of five . And you, it’s a long time since you were five?..."" The Mother's Agenda/September 7, 1968 "All mornings are difficult. It's odd: life as a whole goes by with almost dizzying speed – weeks and months go by like that – and mornings, about three hours every morning, last like a century! Each minute is won at the cost of an effort. It is the time of the work in the body, for the body, and not just one body: for instance, all the vibrations from sick people, all those problems of life come from everywhere. And for those three hours, there is tension, struggle, acute seeking for what should be done or for the attitude to be taken.... It's at that time that I have tested the power of the mantra. For those three hours, I repeat my mantra automatically, without stopping; and every time the difficulty increases, a kind of Power comes into those words and acts on Matter. And that's how I know: without the mantra, that work couldn't be done. But that's why I say it has to be YOUR mantra, not something you received from whomever – the mantra that arose spontaneously from your deeper being (gesture to the heart), from your inner guide. That's what holds out. When you don't know, when you don't understand, when you don't want to let the mind intervene and you are ...THAT is there; the mantra is there; and it helps you to get through. It helps to get through. It saves the situation at critical moments , it's a considerable support, considerable." The Mother’s Agenda/September 23, 1964, “In the night, I am always given a state of human consciousness to put right, one after another—there are millions of them. And there are always all the images and events that illustrate that particular state of consciousness. At times, it is very hard going : I wake up tired, as after a long period of work.” The Mother/The Mother’s Agenda-5/p-170-71 “...I was very ill, but I knew it was not this body (but it was this body’s consciousness), it was family of the Ashram, and the father was seeking help, looking for a doctor (all the details with such precision!..there are three sick people in the family.) And while that was going on, the body said to itself, “So I am identified with this person, since he is treating this person (me, that is); and since I am identified, I must do in this person what needs to be done.” Then I concentrated and called the forces of the Lord, and treated the person. All that down to the last detail. It lasted for two hours... it happened in the night when those people were asleep, and they didn’t realise...this body’s impression is that it has saved someone’s life...That union between the two, between the subtle physical and the material physical, is taking place all the time—day and night...there is an attempt to substitute one for the other.” The Mother’s Agenda-11/149-150-151 The Mother here memorised her action of universal subtle body without losing contact with the world, “This body was built for that purpose, because I remember very well that when the war—the First World War—started and I offered my body up in sacrifice to the Lord so that the war would not be in vain, every part of my body, one after another (the Mother touches her legs, her arms etc.), or sometimes the same part several times over, represented a battle field: I could see it, feel it, I LIVED IT... And while it went on, I would put the concentration of the divine Force there, so that—all–all that pain, all that suffering, everything—would hasten the preparation of the earth and the Descent of the Force. And that went on consciously (waking trance) throughout the war.” (The Mother’s Agenda/Vol-4/p-271) From the above narration, it is understood that more and more human beings can act as a channel of descent of Divine force through a purified subtle body and through this exercise the whole earth can experience transformation. The Mother recounts, "That’s another interesting point, because I was an outright atheist: till the age of twenty, the very idea of God made me furious. Therefore I had the most solid base – no imaginings, no mystic atavism; my mother was very much an unbeliever and so was my father. So from the point of view of atavism it was very good: positivism, materialism. Only one thing: since I was very small, a will for perfection in any field whatever; a will for perfection and the sense of a limitless consciousness – no limits to one’s progress or to one’s power or to one’s scope. And that, since I was very small. But mentally, an absolute refusal to believe in a "God": I believed only in what I could touch and see. And the whole faculty for experiences was already there (they didn’t manifest because the time hadn’t come). Only, the sense of a Light here (gesture above the head), which began when I was very small, I was five, along with a will for perfection. (1) A will for perfection: oh, whatever I did always had to be the best I could do. And then, (2) a limitless consciousness. These two things. And my return to the Divine came about through Theon’s teaching, when I was told for the first time, "The Divine is within, there" (Mother strikes her breast). Then I felt at once, "Yes, this is it." Then I did all the work that’s taught to find Him again; and through here (gesture to the heart center) I went there (gesture of junction above with the Supreme). But outwardly, mentally, no religion – a horror of religions...And I see now that it was the most solid base possible for this experience: there was no danger of imaginings....I have tried many things, a great many, I have looked a great deal, and I see only one that’s absolute – only one that’s absolute and can bring the absolute result, it’s this (gesture turned Upward): the complete annulment of all that, leaving it all, "To You, Lord – You, You, to You." And it isn’t a being with a form, that’s not it; it isn’t a formless force, it’s ... It has nothing to do with thought, only with this: the contact. And the contact, an unmistakable contact, which nothing can imitate – nothing, nothing at all has the power to imitate it. And for every difficulty, every time, whatever it is, simply this: "Everything to You, Lord. Everything for You, to You. You alone can do it, You, You alone, You alone. You alone are the Truth; You alone are the Power." And those words are nothing, they are only the very clumsy expression of something ... a stupendous Power.... It’s only the incapacity, the clumsiness, the lack of faith we mix into it that takes away His power. The minute we are truly pure, that is, under His influence alone, there are no limits, no limits – nothing, nothing, there is nothing, no law of Nature that can resist, nothing, nothing..... Only, the whole thing is that the time must have come, there must be only That left – all the rest spoils, whatever it is, even the highest, purest, noblest, most beautiful and marvelous things: all that spoils. Only That. ” The Mother's Agenda/March 26, 1966, “It’s strange. I say ‘strange’ because it’s due to her (The Mother's birth Mother) that I took birth in this body, that it was chosen. When she was very young she had a great aspiration. She was exactly twenty years older than I; she was twenty when I was born and I was her third child. The first was a son who died in Turkey when he was two months old, I think – they vaccinated him against smallpox and poisoned him, (laughing) god knows what it means! He died of convulsions. Next was my brother who was born in Egypt, at Alexandria, and then me, born in Paris when she was exactly twenty years old. At that time (especially since the death of her first child) she had a kind Of GREAT aspiration in her: her children had to be ‘the best in the world.’ I t wasn’t an ambition, I don’t know what it was. And what a will she had! MY mother had a formidable will, like an iron bar, utterly impervious to all outside influence. Once she had made up her mind, it was made up; even if someone had been dying before her eyes, she wouldn’t have budged! And she decided: ‘My children will be the best in the world.’ …one thing she did have was a sense of progress; she felt that the world was progressing and we had to be better than anything that had come before – and that was sufficient…It’s strange, but that was sufficient…Did I tell you what happened to my brother? No?... My brother was a terribly serious boy, and frightfully studious – oh, it was awful! But he also had a very strong character, a strong will, and there was something interesting about him. When he was studying to enter the Polytechnique, I studied with him – it interested me. We were very intimate (there were only eighteen months between us). He was quite violent, but with an extraordinary strength of character. He almost killed me three times, but when my mother told him, ‘Next time, you will kill her,’ he resolved that it wouldn’t happen again – and it never did. But what I wanted to tell you is that one day when he was eighteen, just before the Polytechnique exams, as he was crossing the Seine (I think it was the Pont des Arts), suddenly in the middle of the bridge ... he felt something descend into him with such force that he became immobilized, petrified; then, although he didn’t exactly hear a voice, a very clear message came to him: ‘If you want, you can become a god’ – it was translated like that in his consciousness. He told me that it took hold of him entirely, immobilized him – a formidable and extremely luminous power: ‘If you want, you can become a god.’ Then, in the thick of the experience itself, he replied, ‘No, I want to serve humanity.’ And it was gone. Of course, he took great care to say nothing to my mother, but we were intimate enough for him to tell me about it. I told him, ‘Well (laughing), what an idiot you are!’…That’s the story…At that moment he could have had a spiritual realization: he had the right stuff… Three years later I had that experience – I’ve told you about it – of the Light piercing through me; I physically saw it enter into me. It was obviously the descent of a Being – not a past incarnation, but a Being from another plane. It was a golden light – the incarnation of a divine consciousness. Which proves that she succeeded for both her children…But she ...She was down on her knees before my brother. My mother scorned all religious sentiments as weakness and superstition and she absolutely denied the invisible. ‘It’s all brain disease, ’ she would say! But she could say just as well, ‘Oh, my Matteo is my God, he is my God.’ The devil knows why, but in Alexandria she gave him the Italian name Matteo! And she truly treated him like a god. (In the Italian language, Matteo is a masculine given name that means "gift of God".) She left him only when he married, because then she really couldn’t continue to follow him around any longer…But what’s interesting, for instance, is that when her father died she knew it; she saw him. She thought it was a dream-’a stupid dream.’ But he came to let her know he was dead and she saw him. ‘It’s nothing,’ she said, ‘a dream!’ (Mother laughs)…When my grandmother died.... My grandmother had the occult sense. She had made her own fortune (a sizeable fortune) and had had five children, each one more extravagant than the other. She considered me the only sensible person in the family and she shared her secrets with me. ‘You see,’ she told me, ‘these people are going to squander all my money!’ She had a sixty year old son (she had married in Egypt at the age of fifteen, and had had this son when she was quite young). ‘You see this boy, he goes out and visits impossible people! And then he starts playing cards and loses all my money!’ I saw this ‘boy,’ I was there in the house when he came to her and said very politely, ‘Good-bye, mother, I’m going out to so-and-so’s house.’ ‘Ah, please don’t waste all my money, and take an overcoat – it’s getting chilly at night.’ Sixty years old! It was comical.... But to return to my story, after my grandmother died (I took a lot of care over her), she came to my mother (my mother was with her when she died; they embalmed her – she had gotten it into her head that she wanted to be burned, and since she died at Nice they had to embalm her so she could be burned in Paris). I was in Paris. My mother arrived with the body and told me, ‘Just imagine, I’m constantly seeing her! And what’s more, she gives me advice! “Don’t waste your money!” she tells me.’ ‘Well, she’s right, one must be careful,’ I replied. ‘But look here, she’s dead! Dead! How can she talk to me! She’s dead, I tell you, and quite dead at that!’ I said to her, ‘What does it mean, to die?’…It was all very funny… There was another reason. My father was wonderfully healthy and strong – well-balanced. He wasn’t very tall, but stocky. He did all his studies in Austria (at that time French was widely spoken in Austria, but he knew German, he knew English, Italian, Turkish), and there he had learned to ride horses in an extraordinary manner: he was so strong that he could bring a horse to the ground simply by pressing his knees. He could break anything at all with a blow of his fist, even one of those big silver five-franc pieces they had in those days – one blow and it was broken in two. Curiously enough, he looked Russian. I don’t know why. They used to call him Barine. What an equilibrium – an extraordinary physical poise! And not only did this man know all those languages, but I never saw such a brain for arithmetic. Never. He made a game of calculations – not the slightest effort – calculations with hundreds of digits! And on top of it, he loved birds. He had a room to himself in our apartment (because my mother could never much tolerate him), he had his separate room, and in it he kept a big cage ... full of canaries! During the day he would close the windows and let all the canaries loose....And could he tell stories! I think he read every novel available, all the stories he could find – extraordinary adventure stories, for he loved adventures. When we were kids he used to let us come into his room very early in the morning and, while still sitting in bed, tell us stories from the books he had read – but he told them as if they were his own , as if he’d had extraordinary adventures with outlaws, with wild animals. Every story he picked up he told as his own. We enjoyed it tremendously!...But one day when my brother had disobeyed him (Matteo must have been ten or eleven, and I perhaps nine or ten), I came into the dining room and saw my father sitting on a sofa with my brother across his knees; he had pulled down his trousers and was spanking him, I don’t know what for. It wasn’t a very serious spanking, but still.... I came in, drew myself up to my full height and said, ‘Papa, if you ever do that again, I am leaving this house!’ And with such authority, mon petit! He stopped and never did it again.” The Mother’s Agenda-05.08.1961, “Here, in Pondicherry , you cannot breathe without breathing my consciousness. It permeates the atmosphere in the subtle physical almost materially and extends right to the lake, seven miles away from here. Beyond, my consciousness can be felt in the material vital, and then on the mental and the other higher planes everywhere. When I came here for the first time, I felt Sri Aurobindo’s atmosphere, felt it materially, ten miles from the shore – ten nautical miles, not kilometers! It was very sudden, very concrete, a pure and luminous atmosphere, light, so light that it lifts you up.” The Mother’s Agenda-1/Undated-1957, “Madame Théon was the first to tell me what I was, what she saw: the crown of twelve pearls over the head. As for me, I had the experience of it, (But it seems I always had it, because when Madame Théon saw me, it's the first thing she told me; she didn't speak of "Maheshwari ," but she said, "You have the white light" that automatically dissolves all ill will . And I did experience it: I saw beings crumble into dust.) after which I could simply use it at will: I just had to summon it. And I would see it just as I see you, in a perfectly objective way." The Mother/The Mother's Agenda/July 10, 1965, "Because, for example, when Sri Aurobindo and I were working to bring down the supramental forces, a descent from the mental plane to the vital plane, he was always telling me that everything I did (when we ‘meditated’ together, when we worked) – all my movements, all my gestures, all my postures, all my reactions – was absolutely tantric, as if I had pursued a tantric discipline. But it was spontaneous, it did not correspond to any knowledge, any idea, any will, nothing, and I thought it was like that simply because, as He knew, naturally I followed." The Mother's Agenda/20.09.1960, "“But I can tell you one thing: even before Her (The Mother’ four Personalities) coming, when, with Sri Aurobindo , I had begun going down (for the Yoga) from the mental plane to the vital plane , when we brought our yoga down from the mental plane into the vital plane, in less than a month (I was forty years old at the time – I didn’t seem very old, I looked less than forty, but I was forty anyway), after no more than a month of this yoga, I looked exactly like an 18 year old! And someone who knew me and had stayed with me in Japan came here, and when he saw me, he could scarcely believe his eyes! He said, ‘But my god, is it you?’ I said, ‘Of course!’... Only when we went down from the vital plane into the physical plane, all this went away – because on the physical plane, the work is much harder and we had so much to do, so many things to change.... But if a force like Hers (The Mother’s four Personalities) could manifest and be received here, it would have INESTIMABLE results! ...” The Mother/The Mother’ Agenda-1/p-45, "'The tantrics recognize seven chakras, ’ I believe. Theon said he knew of more, specifically two below the body and three above. That is my experience as well – I know of twelve chakras . And really, the contact with the Divine Consciousness is there (the Mother motions above the head), not here (at the top of the head). One must surge up above.” The Mother’s Agenda/October 11, 1960, “There is also what Theon and Madame Theon used to say. They never spoke of ‘Supermind,’ but they said the same thing as the Vedas , that the world of Truth must incarnate on earth and create a new world. They even picked up the old phrase from the Gospels, ‘new heavens and a new earth,’ which is the same thing the Vedas speak of. Madame Theon had this experience and she gave me the indication (she didn’t actually teach me) of how it was to be done. She would go out of her body and become conscious in the vital world (there were many intermediary states, too, if one cared to explore them). After the vital came the mental: you consciously went out of the vital body, you left it behind (you could see it) and you entered the mental world. Then you left the mental body and entered into.... They used different words, another classification (I don’t remember it), but even so, the experience was identical. And like that, she successively left twelve different bodies, one after another. She was extremely ‘developed,’ you see – individualized, organized. She could leave one body and enter the consciousness of the next plane, fully experience the surroundings and all that was there, describe it ... and so on, twelve times . I learned to do the same thing, and with great dexterity; I could halt on any plane, do what I had to do there, move around freely, see, observe, and then speak about what I had seen. And my last stage, which Theon called ‘pathétisme,’ a very barbaric but very expressive word, bordered on the Formless – he sometimes used the Jewish terminology, calling the Supreme ‘The Formless.’ (From this last stage one passed to the Formless – there was no further body to leave behind, one was beyond all possible forms, even all thoughtforms.) In this domain [the last stage before the Formless] one experienced total unity – unity in something that was the essence of Love; [378] Love was a manifestation more... ‘dense,’ he would always say (there were all sorts of different ‘densities’); and Love was a denser expression of That, the sense of perfect Unity – perfect unity, identity – with no longer any forms corresponding to those of the lower worlds. It was a Light! ... An almost immaculate white light, yet with something of a golden-rose in it (words are crude). This Light and this Experience were truly wonderful, inexpressible in words. Well, one time I was there (Theon used to warn against going beyond this domain, because he said you wouldn’t come back), ("Absorbed in the trance from which no soul returns," Savitri-384) but there I was, wanting to pass over to the other side, when – in a quite unexpected and astounding way – I found myself in the presence of the ‘principle,’ a principle of the human form. It didn’t resemble man as we are used to seeing him, but it was an upright form, standing just on the border between the world of forms and the Formless, like a kind of standard. At that time nobody had ever spoken to me about it and Madame Theon had never seen it – no one had ever seen or said anything. But I felt I was on the verge of discovering a secret. Afterwards, when I met Sri Aurobindo and talked to him about it, he told me, ‘It is surely the prototype of the supramental form.’ I saw it several times again, later on, and this proved to be true. But naturally, you understand, once the border has been crossed, there is no more ‘ascent’ and ‘descent’; you have the feeling of rising up only at the very start, while leaving the terrestrial consciousness and emerging into the higher mind. But once you have gone beyond that, there’s no notion of rising; there’s a sense, instead, of a sort of inner transformation. And from there I would redescend, re-entering my bodies one after another – there is a real feeling of re-entry; it actually produces friction. When one is on that highest height, the body is in a cataleptic state. I think I made this experiment in 1904, so when I arrived here it was all a work accomplished and a well-known domain; and when the question of finding the Supermind came up, I had only to resume an experience I was used to – I had learned to repeat it at will, through successive exteriorizations. It was a voluntary process. When I returned from Japan and we began to work together, Sri Aurobindo had already brought the supramental light into the mental world and was trying to transform the Mind. ‘It’s strange,’ he said to me, ‘it’s an endless work! Nothing seems to get done – everything is done and then constantly has to be done all over again.’ Then I gave him my personal impression, which went back to the old days with Theon: ‘It will be like that until we touch bottom. ’ So instead of continuing to work in the Mind, both of us (I was the one who went through the experience ... how to put it? ... practically, objectively; he experienced it only in his consciousness, not in the body – but my body has always participated), both of us descended almost immediately (it was done in a day or two) from the Mind into the Vital, and so on quite rapidly, leaving the Mind as it was, fully in the light but not permanently transformed. Then a strange thing happened. When we were in the Vital, my body suddenly became young again, as it had been when I was eighteen years old! ... There was a young man named Pearson , a disciple of Tagore, who had lived with me in Japan for four years; he returned to India , and when he came to see me in Pondicherry, he was stupefied. ‘What has happened to you!’ he exclaimed. He hardly recognized me. During that same period (it didn’t last very long, only a few months), I received some old photographs from France and Sri Aurobindo saw one of me at the age of eighteen. ‘There!’ he said, ‘That’s how you are now!’ I wore my hair differently, but otherwise I was eighteen all over again. This lasted for a few months. Then we descended into the Physical – and all the trouble began. But we didn’t stay in the Physical, we descended into the Subconscient and from the Subconscient to the Inconscient. That was how we worked. And it was only when I descended into the Inconscient that I found the Divine Presence – there, in the midst of Darkness. It wasn’t the first time; when I was working with Theon at Tlemcen (the second time I was there), I descended into the total, unindividualized – that is, general – Inconscient (it was the time he wanted me to find the Mantra of Life). And there I suddenly found myself in front of something like a vault or a grotto (of course, it was only something ‘like’ that), and when it opened, I saw a Being of iridescent light reclining with his head on his hand, fast asleep. All the light around him was iridescent. When I told Theon what I was seeing, he said it was ‘the immanent God in the depths of the Inconscient,’ who through his radiations was slowly waking the Inconscient to Consciousness. ("And Night can bare its core of mystic light;" Savitri-200) But then a rather remarkable phenomenon occurred: when I looked at him, he woke up and opened his eyes, expressing the beginning of conscious, wakeful action. I have experienced the descent into the Inconscient many times (you (Satprem) remember, once you were there the day it happened – it had to do with divine Love); this experience of descending to the very bottom of the Inconscient and finding there the Divine Consciousness, the Divine Presence, under one form or another. it has happened quite frequently .” The Mother’s Agenda/November 7/1961, ("The secret God beneath the threshold dwells.” Savitri-68) “But you see, you see all the way I have come...And I was born with a consciously prepared body—Sri Aurobindo was aware of that, he said it immediately the first time he saw me: I was born free. That is, from the spiritual standpoint: without any desire. Without any desire and attachment. And mon petit, if there is the slightest desire and the slightest attachment, it is IMPOSSIBLE to do this work. A vital like a warrior, with an absolute self-control (the vital of this present incarnation was sexless—a warrior), an absolutely calm and imperturbable warrior—no desires, no attachments...Since my earliest childhood, I have done things which, to human consciousness, are “monstrous;” my mother went so far as to tell me that I was a real “monster,” because I had neither attachments nor desires. If I was asked, “Would you like to do this?” I answered, “I don’t care.” If people were nasty to me, or if people died or went away, it left me absolutely calm—and so: “You are a monster, you have no feelings.” And with that preparation... It is eighty-six years since I came here, mon petit! For thirty years I worked with Sri Aurobindo consciously, without letup, night and day ... We shouldn’t be in a hurry.” The Mother’s Agenda/28.03.1964 The Mother’s accountability of Sadhana after Sri Aurobindo's earthly departure of body: “Her thoughts, her mind remembered Narad’s date.” Savitri-469 “Immobile in herself, she gathered force. This was the day when Satyavan must die.” Savitri-10 “Twelve swift-winged months are given to him and her; This day returning Satyavan must die.” Savitri-431 “Twelve passionate months led in a day of fate.” Savitri-11 “It is decreed and Satyavan must die. The hour is fixed, chosen the fatal stroke.” Savitri-458 “And what comes to me is always this, the most severe test I could have been given: Sri Aurobindo’s departure. Because Sri Aurobindo used to speak as if he was not going to go.” The Mother’s Agenda-6/p-347, "No one can imagine what it was, those thirty years I had (with Sri Aurobindo ) ... beyond all problems and difficulties; we went through every possible difficulty – and it was nothing, NOTHING. It was nothing, it was ... like a great harmonious orchestra. (silence) But ... it's clear that Matter must be rigorously hammered if it is to be made ready and able for this Transformation. (silence) And nothing, nothing imaginable in the eternal history of the universe can be compared to that shock (with Sri Aurobindo's departure): to have lived a perfect divine life as something completely natural and everyday, something OBVIOUS (it was never even in question), and then ... all of a sudden, physically – your base is snatched away. Well, to stay on after that! ... You just go, quite naturally: the base goes, you go." The Mother's Agenda/January 9, 1962, "Well, what Sri Aurobindo did by leaving his body is somewhat equivalent, although far more total and complete and absolute-because he had that experience, he had that, he had it; I saw him, I saw him supramental on his bed, sitting on his bed ... He has written: I am not doing it individually, for myself, but for the whole earth. And it was exactly the same thing for me-but oh, that experience! Nothing counted for me anymore: people, the earth-even the earth itself had absolutely no importance." The Mother/The Mother's Agenda/July-15, 1961 “The Supermind had descended long ago—very long ago—into the mind and even into the vital: it was working in the physical also but indirectly through those intermediaries. The question was about the direct action of the Supermind in the physical. Sri Aurobindo said it could be possible only if the physical mind received the supramental light: the physical mind was the instrument for direct action upon the most material. This physical mind receiving the supramental light Sri Aurobindo called the Mind of Light… As soon as Sri Aurobindo withdrew from his body, what he has called the Mind of Light got realised in me. ” 29 June 1953/The Mother/The Mother’s Centenary Works/Vol-13/p-62-63, "And I saw for Sri Aurobindo (although he hadn't yet started this systematic transformation; but still, he was constantly pulling the supramental force down into his body), even in his case, it took five days to show the first slight sign of decomposition. I would have kept his body longer, but the government always meddles in other people's business, naturally, and they pestered me awfully, saying it was forbidden to keep a body so long and that we should ... So when the body began to (what's the word?) shrink – it was shrinking and contracting, that is, dehydrating – then we had to do it. He had had enough time to come out, since almost everything came into my body – almost everything that was material came into my body ." The Mother/The Mother's Agenda/August 10, 1963 “No, it has made me understand something, but it’s something very (how can I put it?), very intimate.... When Sri Aurobindo left, I knew I had to cut the link with the psychic being, otherwise I would have gone with him; and as I had promised him I would stay on and do the work, I had to do that: I literally closed the door on the psychic and said, "For the moment this doesn’t exist anymore." It remained like that for ten years. After ten years, it slowly, slowly began to open again – it was frightening. But I was ready. It began to open again. But then, that experience surprised me when I had it; I wondered why it had been like that, why I had received that command and had to do it. And when there was in the body that identification with divine Love [a few days ago], after that had left, the cells were ordered to undergo a similar phenomenon [to what happened after Sri Aurobindo’s departure]. And I understood why the whole material world is closed: it’s to allow it to exist WITHOUT the experience [of divine Love]. Naturally, I had understood why I was made to close off my psychic, because ... because it was truly impossible, I couldn’t go on existing outwardly without Sri Aurobindo’s presence. Well then, the cells have understood that they must go on existing and living their life without the presence of divine Love. And that’s how it took place in the world: it was a necessary phenomenon for the formation and development of the material world... But we’re perhaps nearing ... We are nearing the time when it will be allowed to open again. (silence) You remember, I don’t know if it was in a letter or an article, Sri Aurobindo spoke of the manifestation of divine Love; he said, "Truth will have to be established first, otherwise there will be catastrophes...." I understand that very well. But it’s a long time in coming! (Mother laughs) Up above, nothing is long. But anyway, it’s here that we are ordered to exist and to achieve. It’s on this occasion, too, that I had an answer regarding death. I was told, "But they all want to die! Because they don’t have the courage to be before That is manifested." And I saw – I clearly saw it was like that. The power of Death is that they all want to die! Not like that in their active thought, but in the body’s deep feeling, because it doesn’t have the courage to be without That – it takes great courage.... So they began with a complete ignorance and general stupidity, participating in all that this life is outwardly (as if it were something wonderful!). But as soon as they begin to grow a little wiser, it stops being wonderful. It’s like what I said about this flower [the lotus]: when you know how to look at a flower, at the so spontaneous and, oh, uncomplicated expression of this marvelous Love, then you understand how long the way is – all these attachments, all this importance we give to useless things, whereas there should be a spontaneous and natural beauty. (Q) If the world understood too soon, nobody would want to stay on, basically! That’s the point. Yes, exactly! That’s the point. If they knew too soon, if they were able to see the opposition between what is and what must be, they wouldn’t have the courage. One must ... one must truly be heroic – heroic. I assure you, I see these cells, they are heroic – heroic. As for them, they don’t "know" in that mental way: it’s only their adoration that saves them. That is, "What You will, Lord, what You will, what You will ... ," with the simplicity of a child’s ingenuous heart: "What You will, what You will, what You will ... only what You will and nothing but what You will exists." Then it’s all right. But without that, it’s not possible. It’s not possible to know what they know and to continue to be if That isn’t there. You know, the feeling is, "At Your service, what You will, what You will ... whatever You will ... ," without discussion, without anything, without even a sensation, nothing: "What You will, what You will. " This is the only strength, there is no other. Well, some have to do it, don’t they! Otherwise it would never get done. And at that moment (it was a rather difficult moment), there was even in the consciousness ... it was like a sword of white light that nothing can shake and which gave the cells the sensation, "What! But you should be in an ecstasy of joy, now that you know what will be" – what there IS, in principle. But it has caused a sort of detachment from the gestures, the outside, as if life weren’t quite real – yet real at the same time, but the Reality isn’t there. There is the sense of the Presence; that’s constant. And that’s a good thing to begin with, it strongly counterbalances the sense and perception of all the Distortion. There is even an insistence from this Presence for That alone to exist and to increasingly reduce the reality of the perception of what must not be. There will be a great strength in the being when the perception of what must not be is dimmed, erased as something far away and nonexistent. That’s what is being prepared. What makes the work a little more complicated is that it isn’t limited to this (Mother’s body), it’s everything, everything around and to a rather considerable distance. Because the contact in thought is almost perfectly established: it’s impossible for someone to think [of Mother] without there being a response in the consciousness – a response, a perception. So, imagine what it is It’s rather vast and rather complicated. And there are kinds of rungs or stages – stages in the response of the consciousness; rungs and stages according to the degree of development and consciousness. It makes for, oh, not an immensity, but still a rather extensive world. In this perception, the earth isn’t very large. And there is a precision in details for tiny things, like what goes on in an individual’s consciousness, for instance, or the response to certain events. It’s very, very precise. But there is always a ban on saying things so as not to give them a power of concretization. But the work is being done like that, on all the planes; on all the planes (there are even planes beneath the feet), constantly, constantly, without stop, night and day.” The Mother's Agenda/ July 27, 1966, “Sri Aurobindo had also written to the effect, ‘If Divine Love were to manifest now in all its fullness and totality, not a single material organism would but burst.’ So we must learn to widen, widen, widen not only the inner consciousness (that is relatively easy – at least feasible), but even this conglomeration of cells. And I’ve experienced this: you have to be able to widen this sort of crystallization if you want to be able to hold this Force. I know. Two or three times, upstairs (in Mother’s room), I felt the body about to burst. Actually, I was on the verge of saying, ‘burst and be done with.’ But Sri Aurobindo always intervened – all three times he intervened in an entirely tangible, living and concrete way ... and he arranged everything so that I was forced to wait. Then weeks go by, sometimes even months, between one thing and another, so that some elasticity may come into these stupid cells. So much time is wasted. We are ... oh! We are so hard! (Mother hits her body) As hard as a rock. But three times now, I’ve really felt that I was on the verge of ... falling apart. The first time it brought a fever, a fever so ... I don’t know, as if I had at least 115°! – I was roasting from head to toe ; everything became red hot, and then ... it was over. That was the day when suddenly – suddenly – I was ... You see, I had said to myself, ‘All right, you must be peaceful, let’s see what happens,’ so then I brought down the Peace, and immediately I was able to pass into a ‘second of unconsciousness – and I woke up in the subtle physical, in Sri Aurobindo’s abode.’ There he was. And then I spent some time with him, explaining the problem. ("For He who Is grows manifest in the years And the slow Godhead shut within the cell” Savitri-272) But that was really an experience, a decisive experience (it was many months ago, perhaps more than a year ago). So I explained the problem to Sri Aurobindo , and he replied (by his expression, not with words, but it was clear), ‘Patience, patience – patience, it will come.’ And a few days after this experience, ‘by chance’ I came upon something he had written where precisely he explained that we are much too rigid, coagulated, clenched for these things to be able to manifest – we must widen, relax, become plastic. (“Light conquered now even by that feeble beam; Its faint infiltration drilled the blind deaf mass;” Savitri-601) But this takes time.” The Mother’s Agenda/12th November 1960 "(Q) If I may ask, has Sri Aurobindo remained quite conscious of material things? Completely. (Mother reflects a moment) Well, completely material, no – only through me. He is conscious of material things through me, not directly. He is very conscious in the subtle physical, but that’s not quite the same, not quite (Mother makes a vague gesture), there is a difference. To give a rather curious example, there was a kind of spell of illness over the Ashram, stemming mainly from people’s thoughts, from their way of thinking. It was quite widespread and it was horrible, gloomy, full of fear, pettiness, blind submission, oh! Everyone was in a state of expectation... In short, the atmosphere was such that there was an attempt to prevent me from leaving my room – I had to sneak out! It was disgusting! Well, on the very night I saw the spell over the Ashram, Sri Aurobindo was lying sick in his bed, just as I had seen him in 1950. Normally, we spend almost every night together, doing this, seeing that, arranging things, talking – it’s a kind of second life behind this one, and it makes existence pleasant. But that night when I had to sneak out of my room (in my nightgown!), and people were trying to find me to ... (laughing) force me back into bed, he was lying sick in bed – and this struck me hard, for it means these things still affect him in his consciousness. He was in a kind of trance and not at all well. It didn’t last, but nonetheless.... ” The Mother’s Agenda/ February 18, 1961 "He (Sri Aurobindo ) himself-he himself has a greater action, a greater power of action now than when he was in his body. Besides, that’s why he left-because it had to be done that way... It’s very tangible, you know. His action has become very tangible. Of course, it isn’t something mental at all. It is from another region. But it isn’t ethereal or-it’s tangible. I could almost say material." Dec-20/1972/The Mother’s Agenda/Vol-13/P-326-328, "…we had a meditation here on the 15th, (15th, August 1962) at ten o’clock. At quarter to ten, I was sitting here at the table in a total silence. And then ... I can’t say Sri Aurobindo came, for he is always here, but he manifested in a special way.... Concretely, in the subtle physical, he became so tall that, sitting cross-legged as they do here, he covered the whole compound — even extended a bit beyond it! He was literally sitting upon the compound; so to the extent that the people meditating were not closed, they were all inside him.... I have often seen him in his supramental light; he has come very often (he used to come when I went to the balcony; sometimes he was above the Samadhi ; he came very often). But that ... first of all, the proportions were enormous - sitting down, I tell you, he extended beyond the compound; and he materialized in a way that could be physically felt. And there was such confidence, such joy, such certainty; everything was so sure, so altogether certain, as though all had been accomplished....He has given us a beautiful gift. All his sweetness and all his splendor and all his power and all his calm were there — and far stronger and clearer than when he was in his body!. ... And even when I was working, all the while I would feel him behind me, doing everything. But this was much stronger. Much stronger ." The Mother's Agenda/August 18, 1962, "...the Divine of yesterday is only an apprentice to the Divine of tomorrow ..." The Mother's Agenda/October 8, 1956 “Another thing, yesterday ... Something being prepared.... In the past, when Sri Aurobindo was there and I lived in that house which is now the "dormitory annex," there was a large verandah, and I used to walk up and down on the verandah (Sri Aurobindo was in his room, working), and I would walk alone; but I was never alone: Krishna was always there – Krishna, the god Krishna as he is known, but taller, more beautiful, and not with that ridiculous blue, you know, that slate blue! Not like that. And always, we always walked up and down together – we would walk together. He was just a little behind (gesture behind, almost against the nape of the neck and the shoulders); I was a little in front, as if my head was on his shoulder, and he would walk (I didn't have the feeling of my head resting on his shoulder, but that's how it was), and we would walk, we would communicate. That lasted more than a year, you know, every day. Then it ended. Afterwards I saw him from time to time (when we moved to the new house I saw him); sometimes at night when I was very tired, he would come and I would sleep on his shoulder. But I knew very well that it was a way Sri Aurobindo had of showing himself. Then when I came here [to Mother's present room], Sri Aurobindo had left, and I began walking up and down while reciting my mantra. Sri Aurobindo came, and he was at exactly the same place as Krishna was (same gesture, just behind the head); I would walk, and he was there, and we would walk together day after day, day after day. And it was becoming so concrete, so marvelous that I started thinking, "Why look after people and things, I want to remain like this for ever!" He caught my thought, and he said, "I am not coming anymore." And he stopped. I said, "Very well," and I started my mantra to the supreme Lord, and I tried a lot to have Him come and walk with me, but in no other form but Himself. And the Force, the Presence, everything was there, and I would feel Him more and more clearly, staying like that, just behind me, impersonal. For a few days, I've had a sort of feeling that I was close to something; and yesterday, for half an hour: THE Presence – a Presence ... An absolutely concrete presence. And it is He who told me, "First Krishna, then Sri Aurobindo , then I." The Mother’s Agenda/ June 18, 1965 (The three represent a hierarchy of consciousness in ascending order. The Mother here recounts Her relation with Sri Krishna, Sri Aurobindo and the Supreme Lord in the hierarchy of ascending Consciousness. This indicates that a diversity of experience is required to pursue integral Yoga and not to remain satisfied with any experience in any one plane of Consciousness.) "My impression is that Sri Aurobindo already has his subtle supramental form. For instance, when he has to move, he doesn't give the impression of being subject to the same laws as we are; but as it's subtle, it doesn't appear surprising. And also a sort of ubiquity: he is in several places at the same time. And a plasticity, an adaptability according to the work he wants to do, the people he meets. In those activities I am quite aware that I see him in a certain way, but I think others don't see him the same way – they see him differently, probably wearing clothes. When he ran in the forest, we were all alone, and it was a large forest without anyone there; then a few minutes later, we were somewhere else and there were people, other people to whom he spoke, and I didn't at all feel that the others were seeing him without clothes: they were certainly seeing him wearing clothes.... I saw him once, rather long ago: I told you the story of his boat, made also of clay.” The Mother’s Agenda/June 18/1965 “You remember what I had said? That it would be an improved physical body that would make the transition between human body and Supramental body?...... Last night Sri Aurobindo told me in his own way that it was correct, that it was true. It was very interesting.... Very interesting... Last night, for a long time, we went to all sorts of places unknown to me: towns, countrysides, forests, etc. It lasted a very long time. And once, we were there, near a forest (near a road that crossed the forest) and we were busy and "talking" when all of a sudden, he leaped to his feet.... You know, he never wears any clothes, so to speak; when I saw him the first time in his house (his supramental house), in the subtle physical, he was without clothes; but it's a kind of vibrant matter: it's very material, very concrete, and it has a sort of color that isn't a color, which is a bit golden and radiant – it doesn't send out rays, but it vibrates with a radiant light. And at least nine times out of ten he is that way; generally, when we are together for some work, he is that way. Last night he was that way. So then I was busy (we had arranged something and I was busy) when, suddenly, I see him leap to his feet and run a hundred-meter sprint. At first I was shocked, I said to myself, "What's this?!" And with great ease, you know: he darted off, then stopped a few minutes, and then ran back. Then he stopped again, and went off a third time on a sprint: like the 100-meter race they run. But the third time, he had grown tall, with a slim body. Grown tall as if to demonstrate to me: this is the way the body will be transformed. He had grown very tall, very strong.... It was very interesting and absolutely unexpected.... The second time, he was stronger than the first; and the third time, he was magnificent: a tall, superb being with that vibrant, radiant substance. And what a sprint! What leaps! It was fantastic. The last time, it was fantastic, as if he skimmed over the ground...We "speak" very, very rarely. Sometimes he tells me something, but it's with a special import and a special aim – we understand each other without words. There he didn't say anything, but I understood. It was part of a very long activity, but that thing struck me very much because it was like the answer [to what I said some time ago]. He said, "Yes, it's true, you are right, it is like that." And that change in his body over the three times: the first time he was as I knew him, but younger and more agile;the second time he was already stronger; and the third time, he was magnificent... I wanted to tell you this.” The Mother's Agenda/18th June, 1965 “The lack of receptivity of the earth and men is mostly responsible for the decision Sri Aurobindo has taken regarding his body. But one thing is certain: what has happened on the physical plane affects in no way the truth of his teaching. All that he has said is perfectly true and remains so. Time and the course of events will prove it abundantly.” 8 December 1950, The Mother/The Mother’s Centenary Works/13/p-7, “The lack of the earth’s receptivity and the behavior of Sri Aurobindo’s disciples are largely responsible for what happened to his body. But one thing is certain: the great misfortune that has just beset us in no way affects the truth of his teaching. All he said is perfectly true and remains so. Time and the course of events will make this abundantly clear.” Feb-1951/Mother’s Agenda-Vol-1/P: 27, "Before, I always had the negative experience of the disappearance of the ego, of the oneness of Creation, where everything implying separation disappeared – an experience that, personally, I would call negative. Last Wednesday, while I was speaking (and that’s why at the end I could no longer find my words), I seemed suddenly to have left this negative phenomenon and entered into the positive experience: the experience of BEING the Supreme Lord, the experience that nothing exists but the Supreme Lord – all is the Supreme Lord, there is nothing else. And at that moment, the feeling of this infinite power that has no limit, that nothing can limit, was so overwhelming that all the functions of the body, of this mental machine that summons up words, all this was ... I could no longer speak French. Perhaps the words could have come to me in English – probably, because it was easier for Sri Aurobindo to express himself in English, and that’s how it must have happened: it was the part embodied in Sri Aurobindo (the part of the Supreme that was embodied in Sri Aurobindo for its manifestation) that had the experience. This is what joined back with the Origin and caused the experience – I was well aware of it. And that is probably why its transcription through English words would have been easier than through French words (for at these moments, such activities are purely mechanical, rather like automatic machines). And naturally the experience left something behind. It left the sense of a power that can no longer be ‘qualified,” really. And it was there yesterday evening." The Mother's Agenda/October 4, 1958 "(Q) What made Sri Aurobindo stop? He hasn’t stopped. Stopped him physically, you mean? (Q) Yes. What made him stop? He decided he had to go. We tried, oh – myself in particular! I concentrated all my power to prevent him from going, and it made him suffer greatly, because ... he WANTED to go, he had decided – ‘he’ – the Supreme Lord had decided that he would go. (Q) Yes, but why exactly was there this halt? He had come for that. But nothing has stopped! That’s precisely the point – he refuses to acknowledge that anything has stopped. Nothing has stopped. He came for that, and he arranged things to... to give a maximum number of chances (‘chance’ is one way of putting it), of possibilities – to put all the winning cards on our side." The Mother's Agenda/July 15, 1961 "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 “There's just one thing ... I don't know ... it's when you say Sri Aurobindo "succumbed" on December 5, 1950. He didn't "succumb." It's not that he couldn't have done otherwise. It's not the difficulty of the work that made him leave; it's something else. You can't mention this in your book, of course, it's impossible to talk about for the moment, but I would like you to use another word. What was your sentence again? I said: "Sri Aurobindo succumbed to this work on December 5, 1950. " He didn't succumb. We have to use another word, not "succumb." It was truly his CHOICE – he chose to do the work in another way, a way he felt would bring much more rapid results. But this explanation is nobody's business, for the moment. So we can't say that he succumbed. "Succumbed" gives the idea that it was against his will, that it just happened, that it was an accident – it CANNOT be "succumbed." Yes, I understand. You could simply say that he did the work up to that moment , .. that's all, giving no reason. We could simply say: "Sri Aurobindo left this life on December 5, 1950." Read the beginning of the passage again. "The seeker of transformation must thus face all the difficulties, even death, not to vanquish but to change them – one cannot change things without taking them upon oneself. 'Thou shalt bear all things,' says Savitri, 'that all things may change.' Sri Aurobindo succumbed to this work ..." Can't you just put "that's why," without giving any explanation?... That's why Sri Aurobindo left his body. That's much more powerful. You said "even death," so just put: "That's why Sri Aurobindo left his body."” The Mother's Agenda/ December 25, 1962 The Mother's Account on The Synthesis of Yoga : “The conditions (of Supramental transformation) Sri Aurobindo gives in detail in The Synthesis of Yoga and in still greater detail in his last articles on the (book) Supramental Manifestation. So now it is only a question of realisation. ” The Mother TMCW-8/The Questions and Answers-1956/p-322 “Many times in his writings, particularly in The Synthesis of Yoga,⁴³ 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.” The Mother TMCW (second edition)/Vol-10/p-15 "Nevertheless, there is somewhere an absolute control , a real Ishwara. He is aware of it and knows that if he can find it, he will enter into control, become not only the passive sanctioning witness and upholding soul of her will, but the free powerful user and determiner of her movements. But this control seems to belong to another poise than the mentality. Sometimes he finds himself using it, but as a channel or instrument; it comes to him from above. It is clear then that it is supramental, a power of the Spirit greater than mental being which he already knows himself to be at the summit and in the secret core of his conscious being. To enter into identity with that Spirit must then be his way to control and lordship. He can do it passively by a sort of reflection and receiving in his mental consciousness, but then he is only a mould, channel or instrument, not a possessor or participant in the power. He can arrive at identity by an absorption of his mentality in inner spiritual being, but then the conscious action ceases in a trance of identity. To be active master of the nature he must evidently rise to some higher supramental poise where there is possible not only a passive, but an active identity with the controlling spirit. To find the way of rising to this greater poise and be self-ruler, Swarat , is a condition of his perfection." CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-637-638, “So you may come across some passages (The Mother’s translation of The Synthesis of Yoga ) that are not all that legible. But the last part (The Yoga of Self-Perfection) is the longest, and it’s difficult, too. He (Sri Aurobindo) did not complete it. He never completed the last chapter, he told me, “You will complete it when I have completed my Yoga, ” and then he went, left everything. Afterwards, several times, he told me that I should be the one to complete it—I answered him that I did not have the brain for it. Or else I would have to write it in a mediumistic way, but I am not a good medium, I am too conscious—the consciousness is immediately awake in the background and watches the phenomenon, so it stops working. Q: But your (The Mother’s) Agenda is the end of the “Yoga of Self-Perfection”! Well, it will be a long end! (Mother laughs) In other words, when it’s over (we must first wait for it to be over), when it’s over, with these notes, we could establish something —you will have to wait for some time! There are still several years to go.” The Mother’s Agenda/Vol-4/p-435, “I am continuing The Yoga of Self-Perfection. It is really something... I shall never tire of saying it’s ‘fabulous.’ Everything, absolutely everything, in detail, everything is there. And He (Sri Aurobindo) foresaw—foresaw, gave the remedy...” The Mother’s Agenda/Vol-1/p-407 “It is that old habit, the old fear of being lazy. It took me... But Sri Aurobindo cured me of that rather quickly. That is how it was before I met him. And that is the first thing he did: he gave me a tap on the head, and all activity ceased—total silence, all mental constructions and habits swept away... in the blink of an eye... He mentions it when he explains mental equality (in The Synthesis of Yoga)—that a state is reached where one is unable to initiate any activity; only the stimulus of an impulsion from above can move you. So you do nothing, you just stay like that, perfectly immobile in your mind (not only physically—especially in your mind): you do not initiate anything.... Before, the mind (subject to three gunas ) was always creating, setting actions, wills and movements into motion, producing consequences; and it is very frightening when that stops –you feel you are becoming an idiot. But it is quite the opposite! No more ideas, no more will, no more impulsions, nothing. You act only when something makes you act, without knowing why or how.... This “something” does not come from below (from three Gunas), of course, it must not come from below (means from tamasic, rajasic and sattwic mind). But that condition can truly be achieved only when all the work below has been completed (action of the lower attraction of Nature must be transcended).” The Mother’s Agenda-3/p-112, “When I read what Sri Aurobindo writes in The Synthesis (of Yoga) , how things should be (law of Sadhaka) and what they are now (law of Ashramite), when I see the two, that is when I feel we are turning in circles. It (law of Sadhaka) is more and more a universal yoga—the whole earth—and it is like that day and night, when I walk and when I speak and when I eat. It is constantly like that. As if the whole earth were... it is like kneading dough to make it rise. But when I read his Yoga of Self-Perfection and see...simply what we are...phew (very few can pursue this Yoga)! What yeast we would need to make all that rise! But this is not true: He alone is doing it, it is always He. And sometimes things stagnate, they seem so absolutely obscure and stupid. And then, if you simply go like this (gesture of offering), simply, truly—do it, not think it –it is instantly like a shower of bliss.. .A tiny point, something very small which looks stubbornly stupid and obstinate, if only you do this (and if you want, you can): ‘Take, take!’ Give it to Him, simply, like this, truly give it to Him: ‘It is Yours, take it, do with it what You want.’ And instantly, instead of this shrinking and this painful feeling –‘What in the world can I do with all this?’—a shower, it comes like a shower. Truly Ananda . Of course, if you are stupid enough to call back the difficulty, it returns. But if you remain quiet, if you keep your head quiet, it goes—finished, cured. But there are thousands and thousands and thousands of such points...” , (The above message hints that the Mother was not satisfied with the Ashram law She had formulated and there exists a higher law of consecrated universal Yoga for liberated Souls.) The Mother’s Agenda-1/p-400-401 "I am continuing my reading of the Veda. I had to stop for some days because of a sore throat. But anyway, I’m starting again...The Vedas, after all, were written by people who remembered a radical experience, which must have taken place on earth at a given moment, as an example of what was to come. (This always happens in the yoga: a first radical experience comes like a herald of the future realization.) So in the terrestrial yoga – in the yoga of the earth, of the planet earth – there was a moment when it came; they who are called the forefathers must have created, through their effort and their yoga, at least an image of the supramental realization. And those who wrote the Vedas, who composed all these hymns, remembered or kept the tradition of that experience. And oh, mon petit, it had the same effect on me as when I read the ‘Yoga of Self-Perfection’ in The Synthesis of Yoga (the Mother catches her breath): there is such a gulf between what we are, what life on earth and human consciousness now are, even among the most enlightened, the most advanced, and THAT! ..." The Mother's Agenda/April 7, 1961, "One day ... (I’m translating the last section of The Synthesis of Yoga, ‘The Yoga of Self-Perfection’ – it plunges you into bottomless gulfs ... ) and one day (I think I’ve told you this), I had a vision of the gap between ... not even what ought to be, because we probably haven’t the slightest idea of that, but between our concept of what we would like to be and what is. And it was so dreadful that the body was thrown into, oh ... an anguish, a horror; and along with it an intensity of aspiration, a prayer. The gap seemed so tremendous: ‘Is it possible?’....‘This body thirsts for perfection, not this human perfection which is the perfection of the ego...’ (it was so clear to me that everything human beings conceive of as perfection is simply the ego wanting to magnify itself for its own greater glory) ‘... not this human perfection which is the perfection of the ego and bars the way to the divine Perfection, but that one perfection .. (these repeated ‘perfections’ are deliberate: it’s like a litany) ... but that one perfection which has the POWER to manifest upon earth the eternal Truth.’" The Mother's Agenda/December 16, 1961, “So now I do not mind finishing (I usually translated The Synthesis of Yoga (into French language) in the afternoons.) The Synthesis of Yoga . I was little bothered because I have no other books by Sri Aurobindo to translate that can help me in sadhana : There was only The Synthesis (of Yoga) .” The Mother’s Agenda-3/p-348 “Personally, of all those I have read, it is the book (The Synthesis of Yoga ) that has helped me the most. It comes from a very high and very universal inspiration, in the sense that it will remain new for a long time to come. ” The Mother’s Agenda-13/p-66 “Behind the common idea that a Yogi can know all things and answer all questions is the actual fact that there is a plane in the mind where the memory of everything is stored and remains always in existence. All mental movements that belong to the life of the earth are memorised and registered in this plane. Those who are capable of going there and care to take the trouble, can read in it and learn anything they choose. But this region must not be mistaken for the supramental levels. And yet to reach even there you must be able to silence the movements of the material or physical mind; you must be able to leave aside all your sensations and put a stop to your ordinary mental movements, whatever they are; you must get out of the vital; you must become free from the slavery of the body. Then only you can enter into that region and see. But if you are sufficiently interested to make this effort, you can arrive there and read what is written in the earth’s memory.” The Mother/TMCW-3/Questions and Answers-1929-1931/p- 94, "In one chapter of The Synthesis of Yoga, Sri Aurobindo says that there is a state of consciousness in which all is from all eternity –everything, without exception, that is to be manifested here… Q:- In detail? In a certain state of consciousness (I no longer remember what he calls it—I think it’s in the ‘Yoga of Self-Perfection’), one is perfectly identified with the Supreme, not in his static but in his dynamic aspect, the state of becoming. In this state, everything is already there from all eternity, even though here it gives us the impression of a becoming. And Sri Aurobindo says that if you are capable of maintaining this state, then you know everything: all that has been, all that is and all that will be –in an absolutely simultaneous way. (“That must be reached from which all knowledge comes.” Savitri-284) (“But what That was, no thought nor sight could tell.” Savitri-308) But you must have a firm head on your shoulders! Reading some of these chapters in ‘Self-Perfection,’ I thought it would be better if it didn’t fall into just anyone’s hands. (The Mother may be referring to these lines from TSY: "Meanwhile there are certain doors opening from the inner on to the outer consciousness which make an occasional but insufficient power of direct retro-vision of the past, circumvision of the present, prevision of the future even in the physical mind at least potentially feasible." CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-892) Anyway, in this state the feeling of uncertainty completely disappears (he explains it very well)." The Mother/The Mother’s Agenda/Vol.-2/p-170, Its complementary line from Savitri: “He abode at rest in indivisible Time. As if a story long written but acted now, In his present he held his future and his past, Felt in the seconds the uncounted years And saw the hours like dots upon a page.” Savitri-33 "Upon her silent heights she was aware Of a calm Presence throned above her brows Who saw the goal and chose each fateful curve; It used the body for its pedestal; The eyes that wandered were its searchlight fires, The hands that held the reins its living tools; All was the working of an ancient plan, A way proposed by an unerring Guide." Savitri-378 " And nothing happens in the cosmic play But at its time and in its foreseen place. ” Savitri-389 "A true, sincere, spontaneous life, as in the supramental world, is a springing forth of things through the fact of conscious will, a power over substance that shapes this substance according to what we decide it should be. And he who has this power and this knowledge can obtain whatever he wants, whereas he who does not has no artificial means of getting what he desires." The Mother/The Mother's Agenda/3.2.1958 “The true consciousness within is not unaware of its past; it holds it there, not necessarily in memory but in being, still active, living, ready with its fruits, and sends it up from time to time in memory or more concretely in result of past action or past causes to the superficial conscious being, —that is indeed the true rationale of what is called Karma. It is or can be aware too of the future, for there is somewhere in the inner being a field of cognition open to future knowledge, a prospective as well as a retrospective Time-sense, Time-vision, Time-perception; something in it lives indivisibly in the three times and contains all their apparent divisions, holds the future ready for manifestation within it. Here, then, in this habit of living in the present, we have a second absorption, a second exclusive concentration which complicates and farther limits the being, but simplifies the apparent course of the action by relating it not to the whole infinite course of Time, but to a definite succession of moments.” CWSA-21/The Life Divine/p-606 “It is therefore only by going back from the surface physical mind to the psychic and spiritual consciousness that a vision and knowledge of the triple time , a transcendence of our limitation to the standpoint and view range of the moment, can be wholly possible . Meanwhile there are certain doors opening from the inner on to the outer consciousness which make an occasional but insufficient power of direct retro-vision of the past, circumvision of the present, prevision of the future even in the physical mind at least potentially feasible.” Sri Aurobindo/CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-892, "But that (Supramental) cannot work in him so long as his present mental, vital, physical being is not liberated from its actual inferior working (of the three Gunas). This purification is the first necessity." Sri Aurobindo CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-644-645, “The supermind in its completeness reverses the whole order of the mind’s thinking. It lives not in the phenomenal, but in the essential, in the self, and sees all as being of the self and its power and form and movement, and all the thought and the process of the thought in the supermind must also be of that character. All its fundamental ideation is a rendering of the spiritual knowledge that acts by identity with all being and of the Supramental vision. ” CWSA/24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-844, “The supermind has the vision of the three times, trikaladrsti; it sees them as an indivisible movement and sees too each containing the others. It is aware of all tendencies, energies and forces as the diverse play of unity and knows their relation to each other in the single movement of the one spirit.” CWSA/24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-792, “So according to the degree to which you are conscious and the extent to which you see, you perceive images, see events that are more or less near, and you see them more or less accurately. The only vision that is true and sure is the vision of the divine Consciousness. So the problem is to become aware of the divine Consciousness and to keep this consciousness in all details all the time. ” The Mother/TMCW-10/On Thoughts and Aphorisms/p-126, “As an occult vision opens in him, he becomes aware of worlds behind in which consciousness and personality hold an enormous place and assume a premier value; even here in the material world to this occult vision the inconscience of Matter fills with a secret pervading consciousness, its inanimation harbours a vibrant life, its mechanism is the device of an indwelling Intelligence, God and soul are everywhere.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-127 “On life’s thin border awhile the Vision stood And bent over earth’s pondering forehead curve.” Savitri-4 “Here too the vision and prophetic gleam Lit into miracles common meaningless shapes;” Savitri-5 “But wisdom comes, and vision grows within: Then Nature’s instrument crowns himself her king; He feels his witnessing self and conscious power; His soul steps back and sees the Light supreme.” Savitri-20 “All the grey inhibitions were torn off And broken the intellect’s hard and lustrous lid; Truth unpartitioned found immense sky-room; An empyrean vision saw and knew; The bounded mind became a boundless light, The finite self mated with infinity.” Savitri-25 “Yet a foreseeing Knowledge might be ours, If we could take our spirit’s stand within, If we could hear the muffled daemon voice.” Savitri-52 “He crosses the boundaries of the unseen And passes over the edge of mortal sight To a new vision of himself and things.” Savitri-71 “There is a deeper seeing from within And, when we have left these small purlieus of mind, A greater vision meets us on the heights In the luminous wideness of the spirit’s gaze. At last there wakes in us a witness Soul That looks at truths unseen and scans the Unknown; Then all assumes a new and marvellous face: The world quivers with a God-light at its core, In Time’s deep heart high purposes move and live, Life’s borders crumble and join infinity.” Savitri-168 “Overtaken by the spirit’s sudden spell, Smitten by a divine passion’s alchemy, Pain’s self compelled transformed to potent joy Curing the antithesis twixt heaven and hell. All life’s high visions are embodied there, ” Savitri-235 “Arriving into his ken a wonder space Of great and marvellous meetings called his steps, Where Thought leaned on a Vision beyond thought And shaped a world from the Unthinkable." Savitri-260 “All that is made and once again unmade, The calm persistent vision of the One Inevitably re-makes, it lives anew: Forces and lives and beings and ideas Are taken into the stillness for a while; There they remould their purpose and their drift, Recast their nature and re-form their shape.” Savitri-294 “An invisible sunlight ran within her veins And flooded her brain with heavenly brilliances That woke a wider sight than earth could know.” Savitri-356 (Supramental vision) "Our sight and sense are a fallible gaze and touch And only the spirit’s vision is wholly true. " Savitri-525 “But higher still can climb the ascending light; There are vasts of vision and eternal suns Oceans of an immortal luminousness, Flame-hills assaulting heaven with their peaks, There dwelling all becomes a blaze of sight; A burning head of vision leads the mind, Thought trails behind it its long comet tail; The heart glows, an illuminate and seer, And sense is kindled into identity." Savitri-659-660 ‘But just as anyone can with some training learn science and do things which would have seemed miracles to his forefathers, so almost anyone, if he wants, can with a little concentration and training develop the faculty of supraphysical vision. When one starts Yoga, this power is often though not invariably — for some find it difficult — one of the first to come out from its latent condition and manifest itself, most often without any effort, intention or previous knowledge on the part of the sadhak. It comes more easily with the eyes shut than with the eyes open, but it does come in both ways. The first sign of its opening in the externalised way is very often that seeing of “sparkles” or small luminous dots, shapes etc . which was your first introduction to the matter; a second is, often enough, the seeing of circles of light or colour round objects, most easily round luminous objects like a star; seeing of colours is a third initial experience — but they do not always come in that order. The Yogis in India very often in order to develop the power use the method of tratak, concentrating the vision on a single point or object — preferably a luminous object.’ CWSA-30/Letters on Yoga-III/p-89-90, "I am just finishing The Synthesis of Yoga , and what Sri Aurobindo says (in 'Towards the Supramental Time Vision) is exactly what has happened to me throughout my life . And he explains how you can still make mistakes as long as you are not supramentalized. Sri Aurobindo describes all the ways by which images are sent to you – and they are not always images or reflections of the truth of things past, present or future; there are also all the images that come from human mental formations and all the various things that want to be considered. It is very, very interesting. And interestingly enough, in these few pages I have found a description of the work I have spent my whole life doing, trying to SIFT out all we see .... I can only be sure of something once a certain type of picture comes, and then the whole world could tell me, ‘But things didn’t happen like that’; I would reply, ‘Sorry, but I see it.’ And that type of picture is certain, for I have studied it, I have studied their differences in quality and the texture of the pictures. It is very interesting." The Mother/The Mother's Agenda/11.10.196 "There are two other letters: "To bring the Divine Love and Beauty and Ananda into the world is, indeed, the whole crown and essence of our yoga. But it has always seemed to me impossible unless there comes as its support and foundation and guard the Divine Truth – what I call the supramental – and its Divine Power...." (SABCL/XXIII.753) (CWSA-29/Letters on Yoga-II/p-333) Here it's clear: he says that what he calls the "Supramental" is the Divine Truth, and that it must come first, and the rest comes afterwards. And yet, for some time now and increasingly, there has been an extremely concrete Response to a kind of aspiration (a call or prayer) in which I say to the Lord, "Supreme Lord, manifest Your Love." (It comes at the end of a long invocation in which I ask Him to manifest all His aspects one after another, one after another, and it ends like that.) But then, remarkably enough, at that moment there comes a Response which is growing clearer and clearer, stronger and stronger.... But Sri Aurobindo says that Truth should be established first, and that what he calls the Supramental is the supreme Truth, the Divine Truth. It corresponds to what I noticed while translating that last chapter on "the perfection of the being" in the "Yoga of Self-Perfection": I kept thinking, "But that's only the aspect of Truth; all that he expresses is the aspect of Truth; always and everywhere, it's the angle of Truth; and his supramental action is an action of Truth." I didn't know he had said it, but it's written clearly here: "... But it has always seemed to me impossible unless there comes as its support and foundation and guard the Divine Truth – what I call the supramental – and its Divine Power. Otherwise Love itself blinded by the confusions of this present consciousness may stumble in its human receptacles and, even otherwise, may find itself unrecognised, rejected or rapidly degenerating and lost in the frailty of man's inferior nature. But when it comes in the divine truth and power, Divine Love descends first as something transcendent and universal and out of that transcendence and universality it applies itself to persons according to the Divine Truth and Will, creating a vaster, greater, purer personal love than any the human mind or heart can now imagine . It is when one has felt this descent that one can be really an instrument for the birth and action of the Divine Love in the world." (SABCL/XXIII.753)(CWSA-29/Letters on Yoga-II/p-333)" The Mother's Agenda/July 24, 1963 "In The Synthesis of Yoga, Sri Aurobindo says that this idea of good and bad, of pure and impure, is a notion needed for action; but the purists, such as Chaitanya, Ramakrishna and others, do not agree. They do not agree that it is indispensable for action. They simply say: your acceptance of action as a necessary thing is contrary to your perception of the Divine in all things. (Q): How can the two be reconciled? I recall that once I tried to speak of this, but no one followed me, no one understood, so I did not insist. I left it open and never pursued it further, for they could not decipher anything or find any meaning in what I was saying. But now I could give a very simple answer: Let the Supreme do the work. It is He who has to progress, not you! (Q): Ramdas does not at all consider that the world as it is, is good. No, but I know all these people, I know them thoroughly! I know Chaitanya, Ramakrishna and Ramdas thoroughly. They are utterly familiar to me. It doesn’t bother them. These are people who live with a certain feeling, who have an entirely concrete experience and live in this experience, but they don’t care at all if their formation – they have not even crystallized it, they leave it like that, vague – contains things that are mutually contradictory, because, in appearance, they reconcile them. They do not raise any questions, they do not have the need for an absolutely clear vision; their feeling is absolutely clear, and that’s enough for them. Ramakrishna was like that; he said the most contradictory things without being bothered in the least, and they are all exactly and equally true...But this crystal clear vision Sri Aurobindo had, where everything is in its place, where contradictions no longer exist – they never soared to that height. This was the thing, this really crystalline, perfect supramental vision, even from the standpoint of understanding and knowledge. They never went that far." The Mother's Agenda/June 22, 1958, Accountability of a Sadhaka of Integral Yoga: "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…” CWSA-29/Letters on Yoga-II/p-480 “When one takes sincerely to surrender, nothing must be concealed that is of any importance for the life of the sadhana. Confession helps to purge the consciousness of hampering elements and it clears the inner air and makes for a closer and more intimate and effective relation between the Guru and the disciple.” (Accountability of sadhana to Guru through confession..) CWSA-29/Letters on Yoga-II/p-193 “In ancient times the disciple had to undergo severe tests to prove his ability for initiation. Here we do not follow that method. Apparently there is no test and no trial. But if you see the truth, you will find that here it is much more difficult. There the disciple knew that he was undergoing a period of trial and after he had passed through some outward tests, he was taken in. But here you have to face life and you are watched at every moment. It is not only your outer actions that count. Each and every thought and inner movement is seen, every reaction is noticed. It is not what you do in the solitude of the forest, but what you do in the thick of the battle of life that is important. Are you ready to submit yourself for such tests? Are you ready to change yourself completely? You will have to throw off your ideas, ideals, values, interests and opinions. Everything will have to be learnt anew. If you are ready for all this, then take a plunge; otherwise don’t try to step in.” The Mother/TMCW-14/The Words of the Mother-II/p-43-44, "For below even our most obscure physical consciousness is a subconscious being in which as in a covering and supporting soil are all manner of hidden seeds that sprout up, unaccountably to us, on our surface and into which we are constantly throwing fresh seeds that prolong our past and will influence our future, — a subconscious being, obscure, small in its motions, capriciously and almost fantastically subrational, but of an immense potency for the earth-life." CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-181-182 “Therefore the first reckoning we have to mend is that between this infinite Movement, this energy of existence which is the world and ourselves. At present we keep a false account. We are infinitely important to the All, but to us the All is negligible; we alone are important to ourselves. This is the sign of the original ignorance which is the root of the ego, that it can only think with itself as centre as if it were the All, and of that which is not itself accepts only so much as it is mentally disposed to acknowledge or as it is forced to recognise by the shocks of its environment. Even when it begins to philosophise, does it not assert that the world only exists in and by its consciousness? Its own state of consciousness or mental standards are to it the test of reality; all outside its orbit or view tends to become false or non-existent. This mental self-sufficiency of man creates a system of false accountantship which prevents us from drawing the right and full value from life. There is a sense in which these pretensions of the human mind and ego repose on a truth, but this truth only emerges when the mind has learned its ignorance and the ego has submitted to the All and lost in it its separate self-assertion. To recognise that we, or rather the results and appearances we call ourselves, are only a partial movement of this infinite Movement and that it is that infinite which we have to know, to be consciously and to fulfil faithfully, is the commencement of true living. To recognise that in our true selves we are one with the total movement and not minor or subordinate is the other side of the account, and its expression in the manner of our being, thought, emotion and action is necessary to the culmination of a true or divine living…But to settle the account we have to know what is this All, this infinite and omnipotent energy.” CWSA-21/The Life Divine/p-79-80 Instructions issued to a Sadhaka in The Synthesis of Yoga: It is understood that most of the Sadhakas are from traditional schools of Yoga and pursue one of the traditional methods of Yoga. Sri Aurobindo proposes that integral Yoga begins or Yoga of Self-perfection begins, after one has exhausted the manyfold perfection of traditional Yoga or after one is established in higher consciousness of Psychic and and Spiritual planes and their extension in cosmic Consciousness. To these Sadhakas , Sri Aurobindo has issued some profound instructions in His principal Teaching, The Synthesis of Yoga. Those who will pursue Integral Yoga must comply with the norms issued in The Synthesis of Yoga . This is the Spirit of af an Integral Sadhak : "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 How a Sadhaka of traditional Yoga will become a Sadhaka of Integral Yoga is hinted in the Gita and Sri Aurobindo's following letter. “A seeker of truth, jijnasu , after many births of preparation, purification of impurity and sin, endeavouring with sincerity becomes a traditional Yogi and attains the highest goal of liberation of Soul or a Soul who fell from Yoga, yogabhrasta , from the past birth, in this birth strives with sincerity to overcome the samskara of many births in brief period of this life and attains the highest goal... After many births of preparation, a traditional Yogi, Jnani, attains My Purushottama or Supramental state of Consciousness. Before realisation of this highest Consciousness, he also realises the intermediate stair that all this existence is Divine, the Cosmic Consciousness, Vasudeva sarvamiti . Such a great Soul with realisation of Vasudeva sarvamiti or integral Yogi is very rare, samahatma sudurlava. ” (THE GITA-6.45/7.19, ) The mind is exclusive and mind will permit the pursuit of only one Yoga at a time. The Gita proposes to train the mind to develop double sincerity (The Gita-3.3) through which Karma Yoga can be reconciled with Jnana Yoga. “Children (child Soul) speak of Sankhya and Yoga apart from each other, not the wise (ripened soul); if a man applies himself integrally to one, he gets the fruit of both.” The Gita-5.4, “This is the distinction made in the Gita between Sankhya and Yoga ; both are necessary to an integral knowledge.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-374, Integral Yoga proposes that if one is established in higher universalised Consciousness, then he can reconcile all three Yogas of Karma, Jnana and Bhakti Yoga . “The full Yoga, Purna Yoga , means a fourfold path, a Yoga of knowledge for the mind, a Yoga of bhakti for the heart, a Yoga of works for the will and a Yoga of perfection for the whole nature. But, ordinarily, if one can follow wholeheartedly any one of these lines, one arrives at the result of all the four . For instance, by bhakti one becomes close to the Divine, becomes intensely aware of Him and arrives at knowledge, for the Divine is the Truth and the Reality; by knowing Him, says the Upanishads , one comes to know all. By bhakti also the will is led into the road of the works of love and the service of the Divine and the government of the nature and its acts by the Divine, and that is Karmayoga. By bhakti also comes spiritual change of the consciousness and the action of the nature which is the first step towards its transformation. So it is with all the other lines of the fourfold path.” Sri Aurobindo/CWSA-31/Letters on Yoga-IV/p-686-687 “The method we have to pursue, then, is to put our whole conscious being into relation and contact with the Divine and to call Him in to transform our entire being into His. Thus in a sense God Himself, the real Person in us, becomes the sadhaka of the sadhana (Sadhana , the practice by which perfection, siddhi, is attained; sadhaka , the Yogin who seeks by that practice the siddhi. ) as well as the Master of the Yoga by whom the lower personality is used as the centre of a divine transfiguration and the instrument of its own perfection. In effect, the pressure of the Tapas, the force of consciousness in us dwelling in the Idea of the divine Nature upon that which we are in our entirety, produces its own realisation. The divine and all-knowing and all-effecting descends upon the limited and obscure, progressively illumines and energises the whole lower nature and substitutes its own action for all the terms of the inferior human light and mortal activity.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-45-46 “Meanwhile certain general lines have to be formed which may help to guide the thought and practice of the sadhaka . But these must take as much as possible the form of general truths, general statements of principle, the most powerful broad directions of effort and development rather than a fixed system which has to be followed as a routine. All Shastra is the outcome of past experience and a help to future experience. It is an aid and a partial guide. It puts up signposts, gives the names of the main roads and the already explored directions, so that the traveller may know whither and by what paths he is proceeding… The rest depends on personal effort and experience and upon the power of the Guide.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-57 “The development of the experience in its rapidity, its amplitude, the intensity and power of its results, depends primarily, in the beginning of the path and long after, on the aspiration and personal effort of the sadhaka . The process of Yoga is a turning of the human soul from the egoistic state of consciousness absorbed in the outward appearances and attractions of things to a higher state in which the Transcendent and Universal can pour itself into the individual mould and transform it. The first determining element of the siddhi is, therefore, the intensity of the turning, the force which directs the soul inward. The power of aspiration of the heart, the force of the will, the concentration of the mind, the perseverance and determination of the applied energy are the measure of that intensity. The ideal sadhaka should be able to say in the Biblical phrase, “My zeal for the Lord has eaten me up.” It is this zeal for the Lord, — utsaha, the zeal of the whole nature for its divine results, vyakulata , the heart’s eagerness for the attainment of the Divine, — that devours the ego and breaks up the limitations of its petty and narrow mould for the full and wide reception of that which it seeks, that which, being universal, exceeds and, being transcendent, surpasses even the largest and highest individual self and nature.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-58 “But this is only one side of the force that works for perfection. The process of the integral Yoga has three stages, not indeed sharply distinguished or separate, but in a certain measure successive. There must be, first, the effort towards at least an initial and enabling self-transcendence and contact with the Divine; next, the reception of that which transcends, that with which we have gained communion, into ourselves for the transformation of our whole conscious being; last , the utilisation of our transformed humanity as a divine centre in the world. So long as the contact with the Divine is not in some considerable degree established, so long as there is not some measure of sustained identity, sayujya , the element of personal effort must normally predominate. But in proportion as this contact establishes itself, the sadhaka must become conscious that a force other than his own, a force transcending his egoistic endeavour and capacity, is at work in him and to this Power he learns progressively to submit himself and delivers up to it the charge of his Yoga. In the end his own will and force become one with the higher Power; he merges them in the divine Will and its transcendent and universal Force. He finds it thenceforward presiding over the necessary transformation of his mental, vital and physical being with an impartial wisdom and provident effectivity of which the eager and interested ego is not capable. It is when this identification and this self-merging are complete that the divine centre in the world is ready. Purified, liberated, plastic, illumined, it can begin to serve as a means for the direct action of a supreme Power in the larger Yoga of humanity or superhumanity, of the earth’s spiritual progression or its transformation.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-58-59 “The personal will of the sadhaka has (1) first to seize on the egoistic energies and turn them towards the light and the right; once turned, he has still to train them to recognise that always, always to accept, always to follow that. (2) Progressing, he learns, still using the personal will, personal effort, personal energies, to employ them as representatives of the higher Power and in conscious obedience to the higher Influence. (3) Progressing yet farther, his will, effort, energy become no longer personal and separate, but activities of that higher Power and Influence at work in the individual. But there is still a sort of gulf or distance which necessitates an obscure process of transit, not always accurate, sometimes even very distorting, between the divine Origin and the emerging human current. (4) At the end of the process, with the progressive disappearance of egoism and impurity and ignorance, this last separation is removed; all in the individual becomes the divine working. ” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-60-61 “The sadhaka of the integral Yoga will make use of all these aids according to his nature; but it is necessary that he should shun their limitations and cast from himself that exclusive tendency of egoistic mind which cries, “My God, my Incarnation, my Prophet, my Guru ,” and opposes it to all other realisation in a sectarian or a fanatical spirit. All sectarianism, all fanaticism must be shunned; for it is inconsistent with the integrity of the divine realisation. On the contrary, the sadhaka of the integral Yoga will not be satisfied until he has included all other names and forms of Deity in his own conception, seen his own Ishta Devata in all others, unified all Avatars in the unity of Him who descends in the Avatar , welded the truth in all teachings into the harmony of the Eternal Wisdom. Nor should he forget the aim of these external aids which is to awaken his soul to the Divine within him. Nothing has been finally accomplished if that has not been accomplished. It is not sufficient to worship Krishna, Christ or Buddha without, if there is not the revealing and the formation of the Buddha, the Christ or Krishna in ourselves. And all other aids equally have no other purpose; each is a bridge between man’s unconverted state and the revelation of the Divine within him.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-66 “The example is more powerful than the instruction; but it is not the example of the outward acts nor that of the personal character which is of most importance. These have their place and their utility; but what will most stimulate aspiration in others is the central fact of the divine realisation within him governing his whole life and inner state and all his activities. This is the universal and essential element; the rest belongs to individual person and circumstance. It is this dynamic realisation that the sadhaka must feel and reproduce in himself according to his own nature; he need not strive after an imitation from outside which may well be sterilising rather than productive of right and natural fruits.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-67 “The sadhaka who has all these (four) aids is sure of his goal. Even a fall will be for him only a means of rising and death a passage towards fulfilment. For once on this path, birth and death become only processes in the development of his being and the stages of his journey." (The four aids are Shastra, Utsaha, Guru and Kala .) CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-69 Its complementary Line: “The ordinary man who wishes to reach God through knowledge, must undergo an elaborate training. He must begin by becoming absolutely pure, he must cleanse thoroughly his body, his heart and his intellect, he must get himself a new heart and be born again; for only the twice born can understand or teach the Vedas. When he has done this he needs yet four things before he can succeed, (1) the Sruti or recorded revelation, (2) the Sacred Teacher, (3) the practice of Yoga and (4) the Grace of God.” CWSA-18/Kena and other Upanishads/p-169, "Time is the remaining aid needed for the effectivity of the process. Time presents itself to human effort as an enemy or a friend, as a resistance, a medium or an instrument. But always it is really the instrument of the soul. Time is a field of circumstances and forces meeting and working out a resultant progression whose course it measures. To the ego it is a tyrant or a resistance, to the Divine an instrument. Therefore, while our effort is personal, Time appears as a resistance, for it presents to us all the obstruction of the forces that conflict with our own. When the divine working and the personal are combined in our consciousness, it appears as a medium and a condition. When the two become one, it appears as a servant and instrument. The ideal attitude of the sadhaka towards Time is to have an endless patience as if he had all eternity for his fulfilment and yet to develop the energy that shall realise now and with an ever-increasing mastery and pressure of rapidity till it reaches the miraculous instantaneousness of the supreme divine Transformation.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-69 “But this is not always the manner of the commencement. The sadhaka is often led gradually and there is a long space between the first turning of the mind and the full assent of the nature to the thing towards which it turns. There may at first be only a vivid intellectual interest, a forcible attraction towards the idea and some imperfect form of practice. Or perhaps there is an effort not favoured by the whole nature, a decision or a turn imposed by an intellectual influence or dictated by personal affection and admiration for someone who is himself consecrated and devoted to the Highest. In such cases, a long period of preparation may be necessary before there comes the irrevocable consecration; and in some instances it may not come. There may be some advance, there may be a strong effort, even much purification and many experiences other than those that are central or supreme; but the life will either be spent in preparation or, a certain stage having been reached, the mind pushed by an insufficient driving-force may rest content at the limit of the effort possible to it . Or there may even be a recoil to the lower life, — what is called in the ordinary parlance of Yoga a fall from the path. This lapse happens because there is a defect at the very centre. The intellect has been interested, the heart attracted, the will has strung itself to the effort, but the whole nature has not been taken captive by the Divine. It has only acquiesced in the interest, the attraction or the endeavour. There has been an experiment, perhaps even an eager experiment, but not a total self-giving to an imperative need of the soul or to an unforsakable ideal. Even such imperfect Yoga has not been wasted; for no upward effort is made in vain. Even if it fails in the present or arrives only at some preparatory stage or preliminary realisation, it has yet determined the soul’s future.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-70-71 “There is another direction in which the ordinary practice of Yoga arrives at a helpful but narrowing simplification which is denied to the sadhaka of the integral aim. The practice of Yoga brings us face to face with the extraordinary complexity of our own being, the stimulating but also embarrassing multiplicity of our personality, the rich endless confusion of Nature. To the ordinary man who lives upon his own waking surface, ignorant of the self’s depths and vastnesses behind the veil, his psychological existence is fairly simple. A small but clamorous company of desires, some imperative intellectual and aesthetic cravings, some tastes, a few ruling or prominent ideas amid a great current of unconnected or ill-connected and mostly trivial thoughts, a number of more or less imperative vital needs, alternations of physical health and disease, a scattered and inconsequent succession of joys and griefs, frequent minor disturbances and vicissitudes and rarer strong searchings and upheavals of mind or body, and through it all Nature, partly with the aid of his thought and will, partly without or in spite of it, arranging these things in some rough practical fashion, some tolerable disorderly order, — this is the material of his existence. The average human being even now is in his inward existence as crude and undeveloped as was the bygone primitive man in his outward life. But as soon as we go deep within ourselves, — and Yoga means a plunge into all the multiple profundities of the soul, — we find ourselves subjectively, as man in his growth has found himself objectively, surrounded by a whole complex world which we have to know and to conquer.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-74-75 "Yet again, above our human mind are still greater reaches superconscient to it and from there secretly descend influences, powers, touches which are the original determinants of things here and, if they were called down in their fullness, could altogether alter the whole make and economy of life in the material universe. It is all this latent experience and knowledge that the Divine Force working upon us by our opening to it in the integral Yoga, progressively reveals to us, uses and works out the consequences as means and steps towards a transformation of our whole being and nature. Our life is thenceforth no longer a little rolling wave on the surface, but interpenetrant if not coincident with the cosmic life. Our spirit, our self rises not only into an inner identity with some wide cosmic Self but into some contact with that which is beyond (transcendent Self ), though aware of and dominant over the action of the universe." CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-182-183 (The first term of our progress) “Whoever sincerely enters the path of works, must leave behind him the stage in which need and desire are the first law of our acts. For whatever desires still trouble his being, he must, if he accepts the high aim of Yoga, put them away from him into the hands of the Lord within us. The supreme Power will deal with them for the good of the sadhaka and for the good of all. In effect, we find that once this surrender is done, — always provided the rejection is sincere, — egoistic indulgence of desire may for some time recur under the continued impulse of past nature but only in order to exhaust its acquired momentum and to teach the embodied being in his most unteachable part, his nervous, vital, emotional nature, by the reactions of desire, by its grief and unrest bitterly contrasted with calm periods of the higher peace or marvellous movements of divine Ananda, that egoistic desire is not a law for the soul that seeks liberation or aspires to its own original god-nature. Afterwards the element of desire in those impulsions will be thrown away or persistently eliminated by a constant denying and transforming pressure. Only the pure force of action in them (pravritti) justified by an equal delight in all work and result that is inspired or imposed from above will be preserved in the happy harmony of a final perfection. To act, to enjoy is the normal law and right of the nervous being; but to choose by personal desire its action and enjoyment is only its ignorant will, not its right. Alone the supreme and universal Will must choose; action must change into a dynamic movement of that Will; enjoyment must be replaced by the play of a pure spiritual Ananda . All personal will is either a temporary delegation from on high or a usurpation by the ignorant Asura .” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-209-210 “The social law, that second term of our progress , is a means to which the ego is subjected in order that it may learn discipline by subordination to a wider collective ego. This law may be quite empty of any moral content and may express only the needs or the practical good of the society as each society conceives it. Or it may express those needs and that good, but modified and coloured and supplemented by a higher moral or ideal law. It is binding on the developing but not yet perfectly developed individual in the shape of social duty, family obligation, communal or national demand, so long as it is not in conflict with his growing sense of the higher Right. But the sadhaka of the Karmayoga will abandon this also to the Lord of works. After he has made this surrender, his social impulses and judgments will, like his desires, only be used for their exhaustion or, it may be, so far as they are still necessary for a time to enable him to identify his lower mental nature with mankind in general or with any grouping of mankind in its works and hopes and aspirations. But after that brief time is over, they will be withdrawn and a divine government will alone abide. He will be identified with the Divine and with others only through the divine consciousness and not through the mental nature.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-210-211 “For, even after he is free, the sadhaka will be in the world and to be in the world is to remain in works. But to remain in works without desire is (1) to act for the good of the world in general or (2) for the kind or (3) the race or (4) for some new creation to be evolved on the earth or (5) some work imposed by the Divine Will within him. And this must be done either in the framework provided by the environment or the grouping in which he is born or placed or else in one which is chosen or created for him by a divine direction. Therefore in our perfection there must be nothing left in the mental being which conflicts with or prevents our sympathy and free self-identification with the kind, the group or whatever collective expression of the Divine he is meant to lead, help or serve. But in the end it must become a free self- identification through identity with the Divine and not a mental bond or moral tie of union or a vital association dominated by any kind of personal, social, national, communal or credal egoism. If any social law is obeyed, it will not be from physical necessity or from the sense of personal or general interest or for expediency or because of the pressure of the environment or from any sense of duty, but solely for the sake of the Lord of works and because it is felt or known to be the Divine Will that the social law or rule or relation as it stands can still be kept as a figure of the inner life and the minds of men must not be disturbed by its infringement. If, on the other hand, the social law, rule or relation is disregarded, that too will not be for the indulgence of desire, personal will or personal opinion, but because a greater rule is felt that expresses the law of the Spirit or because it is known that there must be in the march of the divine All-Will a movement towards the changing, exceeding or abolition of existing laws and forms for the sake of a freer larger life necessary to the world’s progress. ” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-211-212 “At first, the higher Love and Truth will fulfil its movement in the sadhaka according to the essential law or way of his own nature. For that is the special aspect of the divine Nature, the particular power of the supreme Shakti , out of which his soul has emerged into the Play, not limited indeed by the forms of this law or way, for the soul is infinite. But still its stuff of nature bears that stamp, evolves fluently along those lines or turns around the spiral curves of that dominating influence. (1) He will manifest the divine Truth-movement according to the temperament of the sage or (2) the lion-like fighter or (3) the lover and enjoyer or (4) the worker and servant or in any combination of essential attributes (of fourfold Soul force replacing the three gunas) that may constitute the form given to his being by its own inner urge. It is this self-nature playing freely in his acts which men will see in him and not a conduct cut, chalked out, artificially regulated, by any lesser rule or by any law from outside.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-212-213 “This ego or “I” is not a lasting truth, much less our essential part; it is only a formation of Nature, a mental form of thought-centralisation in the perceiving and discriminating mind, a vital form of the centralisation of feeling and sensation in our parts of life, a form of physical conscious reception centralising substance and function of substance in our bodies. All that we internally are is not ego, but consciousness, soul or spirit. All that we externally and superficially are and do is not ego but Nature. An executive cosmic force shapes us and dictates through our temperament and environment and mentality so shaped, through our individualised formulation of the cosmic energies, our actions and their results. Truly, we do not think, will or act but thought occurs in us, will occurs in us, impulse and act occur in us; our ego-sense gathers around itself, refers to itself all this flow of natural activities. It is cosmic Force, it is Nature that forms the thought, imposes the will, imparts the impulse. Our body, mind and ego are a wave of that sea of force in action and do not govern it, but by it are governed and directed. The sadhaka in his progress towards truth and self-knowledge must come to a point where the soul opens its eyes of vision and recognises this truth of ego and this truth of works. He gives up the idea of a mental, vital, physical “I” that acts or governs action; he recognises that Prakriti , Force of cosmic nature following her fixed modes, is the one and only worker in him and in all things and creatures. ” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-214 “If this is the truth of works, the first thing the sadhaka has to do is to recoil from the egoistic forms of activity and get rid of the sense of an “I” that acts. He has to see and feel that everything happens in him by the plastic conscious or subconscious or sometimes superconscious automatism of his mental and bodily instruments moved by the forces of spiritual, mental, vital and physical Nature. There is a personality on his surface that chooses and wills, submits and struggles, tries to make good in Nature or prevail over Nature, but this personality is itself a construction of Nature and so dominated, driven, determined by her that it cannot be free. It is a formation or expression of the Self in her, — it is a self of Nature rather than a self of Self, his natural and processive, not his spiritual and permanent being, a temporary constructed personality, not the true immortal Person. It is that Person that he must become. He must succeed in being inwardly quiescent, detach himself as the observer from the outer active personality and learn the play of the cosmic forces in him by standing back from all blinding absorption in its turns and movements. Thus calm, detached, a student of himself and a witness of his nature, he realises that he is the individual soul who observes the works of Nature, accepts tranquilly her results and sanctions or withholds his sanction from the impulse to her acts. At present this soul or Purusha is little more than an acquiescent spectator, influencing perhaps the action and development of the being by the pressure of its veiled consciousness, but for the most part delegating its powers or a fragment of them to the outer personality, — in fact to Nature, for this outer self is not lord but subject to her, anısa; but, once unveiled, it can make its sanction or refusal effective, become the master of the action, dictate sovereignly a change of Nature. Even if for a long time, as the result of fixed association and past storage of energy, the habitual movement takes place independent of the Purusha’s assent and even if the sanctioned movement is persistently refused by Nature for want of past habit, still he will discover that in the end his assent or refusal prevails, — slowly with much resistance or quickly with a rapid accommodation of her means and tendencies she modifies herself and her workings in the direction indicated by his inner sight or volition. Thus he learns in place of mental control or egoistic will an inner spiritual control which makes him master of the Nature-forces that work in him and not their unconscious instrument or mechanic slave. Above and around him is the Shakti, the universal Mother and from her he can get all his inmost soul needs and wills if only he has a true knowledge of her ways and a true surrender to the divine Will in her. Finally, he becomes aware of that highest dynamic Self within him and within Nature which is the source of all his seeing and knowing, the source of the sanction, the source of the acceptance, the source of the rejection. This is the Lord, the Supreme, the One-in-all, Ishwara-Shakti , of whom his soul is a portion, a being of that Being and a power of that Power. The rest of our progress depends on our knowledge of the ways in which the Lord of works manifests his Will in the world and in us and executes them through the transcendent and universal Shakti.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-217-218 “Here too, in this movement by which the soul divests itself gradually of the obscure robe of the ego, there is a progress by marked stages. For not only the fruit of works belongs to the Lord alone, but our works also must be his; he is the true lord of our actions no less than of our results. This we must not see with the thinking mind only, it must become entirely true to our entire consciousness and will. The sadhaka has not only to think and know but to see and feel concretely and intensely even in the moment of the working and in its initiation and whole process that his works are not his at all, but are coming through him from the Supreme Existence. He must be always aware of a Force, a Presence, a Will that acts through his individual nature. But there is in taking this turn the danger that he may confuse his own disguised or sublimated ego or an inferior power with the Lord and substitute its demands for the supreme dictates. He may fall into a common ambush of this lower nature and distort his supposed surrender to a higher Power into an excuse for a magnified and uncontrolled indulgence of his own self-will and even of his desires and passions. A great sincerity is asked for and has to be imposed not only on the conscious mind but still more on the subliminal part of us which is full of hidden movements. "This hidden foe lodged in the human breast Man must overcome or miss his higher fate. This is the inner war without escape." Savitri-448 For there is there, especially in our subliminal vital nature, an incorrigible charlatan and actor. The sadhaka must first have advanced far in the elimination of desire and in the firm equality of his soul towards all workings and all happenings before he can utterly lay down the burden of his works on the Divine. At every moment he must proceed with a vigilant eye upon the deceits of the ego and the ambushes of the misleading Powers of Darkness who ever represent themselves as the one Source of Light and Truth and take on them a simulacrum of divine forms in order to capture the soul of the seeker.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-229-230 “When the sadhaka has once stood back from the action of Prakriti within him or upon him and, not interfering, not amending or inhibiting, not choosing or deciding, allowed its play and analysed and watched the process, he soon discovers that her modes are self-dependent and work as a machine once put in action works by its own structure and propelling forces. The force and the propulsion come from Prakriti and not from the creature. Then he realises how mistaken was his impression that his mind was the doer of his works; his mind was only a small part of him and a creation and engine of Nature. Nature was acting all the while in her own modes moving the three general qualities about as a girl might play with her puppets. His ego was all along a tool and plaything; his character and intelligence, his moral qualities and mental powers, his creations and works and exploits, his anger and forbearance, his cruelty and mercy, his love and his hatred, his sin and his virtue, his light and his darkness, his passion of joy and his anguish of sorrow were the play of Nature to which the soul, attracted, won and subjected, lent its passive concurrence. And yet the determinism of Nature or Force is not all; the soul has a word to say in the matter, — but the secret soul, the Purusha , not the mind or the ego, since these are not independent entities, they are parts of Nature. For the soul’s sanction is needed for the play and by an inner silent will as the lord and giver of the sanction it can determine the principle of the play and intervene in its combinations, although the execution in thought and will and act and impulse must still be Nature’s part and privilege. The Purusha can dictate a harmony for Nature to execute, not by interfering in her functions but by a conscious regard on her which she transmutes at once or after much difficulty into translating idea and dynamic impetus and significant figure.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-236 “If one has walked long and steadily in the path, the faith of the heart will remain under the fiercest adverse pressure; even if it is concealed or apparently overborne, it will take the first opportunity to re-emerge. For something higher than either heart or intellect upholds it in spite of the worst stumblings and through the most prolonged failure. But even to the experienced sadhaka such falterings or overcloudings bring a retardation of his progress and they are exceedingly dangerous to the novice. It is therefore necessary from the beginning to understand and accept the arduous difficulty of the path and to feel the need of a faith which to the intellect may seem blind, but yet is wiser than our reasoning intelligence. For this faith is a support from above; it is the brilliant shadow thrown by a secret light that exceeds the intellect and its data; it is the heart of a hidden knowledge that is not at the mercy of immediate appearances. Our faith, persevering, will be justified in its works and will be lifted and transfigured at last into the self-revelation of a divine knowledge. Always we must adhere to the injunction of the Gita, “Yoga must be continually applied with a heart free from despondent sinking.” (Th Gita-6.23) Always we must repeat to the doubting intellect the promise of the Master, “I will surely deliver thee from all sin and evil; do not grieve.” (The Gita-18.66) At the end, the flickerings of faith will cease; for we shall see his face and feel always the Divine Presence. ” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-245 "If such be the intention of the Supreme within him, the liberated soul (traditional Sadhak) may be content with a subtle and limited action within the old human surroundings which will in no way seek to change their outward appearance. But it (Sadhak of integral Yoga) may too be called to a work which will not only alter the forms and sphere of its own external life but, leaving nothing around it unchanged or unaffected, create a new world or a new order." CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-268 “To arrive then at this settled divine status (Self-possession) must be the object of our concentration. The first step in concentration must be always to accustom the discursive mind to a settled unwavering pursuit of a single course of connected thought on a single subject and this it must do undistracted by all lures and alien calls on its attention. Such concentration is common enough in our ordinary life, but it becomes more difficult when we have to do it inwardly without any outward object or action on which to keep the mind; yet this inward concentration is what the seeker of knowledge must effect. Nor must it be merely the consecutive thought of the intellectual thinker, whose only object is to conceive and intellectually link together his conceptions. It is not, except perhaps at first, a process of reasoning that is wanted so much as a dwelling so far as possible on the fruitful essence of the idea which by the insistence of the soul’s will upon it must yield up all the facets of its truth. Thus if it be the divine Love that is the subject of concentration, it is on the essence of the idea of God as Love that the mind should concentrate in such a way that the various manifestation of the divine Love should arise luminously, not only to the thought, but in the heart and being and vision of the sadhaka. The thought may come first and the experience afterwards, but equally the experience may come first and the knowledge arise out of the experience. Afterwards the thing attained has to be dwelt on and more and more held till it becomes a constant experience and finally the dharma or law of the being.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-323 “For the sadhaka of an integral Yoga none of these reasons are valid. With weakness and selfishness, however spiritual in their guise or trend, he can have no dealings; a divine strength and courage and a divine compassion and helpfulness are the very stuff of that which he would be, they are that very nature of the Divine which he would take upon himself as a robe of spiritual light and beauty. The revolvings of the great wheel bring to him no sense of terror or giddiness; he rises above it in his soul and knows from above their divine law and their divine purpose. The difficulty of harmonising the divine life with human living, of being in God and yet living in man is the very difficulty that he is set here to solve and not to shun. He has learned that the joy, the peace and the deliverance are an imperfect crown and no real possession if they do not form a state secure in itself, inalienable to the soul, not dependent on aloofness and inaction but firm in the storm and the race and the battle, unsullied whether by the joy of the world or by its suffering. The ecstasy of the divine embrace will not abandon him because he obeys the impulse of divine love for God in humanity; or if it seems to draw back from him for a while, he knows by experience that it is to try and test him still farther so that some imperfection in his own way of meeting it may fall away from him. Personal salvation he does not seek except as a necessity for the human fulfilment and because he who is himself in bonds cannot easily free others, — though to God nothing is impossible; for a heaven of personal joys he has no hankerings even as a hell of personal sufferings has for him no terrors. If there is an opposition between the spiritual life and that of the world, it is that gulf which he is here to bridge, that opposition which he is here to change into a harmony. If the world is ruled by the flesh and the devil, all the more reason that the children of Immortality should be here to conquer it for God and the Spirit. If life is an insanity, then there are so many million souls to whom there must be brought the light of divine reason; if a dream, yet is it real within itself to so many dreamers who must be brought either to dream nobler dreams or to awaken; or if a lie, then the truth has to be given to the deluded. Nor, if it be said that only by the luminous example of escape from the world can we help the world, shall we accept that dogma, since the contrary example of great Avataras is there to show that not only by rejecting the life of the world as it is can we help, but also and more by accepting and uplifting it. And if it is a play of the All-Existence, then we may well consent to play out our part in it with grace and courage, well take delight in the game along with our divine Playmate.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-327-328 “Nor is it enough for the sadhaka to have the utter realisation only in the trance of Samadhi or in a motionless quietude, but he must in trance or in waking, in passive reflection or energy of action be able to remain in the constant Samadhi of the firmly founded Brahmic consciousness. But if or when our conscious being has become sufficiently pure and clear, then there is a firm station in the higher consciousness. The impersonalised Jiva, one with the universal or possessed by the Transcendent, lives high-seated above and looks down undisturbed at whatever remnants of the old working of Nature may revisit the system. He cannot be moved by the workings of the three modes of Prakriti in his lower being, nor can he be shaken from his station by the attacks even of grief and suffering. And finally, there being no veil between, the higher peace overpowers the lower disturbance and mobility. There is a settled silence in which the soul can take sovereign possession of itself above and below and altogether. ” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-364-365 “These ideas of dream and illusion are simply results in our still existent mentality of the new poise of the Jiva and its denial of the claim made upon it by its old mental associations and view of life and existence. In reality, the Prakriti does not act for itself or by its own motion, but with the Self as lord; for out of that Silence wells all this action , that apparent Void looses out as if into movement all these infinite riches of experience. To this realisation the sadhaka of the integral Yoga must arrive by the process that we shall hereafter describe. What then, when he so resumes his hold upon the universe and views no longer himself in the world but the cosmos in himself, will be the position of the Jiva or what will fill in his new consciousness the part of the ego-sense? There will be no ego-sense even if there is a sort of individualisation for the purposes of the play of universal consciousness in an individual mind and frame; and for this reason that all will be unforgettably the One and every Person or Purusha will be to him the One in many forms or rather in many aspects and poises, Brahman acting upon Brahman , one Nara-Narayana everywhere. In that larger play of the Divine the joy of the relations of divine love also is possible without the lapse into the ego-sense, — just as the supreme state of human love likewise is described as the unity of one soul in two bodies. The ego-sense is not indispensable to the world-play in which it is so active and so falsifies the truth of things; the truth is always the One at work on itself, at play with itself, infinite in unity, infinite in multiplicity. When the individualised consciousness rises to and lives in that truth of the cosmic play, then even in full action, even in possession of the lower being the Jiva remains still one with the Lord, and there is no bondage and no delusion. He is in possession of Self and released from the ego.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-366-367 “For our real self is not the individual mental being, that is only a figure, an appearance; our real self is cosmic, infinite, it is one with all existence and the inhabitant of all existences. The self behind our mind, life and body is the same as the self behind the mind, life and body of all our fellow-beings, (There is one Spiritual being and many Psychic beings.) and if we come to possess it, we shall naturally, when we turn to look out again upon them, tend to become one with them in the common basis of our consciousness. It is true that the mind opposes any such identification and if we allow it to persist in its old habits and activities, it will rather strive to bring again its veil of dissonances over our new realisation and possession of self than to shape and subject itself to this true and eternal vision of things. But in the first place , if we have proceeded rightly on the path of our Yoga, we shall have attained to Self through a purified mind and heart, and a purified mind is one that is necessarily passive and open to the knowledge . Secondly, even the mind in spite of its tendency to limit and divide can be taught to think in the rhythm of the unifying Truth instead of the broken terms of the limiting appearance. We must therefore accustom it by meditation and concentration to cease to think of things and beings as separately existent in themselves and rather to think always of the One everywhere and of all things as the One. Although we have spoken hitherto of the withdrawing motion of the Jiva as the first necessity of knowledge and as if it were to be pursued alone and by itself, yet in fact it is better for the sadhaka of the integral Yoga to unite the two movements. (1) By one he will find the self within, (2) by the other he will find that self in all that seems to us at present to be outside us. It is possible indeed to begin with the latter movement, to realise all things in this visible and sensible existence as God or Brahman or Virat Purusha and then to go beyond to all that is behind the Virat . But this has its inconveniences and it is better, if that be found possible, to combine the two movements.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-370-371 “This realisation of all things as God or Brahman has, as we have seen, three aspects of which we can conveniently make three successive stages of experience. First, there is the Self in whom all beings exist. The Spirit, the Divine has manifested itself as infinite self-extended being, self-existent, pure, not subject to Time and Space, but supporting Time and Space as figures of its consciousness. It is more than all things and contains them all within that self-extended being and consciousness, not bound by anything that it creates, holds or becomes, but free and infinite and all-blissful. It holds them, in the old image, as the infinite ether contains in itself all objects. This image of the ethereal (Akasha) Brahman may indeed be of great practical help to the sadhaka who finds a difficulty in meditating on what seems to him at first an abstract and unseizable idea. In the image of the ether, not physical but an encompassing ether of vast being, consciousness and bliss, he may seek to see with the mind and to feel in his mental being this supreme existence and to identify it in oneness with the self within him. By such meditation the mind may be brought to a favourable state of predisposition in which, by the rending or withdrawing of the veil, the supramental vision may flood the mentality and change entirely all our seeing. And upon that change of seeing, as it becomes more and more potent and insistent and occupies all our consciousness, there will supervene eventually a change of becoming so that what we see we become. We shall be in our self-consciousness not so much cosmic as ultra-cosmic, infinite. Mind and life and body will then be only movements in that infinity which we have become, and we shall see that what exists is not world at all but simply this infinity of spirit in which move the mighty cosmic harmonies of its own images of self-conscious becoming.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-371 “The sadhaka of an integral Yoga will take an integral view of his goal and seek its integral realisation. The Divine has many essential modes of His eternal self-manifestation, possesses and finds Himself on many planes and through many poles of His being; to each mode its purpose, to each plane or pole its fulfilment both in the apex and the supreme scope of the eternal Unity. It is necessarily through the individual Self that we must arrive at the One, for that is the basis of all our experience. By Knowledge we arrive at identity with the One; for there is, in spite of the Dualist, an essential identity by which we can plunge into our Source and free ourselves from all bondage to individuality and even from all bondage to universality. Nor is the experience of that identity a gain for knowledge only or for the pure state of abstract being. The height of all our action also, we have seen, is the immersion of ourselves in the Lord through unity with the divine Will or Conscious-Power by the way of works; the height of love is the rapturous immersion of ourselves in unity of ecstatic delight with the object of our love and adoration. But again for divine works in the world the individual Self converts itself into a centre of consciousness through which the divine Will, one with the divine Love and Light, pours itself out in the multiplicity of the universe. We arrive in the same way at our unity with all our fellow-beings through the identity of this self with the Supreme and with the self in all others. At the same time in the action of Nature we preserve by it as soul-form of the One a differentiation which enables us to preserve relations of difference in Oneness with other beings and with the Supreme Himself. The relations will necessarily be very different in essence and spirit from those which we had when we lived entirely in the Ignorance and Oneness was a mere name or a struggling aspiration of imperfect love, sympathy or yearning. Unity will be the law, difference will be simply for the various enjoyment of that unity. Neither descending again into that plane of division which clings to the separation of the ego-sense nor attached to an exclusive seeking for pure identity which cannot have to do with any play of difference, we shall embrace and reconcile the two poles of being where they meet in the infinity of the Highest.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-377-378 “But the sadhaka of the integral Yoga has to harmonise all so that they may become a plenary and equal unity of the full realisation of Sachchidananda. Here the last difficulty of mind meets him, its inability to hold at once the unity and the multiplicity. It is not altogether difficult to arrive at and dwell in a pure infinite or even, at the same time, a perfect global experience of the Existence which is Consciousness which is Delight. The mind may even extend its experience of this Unity to the multiplicity so as to perceive it immanent in the universe and in each object, force, movement in the universe or at the same time to be aware of this Existence-Consciousness-Bliss containing the universe and enveloping all its objects and originating all its movements. It is difficult indeed for it to unite and harmonise rightly all these experiences; but still it can possess Sachchidananda at once in himself and immanent in all and the continent of all. But with this to unite the final experience of all this as Sachchidananda and possess objects, movements, forces, forms as no other than He, is the great difficulty for mind. Separately any of these things may be done; the mind may go from one to the other, rejecting one as it arrives at another and calling this the lower or that the higher existence. But to unify without losing, to integralise without rejecting is its supreme difficulty .” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-399 “When the sadhaka has followed the discipline of withdrawal from the various identifications of the self with the ego, the mind, the life, the body, he has arrived at realisation by knowledge of a pure, still, self-aware existence, one, undivided, peaceful, inactive, undisturbed by the action of the world. The only relation that this Self seems to have with the world is that of a disinterested Witness not at all involved in or affected or even touched by any of its activities. If this state of consciousness is pushed farther one becomes aware of a self even more remote from world-existence; all that is in the world is in a sense in that Self and yet at the same time extraneous to its consciousness, non-existent in its existence, existing only in a sort of unreal mind, — a dream therefore, an illusion. This aloof and transcendent Real Existence may be realised as an utter Self of one’s own being; or the very idea of a self and of one’s own being may be swallowed up in it, so that it is only for the mind an unknowable That, unknowable to the mental consciousness and without any possible kind of actual connection or commerce with world-existence. It can even be realised by the mental being as a Nihil, Non-Existence or Void, but a Void of all that is in the world, a Non-existence of all that is in the world and yet the only Reality. To proceed farther towards that Transcendence by concentration of one’s own being upon it is to lose mental existence and world-existence altogether and cast oneself into the Unknowable.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-401 “The difficulty is created by the exclusive concentration of the mental being on its plane of pure existence in which consciousness is at rest in passivity and delight of existence at rest in peace of existence. It has to embrace also its plane of conscious force of existence in which consciousness is active as power and will and delight is active as joy of existence. Here the difficulty is that mind is likely to precipitate itself into the consciousness of Force instead of possessing it. The extreme mental state of precipitation into Nature is that of the ordinary man who takes his bodily and vital activity and the mind-movements dependent on them for his whole real existence and regards all passivity of the soul as a departure from existence and an approach towards nullity. He lives in the superficies of the active Brahman and while to the silent soul exclusively concentrated in the passive self all activities are mere name and form, to him they are the only reality and it is the Self that is merely a name. In one the passive Brahman stands aloof from the active and does not share in its consciousness; in the other the active Brahman stands aloof from the passive and does not share in its consciousness nor wholly possess its own. Each is to the other in these exclusivenesses an inertia of status or an inertia of mechanically active non-possession of self if not altogether an unreality. But the sadhaka who has once seen firmly the essence of things and tasted thoroughly the peace of the silent Self, is not likely to be content with any state which involves loss of self-knowledge or a sacrifice of the peace of the soul. He will not precipitate himself back into the mere individual movement of mind and life and body with all its ignorance and straining and disturbance. Whatever new status he may acquire, will only satisfy him if it is founded upon and includes that which he has already found to be indispensable to real self-knowledge, self-delight and self-possession.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-407 “In the Vijnana the right relation and action of Purusha and Prakriti are found, because there they become unified and the Divine is no longer veiled in Maya. All is his action. The Jiva no longer says “I think, I act, I desire, I feel”; he does not even say like the sadhaka striving after unity but before he has reached it, “As appointed by Thee seated in my heart, I act.” For the heart, the centre of the mental consciousness is no longer the centre of origination but only a blissful channel. He is rather aware of the Divine seated above, lord of all, adhisthita, as well as acting within him. And seated himself in that higher being, parardhe, paramasyam paravati, he can say truly and boldly, “God himself by his Prakriti knows, acts, loves, takes delight through my individuality and its figures and fulfils there in its higher and divine measures the multiple lıla which the Infinite for ever plays in the universality which is himself for ever.”" CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-496-497 “On the other hand, the way of devotion is impossible if the personality of the Divine cannot be taken as a reality, a real reality and not a hypostasis of the illusion. There can be no love without a lover and beloved. If our personality is an illusion and the Personality to whom our adoration rises only a primary aspect of the illusion, and if we believe that, then love and adoration must at once be killed, or can only survive in the illogical passion of the heart denying by its strong beats of life the clear and dry truths of the reason. To love and adore a shadow of our minds or a bright cosmic phenomenon which vanishes from the eye of Truth, may be possible, but the way of salvation cannot be built upon a foundation of wilful self-deception. The bhakta indeed does not allow these doubts of the intellect to come in his way; he has the divinations of his heart, and these are to him sufficient. But the sadhaka of the integral Yoga has to know the eternal and ultimate Truth and not to persist to the end in the delight of a Shadow. If the impersonal is the sole enduring truth, then a firm synthesis is impossible. He can at most take the divine personality as a symbol, a powerful and effective fiction, but he will have in the end to overpass it and to abandon devotion for the sole pursuit of the ultimate knowledge. He will have to empty being of all its symbols, values, contents in order to arrive at the featureless Reality.” CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-577-578 “But the moment the individual soul leans away from the universal and transcendent truth of its being, leans towards ego, tries to make this will a thing of its own, a separate personal energy, that will changes its character: it becomes an effort, a straining, a heat of force which may have its fiery joys of effectuation and of possession, but has also its afflicting recoils and pain of labour. It is this that turns in each instrument into an intellectual, emotional, dynamic, sensational or vital will of desire, wish, craving. Even when the instruments per se are purified of their own apparent initiative and particular kind of desire, this imperfect tapas may still remain, and so long as it conceals the source or deforms the type of the inner action, the soul has not the bliss of liberty, or can only have it by refraining from all action; even, if allowed to persist, it will rekindle the pranic or other desires or at least throw a reminiscent shadow of them on the being. This spiritual seed or beginning of desire too must be expelled, renounced, cast away: the sadhaka must either choose an active peace and complete inner silence or lose individual initiation, sankalparambha, in a unity with the universal will, the tapas of the divine Shakti. The passive way is to be inwardly immobile, without effort, wish, expectation or any turn to action, niscesta, anıha, nirapeksa, nivritta; the active way is to be thus immobile and impersonal in the mind, but to allow the supreme Will in its spiritual purity to act through the purified instruments. Then, if the soul abides on the level of the spiritualised mentality, it becomes an instrument only, but is itself without initiative or action, niskriya, sarvarambha-parityagı. But if it rises to the gnosis, it is at once an instrument and a participant in the bliss of the divine action and the bliss of the divine Ananda ; it unifies in itself the prakriti and the purusa .” CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-676 “This equal poise in action is especially necessary for the sadhaka of the integral Yoga. First, he must acquire that equal assent and understanding which will respond to the law of the divine action without trying to impose on it a partial will and the violent claim of a personal aspiration. A wise impersonality, a quiescent equality, a universality which sees all things as the manifestations of the Divine, the one Existence, is not angry, troubled, impatient with the way of things or on the other hand excited, over-eager and precipitate, but sees that the law must be obeyed and the pace of time respected, observes and understands with sympathy the actuality of things and beings, but looks also behind the present appearance to their inner significances and forward to the unrolling of their divine possibilities, is the first thing demanded of those who would do works as the perfect instruments of the Divine. But this impersonal acquiescence is only the basis. Man is the instrument of an evolution which wears at first the mask of a struggle, but grows more and more into its truer and deeper sense of a constant wise adjustment and must take on in a rising scale the deepest truth and significance — now only underlying the adjustment and struggle — of a universal harmony. The perfected human soul must always be an instrument for the hastening of the ways of this evolution. For that a divine power acting with the royalty of the divine will in it must be in whatever degree present in the nature. But to be accomplished and permanent, steadfast in action, truly divine, it has to proceed on the basis of a spiritual equality, a calm, impersonal and equal self-identification with all beings, an understanding of all energies. The Divine acts with a mighty power in the myriad workings of the universe, but with the supporting light and force of an imperturbable oneness, freedom and peace. That must be the type of the perfected soul’s divine works. And equality is the condition of the being which makes possible this changed spirit in the action.” CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-700-701 “The first business of the sadhaka is to see whether he has the perfect equality, how far he has gone in this direction or else where is the flaw, and to exercise steadily his will on his nature or invite the will of the Purusha to get rid of the defect and its causes. There are four things that he must have; first, equality in the most concrete practical sense of the word, samata, freedom from mental, vital, physical preferences, an even acceptance of all God’s workings within and around him; secondly, a firm peace and absence of all disturbance and trouble, santi; thirdly, a positive inner spiritual happiness and spiritual ease of the natural being which nothing can lessen, sukham ; fourthly, a clear joy and laughter of the soul embracing life and existence. To be equal is to be infinite and universal, not to limit oneself, not to bind oneself down to this or that form of the mind and life and its partial preferences and desires. But since man in his present normal nature lives by his mental and vital formations, not in the freedom of his spirit, attachment to them and the desires and preferences they involve is also his normal condition. To accept them is at first inevitable, to get beyond them exceedingly difficult and not, perhaps, altogether possible so long as we are compelled to use the mind as the chief instrument of our action. The first necessity therefore is to take at least the sting out of them, to deprive them, even when they persist, of their greater insistence, their present egoism, their more violent claim on our nature.” CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-721-722, “The test that we have done this is the presence of an undisturbed calm in the mind and spirit. The sadhaka must be on the watch as the witnessing and willing Purusha behind or, better, as soon as he can manage it, above the mind, and repel even the least indices or incidence of trouble, anxiety, grief, revolt, disturbance in his mind. If these things come, he must at once detect their source, the defect which they indicate, the fault of egoistic claim, vital desire, emotion or idea from which they start and this he must discourage by his will, his spiritualised intelligence, his soul unity with the Master of his being. On no account must he admit any excuse for them, however natural, righteous in seeming or plausible, or any inner or outer justification. If it is the prana which is troubled and clamorous, he must separate himself from the troubled prana , keep seated his higher nature in the buddhi and by the buddhi school and reject the claim of the desire-soul in him; and so too if it is the heart of emotion that makes the clamour and the disturbance. If on the other hand it is the will and intelligence itself that is at fault, then the trouble is more difficult to command, because then his chief aid and instrument becomes an accomplice of the revolt against the divine Will and the old sins of the lower members take advantage of this sanction to raise their diminished heads. Therefore there must be a constant insistence on one main idea, the self-surrender to the Master of our being, God within us and in the world, the supreme Self, the universal Spirit. The buddhi dwelling always in this master idea must discourage all its own lesser insistences and preferences and teach the whole being that the ego whether it puts forth its claim through the reason, the personal will, the heart or the desire-soul in the prana , has no just claim of any kind and all grief, revolt, impatience, trouble is a violence against the Master of the being. This complete self-surrender must be the chief mainstay of the sadhaka because it is the only way, apart from complete quiescence and indifference to all action, — and that has to be avoided, — by which the absolute calm and peace can come. The persistence of trouble, asanti , the length of time taken for this purification and perfection, itself must not be allowed to become a reason for discouragement and impatience. It comes because there is still something in the nature which responds to it, and the recurrence of trouble serves to bring out the presence of the defect, put the sadhaka upon his guard and bring about a more enlightened and consistent action of the will to get rid of it. When the trouble is too strong to be kept out, it must be allowed to pass and its return discouraged by a greater vigilance and insistence of the spiritualised buddhi. Thus persisting, it will be found that these things lose their force more and more, become more and more external and brief in their recurrence, until finally calm becomes the law of the being. This rule persists so long as the mental buddhi is the chief instrument; but when the supramental light takes possession of mind and heart, then there can be no trouble, grief or disturbance; for that brings with it a spiritual nature of illumined strength in which these things can have no place. There the only vibrations and emotions are those which belong to the anandamaya nature of divine unity.” CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-722-724 “This however is a stage and not the whole perfection. The existence, however comparatively large and free, is still subject to the inferior nature. The sattwic, rajasic and tamasic ego is diminished but not eliminated; or if it seems to disappear, it has only sunk in our parts of action into the universal operation of the gunas , remains involved in them and is still working in a covert, subconscient fashion and may force itself to the front at any time. The sadhaka has therefore first to keep the idea and get the realisation of a one self or spirit in all behind all these workings (universalization of Consciousness). He must be aware behind Prakriti of the one supreme and universal Purusha . He must see and feel not only that all is the self-shaping of the one Force, Prakriti or Nature, but that all her actions are those of the Divine in all, the one Godhead in all, however veiled, altered and as it were perverted — for perversion comes by a conversion into lower forms — by transmission through the ego and the gunas. This will farther diminish the open or covert insistence of the ego and, if thoroughly realised, it will make it difficult or impossible for it to assert itself in such a way as to disturb or hamper the farther progress. The ego-sense will become, so far as it interferes at all, a foreign intrusive element and only a fringe of the mist of the old ignorance hanging on to the outskirts of the consciousness and its action. And, secondly, the universal Shakt i must be realised, must be seen and felt and borne in the potent purity of its higher action, its supramental and spiritual workings. This greater vision of the Shakti will enable us to escape from the control of the gunas , to convert them into their divine equivalents and dwell in a consciousness in which the Purusha and Prakriti are one and not separated or hidden in or behind each other. There the Shakti will be in its every movement evident to us and naturally, spontaneously, irresistibly felt as nothing else but the active presence of the Divine, the shape of power of the supreme Self and Spirit.” CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-763 “There is however a possibility of arriving at this result without the passage through the passivity of the mental Purusha, by a more persistently and predominantly kinetic Yoga. Or there may be a combination of both the methods, alternations between them and an ultimate fusion. And here the problem of spiritual action assumes a more simple form. In this kinetic movement there are three stages. (1) In the first the Jiva is aware of the supreme Shakti, receives the power into himself and uses it under her direction, with a certain sense of being the subordinate doer, a sense of minor responsibility in the action, — even at first, it may be, a responsibility for the result; but that disappears, for the result is seen to be determined by the higher Power, and only the action is felt to be partly his own. (2) The sadhaka then feels that it is he who is thinking, willing, doing, but feels too the divine Shakti or Prakriti behind driving and shaping all his thought, will, feeling and action: the individual energy belongs in a way to him, but is still only a form and an instrument of the universal divine Energy. (3) The Master of the Power may be hidden from him for a time by the action of the Shakti, or he may be aware of the Ishwara sometimes or continually manifest to him. In the latter case there are three things present to his consciousness, (1) himself as the servant of the Ishwara, the Shakti behind as a great Power supplying the energy, shaping the action, formulating the results, the Ishwara above determining by his will the whole action. (2) In the second stage the individual doer disappears, but there is not necessarily any quietistic passivity; there may be a full kinetic action, only all is done by the Shakti . It is her power of knowledge which takes shape as thought in the mind; the sadhaka has no sense of himself thinking, but of the Shakti thinking in him. The will and the feelings and action are also in the same way nothing but a formation, operation, activity of the Shakti in her immediate presence and full possession of all the system. (3) The sadhaka does not think, will, act, feel, but thought, will, feeling, action happen in his system. The individual on the side of action has disappeared into oneness with universal Prakriti, has become an individualised form and action of the divine Shakti . He is still aware of his personal existence, but it is as the Purusha supporting and observing the whole action, conscious of it in his self-knowledge and enabling by his participation the divine Shakti to do in him the works and the will of the Ishwara . The Master of the power is then sometimes hidden by the action of the power, sometimes appears governing it and compelling its workings. Here too there are three things present to the consciousness, (1) the Shakti carrying on all the knowledge, thought, will, feeling, action for the Ishwara in an instrumental human form, the Ishwara, the Master of existence governing and compelling all her action, and ourself as the soul, the Purusha of her individual action enjoying all the relations with him which are created by her workings. (2) There is another form of this realisation in which the Jiva disappears into and becomes one with the Shakti and there is then only the play of the Shakti with the Ishwara , Mahadeva and Kali, Krishna and Radha, the Deva and the Devi. (3) This is the intensest possible form of the Jiva’s realisation of himself as a manifestation of Nature, a power of the being of the Divine, para prakritir jıva-bhuta. ” CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-768-769 “The faith demanded of us both in its general principle and its constant particular application amounts to a large and ever increasing and a constantly purer, fuller and stronger assent of the whole being and all its parts to the presence and guidance of God and the Shakti. The faith in the Shakti, as long as we are not aware of and filled with her presence, must necessarily be preceded or at least accompanied by a firm and virile faith in our own spiritual will and energy and our power to move successfully towards unity and freedom and perfection. Man is given faith in himself, his ideas and his powers that he may work and create and rise to greater things and in the end bring his strength as a worthy offering to the altar of the Spirit. This spirit, says the Scripture, is not to be won by the weak, nayamatma balahınena labhyah . All paralysing self-distrust has to be discouraged, all doubt of our strength to accomplish, for that is a false assent to impotence, an imagination of weakness and a denial of the omnipotence of the spirit. A present incapacity, however heavy may seem its pressure, is only a trial of faith and a temporary difficulty and to yield to the sense of inability is for the seeker of the integral Yoga a non-sense, for his object is a development of a perfection that is there already, latent in the being, because man carries the seed of the divine life in himself, in his own spirit, the possibility of success is involved and implied in the effort and victory is assured because behind is the call and guidance of an omnipotent power. At the same time this faith in oneself must be purified from all touch of rajasic egoism and spiritual pride. The sadhaka should keep as much as possible in his mind the idea that his strength is not his own in the egoistic sense but that of the divine universal Shakti and whatever is egoistic in his use of it must be a cause of limitation and in the end an obstacle. The power of the divine universal Shakti which is behind our aspiration is illimitable, and when it is rightly called upon it cannot fail to pour itself into us and to remove whatever incapacity and obstacle, now or later; for the times and durations of our struggle while they depend at first, instrumentally and in part, on the strength of our faith and our endeavour, are yet eventually in the hands of the wisely determining secret Spirit, alone the Master of the Yoga, the Ishwara .” CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-779-780 The Difficult Task given to a Sadhaka of The Synthesis of Yoga: “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 “The Spirit’s bare and absolute potencies Burn in the solitude of the thoughts of God.” Savitri-57 “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 “It is very easy to be a saint! Oh, even to be a sage is very easy. I feel I was born with it—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 (or ‘Light conquered now even by that feeble beam:’ Savitri-601 or “Choosing his tyranny, crushed in his embrace?” Savitri-653,). 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.” The Mother The Mother’s Agenda, July 15, 1961, "In psychological fact this method translates itself into the progressive surrender of the ego with its whole field and all its apparatus to the Beyond-ego with its vast and incalculable but always inevitable workings. Certainly, this is no short cut or easy sadhana. It requires a colossal faith, an absolute courage and above all an unflinching patience. For it implies three stages of which only the last can be wholly blissful or rapid, — the attempt of the ego to enter into contact with the Divine, the wide, full and therefore laborious preparation of the whole lower Nature by the divine working to receive and become the higher Nature, and the eventual transformation. In fact, however, the divine Strength, often unobserved and behind the veil, substitutes itself for our weakness and supports us through all our failings of faith, courage and patience. It “makes the blind to see and the lame to stride over the hills.” The intellect becomes aware of a Law that beneficently insists and a succour that upholds; the heart speaks of a Master of all things and Friend of man or a universal Mother who upholds through all stumblings. Therefore this path is at once the most difficult imaginable and yet, in comparison with the magnitude of its effort and object, the most easy and sure of all." CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-46 “But usually the representative influence occupies a much larger place in the life of the sadhaka . If the Yoga is guided by a received written Shastra, — some Word from the past which embodies the experience of former Yogins, — it may be practised either by personal effort alone or with the aid of a Guru . The spiritual knowledge is then gained through meditation on the truths that are taught and it is made living and conscious by their realisation in the personal experience; the Yoga proceeds by the results of prescribed methods taught in a Scripture or a tradition and reinforced and illumined by the instructions of the Master. This is a narrower practice, but safe and effective within its limits, because it follows a well-beaten track to a long familiar goal. For the sadhaka of the integral Yoga it is necessary to remember that no written Shastra , however great its authority or however large its spirit, can be more than a partial expression of the eternal Knowledge. He will use, but never bind himself even by the greatest Scripture. Where the Scripture is profound, wide, catholic, it may exercise upon him an influence for the highest good and of incalculable importance. It may be associated in his experience with his awakening to crowning verities and his realisation of the highest experiences. His Yoga may be governed for a long time by one Scripture or by several successively, — if it is in the line of the great Hindu tradition, by the Gita, for example, the Upanishads, the Veda. Or it may be a good part of his development to include in its material a richly varied experience of the truths of many Scriptures and make the future opulent with all that is best in the past. But in the end he must take his station, or better still, if he can, always and from the beginning he must live in his own soul beyond the limitations of the word that he uses. The Gita itself thus declares that the Yogin in his progress must pass beyond the written Truth, sabdabrahmativartate — beyond all that he has heard and all that he has yet to hear, — srotavyasya srutasya ca . For he is not the sadhaka of a book or of many books; he is a sadhaka of the Infinite. (The above line proposes that one must practice traditional Yoga for long years with the aid of the Gita, the Upanishad and the Veda before beginning integral Yoga. He should become Vedantic and Vedic Arya before becoming integral Arya.) Another kind of Shastra is not Scripture, but a statement of the science and methods, the effective principles and way of working of the path of Yoga which the sadhaka elects to follow. Each path has its Shastra , either written or traditional, passing from mouth to mouth through a long line of Teachers. In India a great authority, a high reverence even is ordinarily attached to the written or traditional teaching. All the lines of the Yoga are supposed to be fixed and the Teacher who has received the Shastra by tradition and realised it in practice guides the disciple along the immemorial tracks. One often even hears the objection urged against a new practice, a new Yogic teaching, the adoption of a new formula, “It is not according to the Shastra .” But neither in fact nor in the actual practice of the Yogins is there really any such entire rigidity of an iron door shut against new truth, fresh revelation, widened experience. The written or traditional teaching expresses the knowledge and experiences of many centuries systematised, organised, made attainable to the beginner. Its importance and utility are therefore immense. But a great freedom of variation and development is always practicable. Even so highly scientific a system as Rajayoga can be practised on other lines than the organised method of Patanjali . Each of the three paths of the trimarga breaks into many bypaths which meet again at the goal. The general knowledge on which the Yoga depends is fixed, but the order, the succession, the devices, the forms must be allowed to vary; for the needs and particular impulsions of the individual nature have to be satisfied even while the general truths remain firm and constant.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-55-56 "An integral and synthetic Yoga needs especially not to be bound by any written or traditional Shastra; for while it embraces the knowledge received from the past, it seeks to organise it anew for the present and the future. An absolute liberty of experience and of the restatement of knowledge in new terms and new combinations is the condition of its self-formation. Seeking to embrace all life in itself, it is in the position not of a pilgrim following the highroad to his destination, but, to that extent at least, of a path-finder hewing his way through a virgin forest. For Yoga has long diverged from life and the ancient systems which sought to embrace it, such as those of our Vedic forefathers, are far away from us, expressed in terms which are no longer accessible, thrown into forms which are no longer applicable. Since then mankind has moved forward on the current of eternal Time and the same problem has to be approached from a new starting-point." CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-56-57 "In the conflict of the claims of society with the claims of the individual two ideal and absolute solutions confront one another. There is the demand of the group that the individual should subordinate himself more or less completely or even lose his independent existence in the community, — the smaller must be immolated or self-offered to the larger unit. He must accept the need of the society as his own need, the desire of the society as his own desire; he must live not for himself but for the tribe, clan, commune or nation of which he is a member. The ideal and absolute solution from the individual’s standpoint would be a society that existed not for itself, for its all-overriding collective purpose, but for the good of the individual and his fulfilment, for the greater and more perfect life of all its members. Representing as far as possible his best self and helping him to realise it, it would respect the freedom of each of its members and maintain itself not by law and force but by the free and spontaneous consent of its constituent persons. An ideal society of either kind does not exist anywhere and would be most difficult to create, more difficult still to keep in precarious existence so long as individual man clings to his egoism as the primary motive of existence. A general but not complete domination of the society over the individual is the easier way and it is the system that Nature from the first instinctively adopts and keeps in equilibrium by rigorous law, compelling custom and a careful indoctrination of the still subservient and ill-developed intelligence of the human creature." CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-195-196 The More Difficult Task for a Sadhak of The Synthesis of Yoga : “A power came in to veil the eternal Light, A power opposed to the eternal will Diverts the messages of the infallible Word, Contorts the contours of the cosmic plan: A whisper lures to evil the human heart, (Tamasic and rajasic mind are the hidden foe) It seals up wisdom’s eyes, the soul’s regard, It is the origin of our suffering here, It binds earth to calamity and pain. This all must conquer who would bring down God’s peace. This hidden foe lodged in the human breast Man must overcome or miss his higher fate. This is the inner war without escape.” Savitri-448 “But for the sadhaka of the integral Yoga this inner or this outer solitude can only be incidents or periods in his spiritual progress. Accepting life, he has to bear not only his own burden, but a great part of the world’s burden too along with it, as a continuation of his own sufficiently heavy load. Therefore his Yoga has much more of the nature of a battle than others; but this is not only an individual battle, it is a collective war waged over a considerable country. He has not only to conquer in himself the forces of egoistic falsehood and disorder, but to conquer them as representatives of the same adverse and inexhaustible forces in the world. Their representative character gives them a much more obstinate capacity of resistance, an almost endless right to recurrence. Often he finds that even after he has won persistently his own personal battle, he has still to win it over and over again in a seemingly interminable war, because his inner existence has already been so much enlarged that not only it contains his own being with its well-defined needs and experiences, but is in solidarity with the being of others, because in himself he contains the universe.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-77-78 "Equally, a combination or a compromise between two orders of consciousness, the spiritual and the mental or the spiritual and the vital or a mere sublimation from within of Life outwardly unchanged cannot be the law or the aim of the Yoga. All life must be taken up but all life must be transformed; all must become a part, a form, an adequate expression of a spiritual being in the supramental nature. This is the height and crowning movement of a spiritual evolution in the material world, and as the change from the vital animal to mental man made life another thing altogether in basic consciousness, scope, significance, so this change from the materialised mental being to the spiritual and supramental being using but not dominated by matter must take up life and make it another thing altogether than the flawed, imperfect limited human, quite other in its basic consciousness, scope, significance. All forms of life activity that cannot bear the change must disappear, all that can bear it will survive and enter into the kingdom of the spirit. A divine Force is at work and will choose at each moment what has to be done or has not to be done, what has to be momentarily or permanently taken up momentarily or permanently abandoned. For provided we do not substitute for that our desire or our ego, and to that end the soul must be always awake, always on guard, alive to the divine guidance, resistant to the undivine misleading from within or without us, that Force is sufficient and alone competent and she will lead us to the fulfilment along ways and by means too large, too inward, too complex for the mind to follow, much less to dictate. It is an arduous and difficult and dangerous way, but there is none other. " CWSA-23/ The Synthesis of Yoga/p-186-187 “The last two sentences contain indeed the whole gist of the matter. The true salvation or the true freedom from the chain of rebirth is not the rejection of terrestrial life or the individual’s escape by a spiritual self-annihilation, even as the true renunciation is not the mere physical abandonment of family and society; it is the inner identification with the Divine in whom there is no limitation of past life and future birth but instead the eternal existence of the unborn Soul. He who is free inwardly, even doing actions, does nothing at all, says the Gita ; (The Gita-3.30) for it is Nature that works in him under the control of the Lord of Nature. Equally, even if he assumes a hundred times the body, he is free from any chain of birth or mechanical wheel of existence since he lives in the unborn and undying spirit and not in the life of the body. Therefore attachment to the escape from rebirth is one of the idols which, whoever keeps, the sadhaka of the integral Yoga must break and cast away from him. For his Yoga is not limited to the realisation of the Transcendent beyond all world by the individual soul; it embraces also the realisation of the Universal, “the sum-total of all souls” , and cannot therefore be confined to the movement of a personal salvation and escape. Even in his transcendence of cosmic limitations he is still one with all in God; a divine work remains for him in the universe. ” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-270-271 "The state of the liberated soul is that of the Purusha who is for ever free. Its consciousness is a transcendence and an all-comprehending unity. Its self-knowledge does not get rid of all the terms of self-knowledge, but unifies and harmonises all things in God and in the divine nature. The intense religious ecstasy which knows only God and ourselves and shuts out all else, is only to it an intimate experience which prepares it for sharing in the embrace of the divine Love and Delight around all creatures. A heavenly bliss which unites God and ourselves and the blest, but enables us to look with a remote indifference on the unblest and their sufferings is not possible to the perfect soul; for these also are its selves; free individually from suffering and ignorance, it must naturally turn to draw them also towards its freedom. On the other hand any absorption in the relations between self and others and the world to the exclusion of God and the Beyond is still more impossible, and therefore it cannot be limited by the earth or even by the highest and most altruistic relations of man with man. Its activity or its culmination is not to efface and utterly deny itself for the sake of others, but to fulfil itself in God-possession, freedom and divine bliss that in and by its fulfilment others too may be fulfilled. For it is in God alone, by the possession of the Divine only that all the discords of life can be resolved, and therefore the raising of men towards the Divine is in the end the one effective way of helping mankind. All the other activities and realisations of our self-experience have their use and power, but in the end these crowded side- tracks or these lonely paths must circle round to converge into the wideness of the integral way by which the liberated soul transcends all, embraces all and becomes the promise and the power of the fulfilment of all in their manifested being of the Divine." CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-444-445 "But even when we thus regard the universe, we cannot and ought not to dismiss as entirely and radically false and unreal the values that are given to it by our own limited human con- sciousness. For grief, pain, suffering, error, falsehood, ignorance, weakness, wickedness, incapacity, non-doing of what should be done and wrong-doing, deviation of will and denial of will, egoism, limitation, division from other beings with whom we should be one, all that makes up the effective figure of what we call evil, are facts of the world-consciousness, not fictions and unrealities, although they are facts whose complete sense or true value is not that which we assign to them in our ignorance. Still our sense of them is part of a true sense, our values of them are necessary to their complete values. One side of the truth of these things we discover when we get into a deeper and larger consciousness; for we find then that there is a cosmic and individual utility in what presents itself to us as adverse and evil. For without experience of pain we would not get all the infinite value of the divine delight of which pain is in travail; all ignorance is a penumbra which environs an orb of knowledge, every error is significant of the possibility and the effort of a discovery of truth; every weakness and failure is a first sounding of gulfs of power and potentiality; all division is intended to enrich by an experience of various sweetness of unification the joy of realised unity. All this imperfection is to us evil, but all evil is in travail of the eternal good; for all is an imperfection which is the first condition — in the law of life evolving out of Inconscience — of a greater perfection in the manifesting of the hidden divinity. But at the same time our present feeling of this evil and imperfection, the revolt of our consciousness against them is also a necessary valuation; for if we have first to face and endure them, the ultimate command on us is to reject, to overcome, to transform the life and the nature. It is for that end that their insistence is not allowed to slacken; the soul must learn the results of the Ignorance, must begin to feel their reactions as a spur to its endeavour of mastery and conquest and finally to a greater endeavour of transformation and transcendence. It is possible, when we live inwardly in the depths, to arrive at a state of vast inner equality and peace which is untouched by the reactions of the outer nature, and that is a great but incomplete liberation, — for the outer nature too has a right to deliverance. But even if our personal deliverance is complete, still there is the suffering of others, the world travail, which the great of soul cannot regard with indifference. There is a unity with all beings which something within us feels and the deliverance of others must be felt as intimate to its own deliverance. " CWSA-21/The Life Divine/p-421-422 "One in self with all, the supramental being will seek the delight of self- manifestation of the Spirit in himself but equally the delight of the Divine in all: he will have the cosmic joy and will be a power for bringing the bliss of the spirit, the joy of being to others; for their joy will be part of his own joy of existence. To be occupied with the good of all beings, to make the joy and grief of others one’s own has been described as a sign of the liberated and fulfilled spiritual man. The supramental being will have no need, for that, of an altruistic self-effacement, since this occupation will be intimate to his self-fulfilment, the fulfilment of the One in all, and there will be no contradiction or strife between his own good and the good of others: nor will he have any need to acquire a universal sympathy by subjecting himself to the joys and griefs of creatures in the Ignorance; his cosmic sympathy will be part of his inborn truth of being and not dependent on a personal participation in the lesser joy and suffering; it will transcend what it embraces and in that transcendence will be its power. His feeling of universality, his action of universality will be always a spontaneous state and natural movement, an automatic expression of the Truth, an act of the joy of the spirit’s self-existence. There could be in it no place for limited self or desire or for the satisfaction or frustration of the limited self or the satisfaction or frustration of desire, no place for the relative and dependent happiness and grief that visit and afflict our limited nature; for these are things that belong to the ego and the Ignorance, not to the freedom and truth of the Spirit." CWSA-22/The Life Divine/p-1011 "If it could be translated into words, it would be so pretty (that’s when I understand poets!). That ineffable Presence seems to be saying, "You see, I was always there, and you didn’t know it." And it’s lived at the very heart of the cells: "You see, you know that I was always there, but you didn’t know it." And then ... (Mother smiles on in a contemplation) ... It’s a tiny nothing – which changes everything. That’s how a dead man can come back to life. That’s how: through that change. The mind dramatizes, and that’s why it cannot understand. Of course, it has been useful to refine Matter, to make it more supple, to prepare things – to make Life more supple and refine Matter. But it has a taste for drama, and that’s why it doesn’t understand. Violent emotions, complications are its game, its amusement. Probably because it needed them. But one must really leave that aside when the time comes, when one is ready for the experience. (silence) And immediately after that, the certitude – so peaceful – that everything was necessary – everything, but everything: from the most marvelous for the human consciousness to the most horrible, the most repulsive – everything was necessary. But strangely, all those things, all those experiences, all that life is what becomes unreal – unreal, worse than an act you put on for yourself: unreal. And it is in its unreality that it was necessary for the consciousness. All appreciations are purely human – purely human because they alter the measure, the proportion. Even physical suffering, material suffering, which is one of the things most difficult to feel as illusory: a lamentable act you put on for yourself, for the cells. And I am speaking from experience, with convincing examples. It’s very interesting." The Mother's Agenda/August 31, 1966, "On the immense mass, the mass still plunged in Ignorance, it creates a sort of excitement that tends to become unhealthy. Those who are settled in a certain equilibrium protest; I have often heard them say, "But we aren't in a hurry, things are all right as they are! Why do you want to change them so fast, that will happen in its own time!" That's the attitude of those who have found a sufficiently harmonious equilibrium in life: "Oh, what a hurry, why do you want to upset everything? Let things just carry on on their own. It will happen in its own time" – like that. All those who are in a somewhat "sattvic" poise are in some such equilibrium. Then, among those who aspire, a small number are sincere, serious, levelheaded, ready for anything: ready to go slowly, to go fast, to do much, to do little – but they are regular and quiet. And finally, a band of people like imbalance and, for them, it's an opportunity for all kinds of crazy things. But the Pressure of the Force is clearly making itself felt everywhere. Sri Aurobindo always said that the most important, but also the most difficult thing, is to learn to keep one's BALANCE IN INTENSITY. To have the intensity of aspiration, the intensity of effort, the intensity of the march forward, while at the same time keeping one's balance – the balance of perfect peace. That's the ideal condition. But it's difficult. (silence) And for the cells of the body, the transition from the tranquillity of "tamasic" origin (the calm that was, in the distant past, the outcome of Inertia, and what still remains of that tendency for inertia), for this calm to stop being inert and, on the contrary, to belong to the calm of All-Powerfulness, there is a difficult transition. For the cells it's difficult. These last few days, oh ... It's this transition that's being worked out in the details, and it's not easy. It's like that habit of the cells of drawing the force from below (through food and so on): when you try to transform that into a constant habit of drawing the force from above, every instant, in every small detail, there's a difficult moment.... ("From above" is a manner of speaking, because if you think about it, it may also be from the depths: there's no sense of direction, high or low or anything of the sort.) But it's no longer leaning on the surface for support – for standing, walking, sitting, moving about...." The Mother's Agenda/April 19, 1967 The Most Difficult Task for a Sadhak of the Synthesis of Yoga: “A mighty Hand then rolls mind’s firmaments back, Infinity takes up the finite’s acts And Nature steps into the eternal Light. Then only ends this dream of nether life.” Savitri-154 "The obstacle which the physical presents to the spiritual is no argument for the rejection of the physical; for in the unseen providence of things our greatest difficulties are our best opportunities. A supreme difficulty is Nature’s indication to us of a supreme conquest to be won and an ultimate problem to be solved; it is not a warning of an inextricable snare to be shunned or of an enemy too strong for us from whom we must flee." CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-11, "The first step on this long path is to consecrate all our works as a sacrifice to the Divine in us and in the world; this is an attitude of the mind and heart, not too difficult to initiate, but very difficult to make absolutely sincere and all-pervasive. The second step is to renounce attachment to the fruit of our works; for the only true, inevitable and utterly desirable fruit of sacrifice — the one thing needful — is the Divine Presence and the Divine Consciousness and Power in us, and if that is gained, all else will be added. This is a transformation of the egoistic will in our vital being, our desire-soul and desire-nature, and it is far more difficult than the other. The third step is to get rid of the central egoism and even the ego-sense of the worker. That is the most difficult transformation of all and it cannot be perfectly done if the first two steps have not been taken; but these first steps too cannot be completed unless the third comes in to crown the movement and, by the extinction of egoism, eradicates the very origin of desire. Only when the small ego-sense is rooted out from the nature can the seeker know his true person (Spiritual being) that stands above as a portion and power of the Divine" CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-247-248 “Ordinarily, once this state is obtained, strenuous concentration will be found no longer necessary. A free concentration of will using thought merely for suggestion and the giving of light to the lower members will take its place. This Will will then insist on the physical being, the vital existence, the heart and the mind remoulding themselves in the forms of the Divine which reveal themselves out of the silent Brahman . By swifter or slower degrees according to the previous preparation and purification of the members, they will be obliged with more or less struggle to obey the law of the will and its thought-suggestion, so that eventually the knowledge of the Divine takes possession of our consciousness on all its planes and the image of the Divine is formed in our human existence even as it was done by the old Vedic Sadhakas. For the integral Yoga this is the most direct and powerful discipline. ” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-324-325 "These highest worlds are therefore supramental; they belong to the principle of supermind, the free, spiritual or divine intelligence or gnosis and to the triple spiritual principle of Sachchidananda. From them the lower worlds derive by a sort of fall of the Purusha into certain specific or narrow conditions of the play of the soul with its nature. But these also are divided from us by no unbridgeable gulf; they affect us through what are called the knowledge-sheath and the bliss-sheath, through the causal or spiritual body, and less directly through the mental body, nor are their secret powers absent from the workings of the vital and material existence. Our conscious spiritual being and our intuitive mind awaken in us as a result of the pressure of these highest worlds on the mental being in life and body. But this causal body is, as we may say, little developed in the majority of men and to live in it or to ascend to the supramental planes, as distinguished from corresponding sub-planes in the mental being, or still more to dwell consciously upon them is the most difficult thing of all for the human being. It can be done in the trance of Samadhi, but otherwise only by a new evolution of the capacities of the individual Purusha of which few are even willing to conceive. Yet is that the condition of the perfect self-consciousness by which alone the Purusha can possess the full conscious control of Prakriti ; for there not even the mind determines, but the Spirit freely uses the lower differentiating principles as minor terms of its existence governed by the higher and reaching by them their own perfect capacity. That alone would be the perfect evolution of the involved and development of the undeveloped for which the Purusha has sought in the material universe, as if in a wager with itself, the conditions of the greatest difficulty. " CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-456 "At first, at the beginning of the conversion into this greater status, the thought will continue to move for a shorter or a longer time to a greater or a less extent on the lines of the mind but with a greater light and increasing flights and spaces and move- ments of freedom and transcendence. Afterwards the freedom and transcendence will begin to predominate; the inversion of the thought view and the conversion of the thought method will take place in different movements of the thought mind one after the other, subject to whatever difficulties and relapses, until it has gained on the whole and effected a complete transformation. Ordinarily the supramental knowledge will be organised first and with the most ease in the processes of pure thought and knowledge, jnana , because here the human mind has already the upward tendency and is the most free. Next and with less ease it will be organised in the processes of applied thought and knowledge because there the mind of man is at once most active and most bound and wedded to its inferior methods. The last and most difficult conquest, because this is now to his mind a field of conjecture or a blank, will be the knowledge of the three times, trikaladristi . In all these there will be the same character of a spirit seeing and willing directly above and around and not only in the body it possesses and there will be the same action of the supramental knowledge by identity, the supramental vision, the supramental thought and supramental word, separately or in a united movement." CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-839 "The mental activity that can be most readily organised is, as has been already indicated, that of pure ideative knowledge. This is transformed on the higher level to the true jnana , supramental thought, supramental vision, the supramental knowledge by identity. The essential action of this supramental knowledge has been described in the preceding chapter. It is necessary however to see also how this knowledge works in outward application and how it deals with the data of existence. It differs from the action of the mind first in this respect that it works naturally with those operations that are to the mind the highest and the most difficult, acting in them or on them from above downward and not with the hampered straining upward of the mind or with its restriction to its own and the inferior levels. The higher operations are not dependent on the lower assistance, but rather the lower operations depend on the higher not only for their guidance but for their existence. The lower mental operations are therefore not only changed in character by the transformation, but are made entirely subordinate. And the higher mental operations too change their character, because, supramentalised, they begin to derive their light directly from the highest, the self-knowledge or infinite knowledge." CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-841-842, "Of all forms of ego, you might think that the physical ego is the most difficult to conquer (or rather, the body ego, because the work was already done long ago on the physical ego). It might be thought that the form of the body is a point of concentration, and that without this concentration or hardness, physical life would not be possible. But that’s not true. The body is really a wonderful instrument; it’s capable of widening and of becoming vast in such a way that everything, everything – the slightest gesture, the least little task – is done in a wonderful harmony and with a remarkable plasticity. Then all of a sudden, for something quite stupid, a draft, a mere nothing, it forgets – it shrinks back into itself, it gets afraid of disappearing, afraid of not being. And everything has to be started again from scratch. So in the yoga of matter you start realizing how much endurance is needed. I calculated it would take 200 years to say ten crore of my japa. Well, I’m ready to struggle 200 years if necessary, but the work will be done. Sri Aurobindo had made it clear to me when I was still in France that this yoga in matter is the most difficult of all . For the other yogas , the paths have been well laid, you know where to tread, how to proceed, what to do in such and-such a case. But for the yoga of matter , nothing has ever been done, never, so at each moment everything has to be invented." The Mother's Agenda/January 28, 1960, "What I myself have seen ... was a plan that came complete in all details, but that doesn’t at all conform in spirit and consciousness with what is possible on earth now (although, in its most material manifestation, the plan was based on existing terrestrial conditions). It was the idea of an ideal city, the nucleus of a small ideal country, having only superficial and extremely limited contacts with the old world. [270] One would already have to conceive (it’s possible) of a Power sufficient to be at once a protection against aggression or bad will (this would not be the most difficult protection to provide) and a protection (which can just barely be imagined) against infiltration and admixture.... From the social or organizational standpoint, these problems are not difficult, nor from the standpoint of inner life; the problem is the relationship with what is not supramentalized – preventing infiltration or admixture, keeping the nucleus from falling back into an inferior creation during the transitional period. " The Mothe's Agenda/July 18, 1961, "It makes you sense so clearly that things in themselves don’t count. What we call ‘things in themselves’ are of no true importance! What really counts is the relationship of consciousness to these things. And there’s a formidable power in this, since in one instance you touch something and drop or mishandle it, while in the other it’s so lovely, it works so smoothly. Even the most difficult movements are made without difficulty. It’s an unheard-of power! We don’t give it importance because it has no grandiose effects, it’s not spectacular. Yes, there are indeed states of grace when one is in the presence of a great difficulty and suddenly has all the power needed to face it – yes, but that’s something else. I am speaking of a power active in ordinary life." The Mother's Agenda/July 18, 1961, "Yesterday evening I read something in the book.... Sri Aurobindo is writing to someone who said, "How lucky people are who live near the Mother." "You don't know what you're talking about! " he replies. "To live in the Mother's physical presence is one of the most difficult things." Do you remember this passage? I didn't know he had written that. "Well, well ..." I thought. He writes, "It is hard to stay near her, because the difference between the physical consciousness of all you people and her physical consciousness is so enormous...." Indeed, that's what tires me out. That's what tires my body, because it is used to living in a certain rhythm, a universal rhythm. The Mother's Agenda/January 9, 1962, "There is a confusion here. The Mother’s grace is one thing, the call to change another, the pressure of nearness to her is yet another. Those who are physically near to her are not so by any special grace or favour, but by the necessity of their work, — that is what everybody here refuses to understand or believe, but it is the fact: that nearness acts automatically as a pressure, if for nothing else, to adapt their consciousness to hers which means change, but it is difficult for them because the difference between the two consciousnesses is enormous especially on the physical level and it is on the physical level that they are meeting her in the work." 27 April 1944/CWSA-32/The Mother with Letters on the Mother/p-501, "But it's true. The other day I was telling you about some cellular difficulties. I noticed that as soon as they start, I start laughing! But if someone is here and I tell him the difficulty solemnly, it goes from bad to worse; if I start laughing and talk about it laughingly, it vanishes. Really, it's dreadful to take life seriously! Dreadful. Those who have given me the most difficulties have always been the people who take life seriously. I've had this experience even just recently. All that comes to me from people who have dedicated their lives to "spiritual life," people who do a yoga in the traditional way, who are very solemn, who see adversaries everywhere, obstacles everywhere, taboos everywhere, prohibitions everywhere, oh, how they complicate life ... and how far they are from the Divine! I saw this the other day with someone you know. With that kind of people, you "should not" do this, "should not" do that, "should not" ... At such and such time you "must not" do this, on such and such day you "must not" do that; you "should not" eat this, you should not ... And then, for heaven's sake, don't you go mixing your daily life with your sacred life! – that's how you dig an abyss. It's the exact, exact opposite of what I feel now: no matter what happens – something wrong in the body, something wrong with people, something wrong in circumstances – instantly, the first movement: "O my sweet Lord, my Beloved!" And I laugh! And then all is well. I did this the other day (it's spontaneous and instantaneous, it isn't thought out or willed or planned – none of it – it just happens), it happened the other day (I don't recall the details but it was over a circumstance that hardly seemed sacred): I saw myself, and I started laughing. I said, "But look! I don't need to be serious, I don't need to be solemn!" As soon as it comes (Mother makes a solemn face), I get suspicious, I say to myself, "Oh, something is wrong, some influence or other must have entered the atmosphere that shouldn't be there." All that remorse, all that regret, all that ... ooh! The sense of indignity, of fault ... and, going a little farther, the sense of sin – oh, that...! That seems to me to belong to another age, a Dark Age. But especially all the prohibitions. For instance, let me quote you a statement from X which I heard from a third person: "I will do a special puja to help money come. I will prepare a special yantram9 to bring money. But FOR GOD'S SAKE don't say anything [to Mother], don't do anything or give anything before January 14, because until January 14, a certain planet is in opposition to a certain other planet (Mother laughs), so things follow a downward trend and won't be successful. But afterwards, that particular planet will be ascending and everything will be successful"! (Mother laughs) Something in me said spontaneously ("something," well, someone), spontaneously and immediately, "But why? I can always hear!" And I laughed. So they thought I was making fun of him – I don't make fun: I laugh, it's not the same!" The Mother's Agenda/January 14, 1963, "The boon that we have asked from the Supreme is the greatest that the Earth can ask from the Highest, the change that is most difficult to realise, the most exacting in its conditions. It is nothing less than the descent of the supreme Truth and Power into Matter, the supramental established in the material plane and consciousness and the material world and an integral transformation down to the very principle of Matter. Only a supreme Grace can effect this miracle. The supreme Power has descended into the most material consciousness but it has stood there behind the density of the physical veil, demanding before manifestation, before its great open workings can begin, that the conditions of the supreme Grace shall be there, real and effective. A total surrender, an exclusive self-opening to the divine influence, a constant and integral choice of the Truth and rejection of the falsehood, these are the only conditions made. But these must be fulfilled entirely, without reserve, without any evasion or presence, simply and sincerely down to the most physical consciousness and its workings." The Mother's Agenda/February 21, 1963, "(Q) So what is the difference between this material mind and the physical mind? How would you define the physical mind in contrast with this material mind? The physical mind is the mind of the physical personality formed by the body. It grows with the body, but it isn't the mind of Matter: it is the mind of the physical being. For instance, it is the mind that makes one's character: the bodily, physical character, which is in large part formed by atavism and education. What is called "physical mind" is all that. Yes, it's the result of atavism, of education and of the formation of the body; that's what makes the physical character. For example, some people are patient, some are strong and so on – physically, I mean, not for vital or mental reasons, but purely physically everyone has a character. That's the physical mind. And it is part of any integral yoga: you discipline this physical mind. I have done it for more than sixty years. (Q) But then, that mind, for instance, which is spontaneously defeatist, which has all sorts of fears and worries, which sees the worst, repeats the same things forever, is that the physical mind or the material mind? It is the most unconscious part of the physical mind, and that's what connects the physical mind with this material substance. But that's already an organized mind, you understand? It is the most material part, the one that borders on the mind ... (what can we call this mind?), we can't even call it "corporeal mind": it is the mind of the cells, a cellular mind. This cellular mind exists in animals, and there is even a faint beginning (but very faint, like a promise) in plants: they respond to a mental action. They respond. As soon as Life manifests, there is already the beginning, like a promise of mind, of mental movement. And in animals, it's very clear. Whereas that physical mind really began to exist only in man. That's what a very small child already has: it already has a physical mind; so that no two very small children are alike, with identical reactions: there is already a difference. And it is especially what is given you with the special FORM of your body, by atavism, and then fully developed by education. No, the physical mind , as soon as you do an integral yoga, you are obliged to deal with it, while this material, cellular mind, I can assure you that it's absolutely new! Absolutely new. It is the mind that was like an uncoordinated substance, with a constant, unorganized activity (Mother gestures to show a constant tremor). This is the mind which is being organized. That's what is important, because Sri Aurobindo said it was unorganizable and the only thing to do was to reject it from existence. And I was under that impression, too. But when the transforming action on the cells is constant, this material mind begins to become organized, that's the wonderful thing! It begins to become organized. And then, as it becomes organized, it learns to FALL SILENT – that's the beautiful thing! It learns to keep calm, silent, and to let the supreme Force act without interfering . The most difficult part is in the nerves, because they are so habituated to that ordinary conscious will that when it stops and you want the direct Action from the highest height, they seem to become mad . Yesterday morning I had that experience, which lasted for more than an hour, and it was difficult; but it taught me many things – many things. And all this is what we may call the "transfer of power": it is the old power that withdraws. But then, until the body adapts to the new power, there is a period which is, well, critical. As all the cells are in a state of conscious aspiration, it's going relatively fast, but still ... the minutes are long. But there is increasingly a sort of certitude in the cells that everything that happens is with a view to this transformation and this transfer of the directing power. And at the very moment when things are materially painful (not even physically: materially painful), the cells keep that certitude. And so they withstand, they endure the suffering without being depressed or affected in the least, with that certitude that it is to prepare for the transformation, that it is even the process of transformation and of the transfer of the directing power. As I said, it's in the nerves that the experience is the most painful (naturally, since they are the most sensitive cells, those with the sharpest sensation). But they have a very great receptivity, and very spontaneous, a spontaneously strong receptivity – and effortless – to the harmonious physical vibration (which is very rare, but still it exists in some individuals), and that physical vibration ... what we could call a physical FORCE, a harmonious physical vibration (spontaneously harmonious, of course, without the need for mental intervention – like the vibrations of a flower, for instance; there are physical vibrations that are like that, that carry in themselves a harmonious force), and the nerves are extremely sensitive and receptive to that vibration, which immediately puts them right again. It's very interesting, it explains many, many things. A day will come when all this will be explained and put in its proper place. Now isn't the time to reveal it yet, but it's very interesting. I really have the feeling that it's beginning to be organized, that the work is beginning to be organized. Naturally, care must be taken to avoid letting a mental organization intervene, which is why I am not trying to explain things too much. The mind comes, and then that's not it anymore." The Mother's Agenda/August 31, 1965, "How do you define this physical mind, the one that underwent the transfer of power? That isn't the physical mind. The physical mind, it's a long time since ... It is the material mind – not even the material mind: the mind OF MATTER74! It is the mental substance that belongs to Matter itself, to the cells. That's what was formerly called "the spirit of the form," when it was said that mummies kept their bodies intact as long as the spirit of the form persisted.75 That's the mind I mean, that completely material mind. The other one, the physical mind, has been organized for a long time. So what is the difference between this material mind and the physical mind? How would you define the physical mind in contrast with this material mind? The physical mind is the mind of the physical personality formed by the body. It grows with the body, but it isn't the mind of Matter: it is the mind of the physical being. For instance, it is the mind that makes one's character: the bodily, physical character, which is in large part formed by atavism and education. What is called "physical mind" is all that. Yes, it's the result of atavism, of education and of the formation of the body; that's what makes the physical character. For example, some people are patient, some are strong and so on – physically, I mean, not for vital or mental reasons, but purely physically everyone has a character. That's the physical mind. And it is part of any integral yoga: you discipline this physical mind. I have done it for more than sixty years. But then, that mind, for instance, which is spontaneously defeatist, which has all sorts of fears and worries, which sees the worst, repeats the same things forever, is that the physical mind or the material mind? It (material mind) is the most unconscious part of the physical mind , and that's what connects the physical mind with this material substance. But that's already an organized mind, you understand? It is the most material part, the one that borders on the mind ... (what can we call this mind?), we can't even call it "corporeal mind ": it is the mind of the cells, a cellular mind. This cellular mind exists in animals, and there is even a faint beginning (but very faint, like a promise) in plants: they respond to a mental action. They respond. As soon as Life manifests, there is already the beginning, like a promise of mind, of mental movement. And in animals, it's very clear. Whereas that physical mind really began to exist only in man. That's what a very small child already has: it already has a physical mind; so that no two very small children are alike, with identical reactions: there is already a difference. And it is especially what is given you with the special FORM of your body, by atavism, and then fully developed by education. No, the physical mind, as soon as you do an integral yoga, you are obliged to deal with it, while this material, cellular mind, I can assure you that it's absolutely new! Absolutely new. It is the mind that was like an uncoordinated substance, with a constant, unorganized activity (Mother gestures to show a constant tremor). This is the mind which is being organized. That's what is important, because Sri Aurobindo said it was unorganizable and the only thing to do was to reject it from existence. And I was under that impression, too. But when the transforming action on the cells is constant, this material mind begins to become organized, that's the wonderful thing! It begins to become organized. And then, as it becomes organized, it learns to FALL SILENT – that's the beautiful thing! It learns to keep calm, silent, and to let the supreme Force act without interfering. The most difficult part is in the nerves, because they are so habituated to that ordinary conscious will that when it stops and you want the direct Action from the highest height, they seem to become mad. Yesterday morning I had that experience, which lasted for more than an hour, and it was difficult; but it taught me many things – many things. And all this is what we may call the "transfer of power": it is the old power that withdraws. But then, until the body adapts to the new power, there is a period which is, well, critical. As all the cells are in a state of conscious aspiration, it's going relatively fast, but still ... the minutes are long. But there is increasingly a sort of certitude in the cells that everything that happens is with a view to this transformation and this transfer of the directing power. And at the very moment when things are materially painful (not even physically: materially painful), the cells keep that certitude. And so they withstand, they endure the suffering without being depressed or affected in the least, with that certitude that it is to prepare for the transformation, that it is even the process of transformation and of the transfer of the directing power. As I said, it's in the nerves that the experience is the most painful (naturally, since they are the most sensitive cells, those with the sharpest sensation). But they have a very great receptivity, and very spontaneous, a spontaneously strong receptivity – and effortless – to the harmonious physical vibration (which is very rare, but still it exists in some individuals), and that physical vibration ... what we could call a physical FORCE, a harmonious physical vibration (spontaneously harmonious, of course, without the need for mental intervention – like the vibrations of a flower, for instance; there are physical vibrations that are like that, that carry in themselves a harmonious force), and the nerves are extremely sensitive and receptive to that vibration, which immediately puts them right again. It's very interesting, it explains many, many things. A day will come when all this will be explained and put in its proper place. Now isn't the time to reveal it yet, but it's very interesting. I really have the feeling that it's beginning to be organized, that the work is beginning to be organized. Naturally, care must be taken to avoid letting a mental organization intervene, which is why I am not trying to explain things too much. The mind comes, and then that's not it anymore." The Mother's Agenda/August 31, 1965 "And that's why it's so difficult to know how one should be. Because in thought you can be in the same constant state, even in aspiration you can be in the same constant state, in the general goodwill, even in surrender to the Divine, it all can be the same thing, in the same state – it's in here (Mother touches her body), and this makes the whole difference. I can very well conceive that there may be people in whom this opposition persists in the mind and the vital, but there it's so obvious.... But I am talking of something absolutely material. Some people say and think, "How come? I have such goodwill, such a desire to do the right thing, and then nothing works, everything jars – why? I am so good (!) and yet things don't respond." Or those who say, "Oh, I have made my surrender, I have such goodwill, I have an aspiration, I want nothing but the Truth and the Good, and yet I am ill all the time – why am I ill?" And naturally, one small step more, and you begin to doubt the Justice that rules the world, and so on. Then you fall into a hole.... But that's not it, that's not what I mean. It's much simpler and much more difficult at the same time, because it isn't blatant, it isn't evident, it's not an opposition from which you can choose, it's ... truly, totally and integrally leaving the entire responsibility to the Lord. Of all things, this is the most difficult for man – it's far easier for the plant and even for the animal, far easier. But for man it's very difficult. Because there was a whole period in the evolution when in order to progress he had to take on the responsibility for himself. So the habit has formed, it has taken root in the being. I have noticed something very interesting. Suppose there is a pain, some sign or other that something in the body is out of order. In the consciousness – in the consciousness – you are absolutely indifferent, which means that whether it's life or death, disease or health, there is equality; but if the body reacts according to its old habit, "What should be done to get over it?" and all that it involves (I am not speaking of a reaction in the mind, but here, in the body), the thing takes root. Why? Because it has to stay there ... (laughing) to enable you to study it! If, on the other hand, the cells have learned their lesson and say right away, "Lord, Your presence" (without words – the attitude), pfft! the thing goes. It's no use if the thought does it, if the psychic consciousness, EVEN THE PHYSICAL CONSCIOUSNESS, does it: it must be the cells that do it. So the one who does it in the thought says, "Here, I give myself to the Divine, I am ready for anything, I am in a state of perfect equality, and still I am ill! So what am I to believe?" That's not the point. In order to have an instantaneous action HERE ("instantaneous," meaning what looks like a miracle, which isn't a miracle at all), there should instantaneously be, wherever a disorder has occurred for some reason or other, this: "Lord – Lord, this is You; Lord, we are You; Lord, You are here" – everything flies away. A sensation, an attitude – instantaneously, hup! it's over. I have had hundreds upon hundreds of experiences like that. And the state – the general state of the consciousness – is exactly the same, always like this (immobile gesture, palms offered to the Heights), in a sort of conscious bliss of: "Let Your Will be done." But that's no use, it doesn't act HERE – it must happen HERE (Mother touches her body)." The Mother's Agenda/November 23, 1965, "As for the latest experience,’ I can’t say for sure that no one has ever had it, because someone like Ramakrishna, individuals like that, could have had it. But I am not sure, for when I had this experience (not of the divine Presence, which I had already felt in the cells for a long time, but the experience that the Divine ALONE is acting in the body, that He has BECOME the body, yet all the while retaining his character of divine omniscience and omnipotence) well, the whole time it remained actively like that, it was absolutely impossible to have the LEAST disorder in the body, and not only in the body, but IN ALL THE SURROUNDING MATTER. It was as if every object obeyed without even needing to decide to obey: it was automatic. There was a divine harmony in EVERYTHING (it took place in my bathroom upstairs, certainly to demonstrate that it exists in the most trivial things), in everything, constantly. So if that is established in a permanent way, there CAN NO LONGER be illness it is impossible. There can no longer be accidents, there can no longer be illness, there can no longer be disorders, and everything should harmonize (probably in a progressive way) just as that was harmonized: all the objects in the bathroom were full of a joyful enthusiasm – everything obeyed, everything! As it was the first experience , it started to fade slightly when I began having contact with people; but I really had the feeling that it was a first experience, new upon earth. For I have experienced an absolute identity of the will with the divine Will ever since 1910 , it has never left me. It isn’t that, it’s SOMETHING ELSE. It is MATTER BECOMING THE DIVINE. And it really came with the feeling that this thing was happening for the first time upon earth. It is difficult to say for sure, but Ramakrishna died of cancer, and now that I have had the experience, I know in an ABSOLUTE way that this is impossible. If he had decided to go because the Divine wanted him to go, it would have been an orderly departure, in total harmony and with a total will, whereas this illness is a means of disorder. (Q) Is this experience of May 1 related to the Supramental Manifestation of 1956? Is it a supramental experience? It is the result of the descent of the supramental substance into Matter. Only this substance – what it has put into physical Matter – could have made it possible. It is a new ferment. From the material standpoint, it removes from physical Matter its tamas , the heaviness of its unconsciousness, and from the psychological standpoint, its ignorance and its falsehood. Matter is subtilized. But it has surely come only as a first experience to show how it will be. It is truly a state of absolute omniscience and omnipotence in the body which changes all the vibrations around it. It is likely that the greatest resistance will be in the most conscious beings due to a lack of mental receptivity, due to the mind itself which wants things to continue (as Sri Aurobindo has written) according to its own mode of ignorance. So-called inert matter is much more easily responsive, much more – it does not resist. And I am convinced that among plants, for example, or among animals, the response will be much quicker than among men. It will be more difficult to act upon a very organized mind; beings who live in an entirely crystallized, organized mental consciousness are as hard as stone! It resists. According to my experience, what is unconscious will certainly follow more easily. It was a delight to see the water from the tap, the mouthwash in the bottle, the glass, the sponge – it all had such an air of joy and consent! There is much less ego, you see, it is not a conscious ego." The Mother's Agenda/June 6, 1958 OM TAT SAT Download this WEB PAGE as a PDF file: There are two types of liberated Souls. The first type of liberated Soul or a Sadhaka of traditional Yoga, ‘may be content with a subtle and limited action within the old human surroundings which will in no way seek to change their outward appearance.’ (Ref: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-268) The second type of liberated Soul or a Sadhaka of integral Yoga, who ‘will not only alter the forms and sphere of its own external life but, leaving nothing around it unchanged or unaffected, create a new world or a new order.’ (Ref: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-268) Sri Aurobindo insists that the second type of liberated Souls remain accountable for their Sadhana through large Divine action, record the descending overhead Divine Wisdom and enrich Earth's atmosphere through the descent of Divine Love, Delight and Beauty. A Sadhaka of traditional Yoga, as per the Gita's injunction, 'does not mourn and remains indifferent either for the living or for the dead.' (The Gita-2.11) 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 “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 The Mother’s Agenda/ July 18, 1961, The above message indicates that, in integral Yoga, enjoying life from a higher plane of Consciousness is forbidden, whereas in traditional Yoga it is permitted. In integral Yoga, time and space are utilised towards inner and outer adventures of life through movement of Consciousness. 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" (The Mother's Agenda/June 22, 1958) to rule over money Power of the world. "The supramentalized body will be sexless since the need for animal procreation will no longer exist." (The Mother's Agenda/August 1954) One may note that after the exhaustion of the perfections of traditional Yoga, integral Yoga begins.

Silence Ripened Soul's Relationship with Child Soul (Supreme Mother said to King Aswapati) “Accept the difficulty and godlike toil, For the slow-paced omniscient purpose live.” Savitri-335-336 Who is a Child Soul or developing Soul? : A Child Soul is having seven fold deformations, vicaras . They are identified as h atre d, disliking, scorn, repulsion, clinging, attachment and preference. He is having a profession, social duty, family obligation and religion. Sri Aurobindo proposes that they 'are natural, necessary, inevitable at a certain stage' of self development. “To revolt, to condemn, to cry out is the impulse of our unchastened and ignorant instincts. Revolt like everything else has its uses in the play and is even necessary, helpful, decreed for the divine development in its own time and stage; but the movement of an ignorant rebellion belongs to the stage of the soul’s childhood or to its raw adolescence." CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-225, Who is a Ripened or Developed Soul? : " But the sadhaka of the Karmayoga will abandon this (above attributes) also to the Lord of works. After he has made this surrender, his social impulses and judgments will, like his desires, only be used for their exhaustion or, it may be, so far as they are still necessary for a time to enable him to identify his lower mental nature with mankind in general or with any grouping of mankind in its works and hopes and aspirations. But after that brief time is over, they will be withdrawn and a divine government will alone abide. He will be identified with the Divine and with others only through the divine consciousness and not through the mental nature.” The sevenfold deformations, vicaras, are "to the Karmayogin ... a survival, a stumbling-block, a process of the Ignorance and, as he progresses, they fall away from his nature. The child-soul needs them for its growth; but they drop from an adult (Soul) in the divine culture.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-223, What is the difficulty of a Developing Soul? : "The first condition was: ‘Nothing more to do with your family ...’¹⁰⁹ Well, we are a long way from that! But I repeat that it only happened because of the war (2nd world war) and not because we stopped seeing the need to cut all family ties; on the contrary, this is an indispensable condition because as long as you hang on to all these cords which bind you to ordinary life, which make you a slave to the ordinary life, how can you possibly belong to the Divine alone? What childishness! It is simply not possible. If you have ever taken the trouble to read over the early ashram rules, you would find that even friendships were considered dangerous and undesirable ... We made every effort to create an atmosphere in which only ONE thing counted : the Life Divine.” The Mother The Mother’s Agenda/ August 25, 1954, What is the difficulty of a Developed Soul? : “If you say to the Divine with conviction, “I want only You ”, the Divine will arrange all the circumstances in such a way as to compel you to be sincere. Something in the being... “I want only You. ”... the aspiration...and then one wants a hundred odd things all the time, isn’t that so? At times something comes, just... usually to disturb everything—it stands in the way and prevents you from realizing your aspiration. Well, the Divine will come without showing Himself, without your seeing Him, without your having any inkling of it, and He will arrange all the circumstances in such a way that everything that prevents you from belonging solely to the Divine will be removed from your path, inevitably. Then when all is removed, you begin to howl and complain; but later, if you are sincere and look at yourself straight in the eye... you have said to the Lord, you have said, “I want only You. ” He will remain close to you, all the rest will go away. This is indeed a higher Grace. Only, you must say this with conviction. I don’t even mean that you must say it integrally, because if one says it integrally, the work is done. What is necessary is that one part of the being, indeed the central will, says it with conviction: “I want only You .” Even once, and it suffices: all that takes more or less long, sometimes it stretches over years, but one reaches the goal.” The Mother The Mother’s Centenary Works/Vol-6/176-177 How a Developed Soul relates himself with Developing Soul? In Savitri , we observe a considerable gulf between the feminine Avatara and Her followers, those who are destined to assist Avatara's Divine action. They are here identified as instruments and emanations. Desperate effort of Savitri to bridge the gulf between herself and her admirers: “A mind daring heavenly experiment, Growing towards some largeness they felt near, Testing the unknown’s bound with eager touch They still were prisoned by their human grain: They could not keep up with her tireless step; Too small and eager for her large-paced will, Too narrow to look with the unborn Infinite’s gaze Their nature weary grew of things too great.” Savitri-363 “For even the close partners of her thoughts Who could have walked the nearest to her ray, Worshipped the power and light they felt in her But could not match the measure of her soul.” Savitri-363 “Or longing with their self of life and flesh They clung to her for heart’s nourishment and support: The rest they could not see in visible light; Vaguely they bore her inner mightiness. Or bound by the senses and the longing heart, Adoring with a turbid human love, They could not grasp the mighty spirit she was Or change by closeness to be even as she. Some felt her with their souls and thrilled with her, A greatness felt near yet beyond mind’s grasp; To see her was a summons to adore, To be near her drew a high communion’s force.” Savitri-363-364 “So men worship a god too great to know, Too high, too vast to wear a limiting shape; They feel a Presence and obey a might, Adore a love whose rapture invades their breasts; To a divine ardour quickening the heart-beats, A law they follow greatening heart and life. Opened to the breath is a new diviner air, Opened to man is a freer, happier world:” Savitri-364 “Her will was puissant on their nature’s acts, Her heart’s inexhaustible sweetness lured their hearts, A being they loved whose bounds exceeded theirs; Her measure they could not reach but bore her touch, Answering with the flower’s answer to the sun They gave themselves to her and asked no more.” Savitri-364 “They felt a godhead and obeyed a call, Answered to her lead and did her work in the world; Their lives, their natures moved compelled by hers As if the truth of their own larger selves Put on an aspect of divinity To exalt them to a pitch beyond their earth’s. They felt a larger future meet their walk; She held their hands, she chose for them their paths: ” Savitri-364 “Some near approached, were touched, caught fire, then failed, Too great was her demand, too pure her force. Thus lighting earth around her like a sun, Yet in her inmost sky an orb aloof, A distance severed her from those most close. ” Savitri-366 "There is a confusion here. The Mother’s grace is one thing, the call to change another, the pressure of nearness to her is yet another. Those who are physically near to her are not so by any special grace or favour, but by the necessity of their work, — that is what everybody here refuses to understand or believe, but it is the fact: that nearness acts automatically as a pressure, if for nothing else, to adapt their consciousness to hers which means change, but it is difficult for them because the difference between the two consciousnesses is enormous especially on the physical level and it is on the physical level that they are meeting her in the work." Sri Aurobindo/27 April 1944/CWSA-32/The Mother with Letters on the Mother/p-501, "Yesterday evening I read something in the book.... Sri Aurobindo is writing to someone who said, "How lucky people are who live near the Mother. " "You don't know what you're talking about! " he replies. "To live in the Mother's physical presence is one of the most difficult things." Do you remember this passage? I didn't know he had written that. "Well, well ..." I thought. He writes, "It is hard to stay near her, because the difference between the physical consciousness of all you people and her physical consciousness is so enormous...." Indeed, that's what tires me out. That's what tires my body, because it is used to living in a certain rhythm, a universal rhythm... (silence) No one can imagine what it was, those thirty years I had (with Sri Aurobindo ) ... beyond all problems and difficulties; we went through every possible difficulty – and it was nothing, NOTHING. It was nothing, it was ... like a great harmonious orchestra. (silence) But ... it's clear that Matter must be rigorously hammered if it is to be made ready and able for this Transformation. (silence) And nothing, nothing imaginable in the eternal history of the universe can be compared to that shock (with Sri Aurobindo's departure): to have lived a perfect divine life as something completely natural and everyday, something OBVIOUS (it was never even in question), and then ... all of a sudden, physically – your base is snatched away. Well, to stay on after that! ... You just go, quite naturally: the base goes, you go." The Mother/The Mother's Agenda/January 9, 1962, A similar gulf is observed between Sri Aurobindo and His direct disciples: The Gulf between Sri Aurobindo and His direct disciples: “It (Savitri) heralds the Supermind. But I had a feeling (after reading the last chapter of Savitri ) he (Sri Aurobindo ) had not completed his revision. When I read this, I felt it was not the end, just as when I read the last chapter of the “Yoga of Self-Perfection,” (of The Synthesis of Yoga) I felt it was not finished. He left it unfinished. And he said so. He said, “No, I will not go down to this mental level anymore.” But in Savitri’s case… (I didn’t look after it, you know), he had around him Purani , that Chinmayi, and… (what is his name) Nirod —they all swarmed around him. So I didn’t look after Savitri . I read Savitri two years ago (1961), I had never read it before. And I am so glad! Because I read it at the time I could understand it –and I realised that none of those people had understood ONE BIT of it.” The Mother/The Mother's Agenda/13th March-1963 “The lack of receptivity of the earth and men is mostly responsible for the decision Sri Aurobindo has taken regarding his body. But one thing is certain: what has happened on the physical plane affects in no way the truth of his teaching. All that he has said is perfectly true and remains so. Time and the course of events will prove it abundantly.” 8 December 1950, The Mother/The Mother’s Centenary Works/13/p-7, The difference between Avatar and His Instruments and Emanations and how they will be aware of their limitations and possibilities, is identified by Sri Aurobindo in the following two texts: “The natural attitude of the psychic being is to feel itself as the child, the son of God, the Bhakta ; it is a portion of the Divine, one in essence, but in the dynamics of the manifestation there is always even in identity a difference. The Jivatman, on the contrary, lives in the essence and can merge itself in identity with the Divine; but it too, the moment it presides over the dynamics of the manifestation, knows itself as one centre of the multiple Divine, not as the Parameshwara. It is important to remember this distinction ; for, otherwise, if there is the least vital egoism, one may begin to think of oneself as an Avatara …” CWSA-28/Letters on Yoga/p-61, “But still the Vibhuti is not the Avatar; otherwise Arjuna, Vyasa, Ushanas would be Avatars as well as Krishna , even if in a less degree of the power of Avatarhood . The divine quality is not enough; there must be the inner consciousness of the Lord and Self governing the human nature by his divine presence. The heightening of the power of the qualities is part of the becoming, bhutagrama , (The Gita-8.19, 9.8) an ascent in the ordinary manifestation; in the Avatar there is the special manifestation, the divine birth from above, the eternal and universal Godhead descended into a form of individual humanity, atmanam srijami , (The Gita-4.7) and conscious not only behind the veil but in the outward nature.” CWSA/19/Essays on the Gita/p-161, There is a considerable gulf between Avatar and other human beings. An Avatar suffers and "A million wounds gape in his secret heart." (Savitri-446) Others are identified as "hearts that could not bear the wounds of Time," (Savitri-647) or they "cannot bear the world’s tremendous touch." (Savitri-454) Avatar's Consciousness is universalised, whereas other human beings live in the separative consciousness of three Gunas . To rightly understand a little of the Avatars' life, we have to universalise our Consciousness. Till Consciousness is universalised, we will have an abstract understanding of Them. The remedy is to concentrate and contemplate on Their life for long years. An Avatara's outer Nature is Divinised from birth, or He is under the influence of Para-prakriti or Supreme Nature from His birth, whereas an ordinary person's external life is controlled by the three Gunas of Apara-prakriti or lower Nature. By opening oneself to the Avatara's influence, one can liberate oneself from the influence of lower Nature and learn the lesson of Divine Work. Seven Guidelines: This is the injunction ¹⁰⁵ issued in Savitri to the adult Soul that while experiencing swift individual Spiritual evolution, he will learn the lesson to live a life of hard toil patiently and reconcile it with slow evolving collectivity and drop all his separative identity by uniting more and more with the universal Divine. Thus, the gulf between developed and developing souls is bridged by the former becoming the slave of the latter. This also reminds us that in Earth’s Spiritual history, the gulf created between Divine Consciousness ("Splendidly alien to the mortal air.” Savitri-576) and ordinary human consciousness resulted in crucifixtion ¹⁰⁶ of the Lord Christ , which is also identified as the giant Spiritual fall of the Avatar. This physical crucifixion is also repeated in the life of successive Emanations and Avatars in a different manner, ¹⁰⁶ as it is difficult to bridge the gulf between ordinary human consciousness of three Gunas and higher consciousness of Para-prakriti. The Mother never found a suitable surrounding to pursue Her most difficult Subconscient transformation, which can be pursued only during deep meditation. ¹⁰ ⁸ A Sadhak of Integral Yoga must be well aware of the above developments of intolerance and must be rightly related with the surrounding world through ‘secrecy and silence.’ ¹⁰⁷ There are seven guidelines issued to developed Souls, while relating to developing Souls. 1: Reconcile Sankhya and Yoga (The Gita's Guideline-1) : The mind is exclusive and mind will permit the pursuit of only one Yoga at a time. The Gita proposes to train the mind to develop double sincerity, dwibidha nistha , (The Gita-3.3) through which Karma Yoga can be reconciled with Jnana Yoga. “Children (child Soul) speak of Sankhya and Yoga apart from each other, not the wise (ripened soul); if a man applies himself integrally to one, he gets the fruit of both.” (The Gita-5.4) “This is the distinction made in the Gita between Sankhya and Yoga ; both are necessary to an integral knowledge” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-374, Integral Yoga proposes that if one is established in higher universalised Consciousness, then he can reconcile all the three Yogas of Karma, Jnana and Bhakti Yoga. “The full Yoga, Purna Yoga, means a fourfold path, a Yoga of knowledge for the mind, a Yoga of bhakti for the heart, a Yoga of works for the will and a Yoga of perfection for the whole nature. But, ordinarily, if one can follow wholeheartedly any one of these lines, one arrives at the result of all the four. For instance, by bhakti one becomes close to the Divine, becomes intensely aware of Him and arrives at knowledge, for the Divine is the Truth and the Reality; by knowing Him, says the Upanishads , one comes to know all. By bhakti also the will is led into the road of the works of love and the service of the Divine and the government of the nature and its acts by the Divine, and that is Karmayoga . By bhakti also comes spiritual change of the consciousness and the action of the nature which is the first step towards its transformation. So it is with all the other lines of the fourfold path.” Sri Aurobindo/CWSA-31/Letters on Yoga-IV/p-686-687 2: Do Not Disturb the Ignorant Child Soul (The Gita's Guideline-2): “Those who are bewildered by three modes of Nature, not knowers of the whole, let not the knowers of the whole, kritsnabinna , disturb their mental standpoint.” The Gita-3.29, “This, no doubt, is the root of the injunction imposed in the Gita (The Gita-3.29) on the man who has the knowledge not to disturb the life basis and thought basis of the ignorant; for impelled by his example but unable to comprehend the principle of his action, they would lose their own system of values without arriving at a higher foundation.” CWSA-21/The Life Divine/p-58, “Those who are bewildered by the modes, get attached to the modes and their works; dull minds, not knowers of the whole, let not the knower of the whole disturb them in their mental standpoint.” CWSA-19/Essays on the Gita/p-214, Supreme Lord informed Savitri that the most of the human beings are built on Nature’s early evolutionary plan and ‘owe small debt to a superior plane;’ (Savitri-689) thus man’s ‘mind is closed between two firmaments’ (Savitri-689) of seeking truth through (1) sight and sound or images and words, and (2) surface and brute out sides or consciousness is projected outward, and is unwilling to plunge into the inner depth of Truth. A common social man has no inner life. So, the Divine advised Savitri not to disturb the life of the common man and their settled balance of existing created things by intervention of Spiritual energy and leave them to ‘heavy toil and slow aeonic steps’ (Savitri-690) and all shall be done for them ‘by the long act of Time.’ (Savitri-691) 3: Discourage premature collective activism (lokasangraha) and encouragement of Transformation of Nature: “Then there were the few—the rare individuals— who are ready to make the necessary effort to prepare themselves for the transformation and to attract the new forces, try to adapt matter, seek the means of expression and so forth. Those are ready for Sri Aurobindo’s Yoga. They are very few. There are even those who have the sense of sacrifice and are ready have a hard and difficult life, as long as it leads them or helps them towards this future transformation. But they should not, they should in no way try to influence others and make them share their own effort: that would be quite unjust – not only unjust, but extremely clumsy because it would alter the universal – or at least terrestrial – rhythm and movement, and instead of helping, it would cause conflicts and result in chaos.” The Mother Agenda/27th November, 1965, “To concentrate most on one’s own spiritual growth and experience is the first necessity of the sadhak — to be too eager to help others draws away from the inner work. There is also likely to be an overzeal and haste which clouds the discrimination and makes what help is given less effective than it should be. To grow in the spirit is the greatest help one can give to others, for then something flows out naturally to those around that helps them.” CWSA-31/Letters on Yoga-IV/p-317, “The idea of helping others is a subtle form of the ego. It is only the Divine Force that can help. One can be its instrument, but you should first learn to be a fit and egoless instrument.” CWSA-31/Letters on Yoga-IV/p-318, “The best way to help the world is to transform oneself by an integral and intensive yoga.” The Mother/TMCW-14/Words of The Mother-II/p-277, “Because men still imagine that in order to do anything useful, they must gather together in groups, it is the caricature (An exaggerated or distorted representation) of organisation…I know the conditions of the country (India). Even if one person could put himself faithfully at the disposal of the Truth, he could change the country and the world.” The Mother's Agenda/25th October 1967/19th April 1969, “Moreover, he who wants to do “intensive sadhana” must be able to isolate himself from his surroundings and, if necessary, to sit in deep meditation even on a battlefield in the midst of the roaring guns.” TMCW-14/Words of the Mother-II/p-47, “It seems to me that humanity has made some progress and the true victory must be won in life itself…You must know how to live alone with the Eternal and Infinite in the midst of all circumstances. You must know how to be free, with the Supreme as your companion, in the midst of all occupations. That is indeed the true victory.” The Mother/TMCW-3/Questions and Answers-1929/p-276, “It is not intended to supramentalise humanity at large, but to establish the principle of the supramental consciousness in the earth-evolution. If that is done, all that is needed will be evolved by the supramental Power itself. It is not therefore important that the mission should be widespread. What is important is that the thing should be done at all in however small a number; that is the only difficulty…It would therefore be a waste of time and energy which should be devoted to the preliminary work psychicisation and spiritualisation of the being and nature without which no supramentalisation is possible.” Sri Aurobindo/CWSA-28/Letters on Yoga-I/p-288-290, (The above letter hints that time and energy should be utilised exclusively for Psychic and Spiritual opening instead of spreading the Mission.) “All that [ideas such as “everything will soon be spiritualised”] is absurd. The descent of the supramental means only that the Power will be there in the earth consciousness as a living force just as the thinking mental and the higher mental are already there. But an animal cannot take advantage of the presence of the thinking mental Power or an undeveloped man of the presence of the higher mental Power — so too everybody will not be able to take advantage of the presence of the supramental Power. I have also often enough said that it will be at first for the few, not for the whole earth, — only there will be a growing influence of it on the earth life.” Sri Aurobindo/CWSA-28/Letters on Yoga-I/p-290, "This “helping others” is a perilous business — it brings the “guru” ego or else you very uncertainly rid others of their difficulties and very certainly get them yourself. “Why do you have all these disciples?” said a sage to some Maratha saint (I have forgotten the names); “to have disciples means to add all their difficulties to your own.” “Helping others” has the same disadvantage." CWSA-31/Letters on Yoga-IV/p-318, "In “helping” one often gets part of the other’s inconvenience and many Yogis refuse to take disciples because they will have to assume others’ burdens as well as their own. There are also other dangers — growth of ego etc." CWSA-31/Letters on Yoga-IV/p-319, “One thing only I can tell you that whatever the sincerity, simplicity and purity of the relation between two human beings, it shuts them off more or less from the direct divine force and help and limits their strength, light and power only to the sum of their potentialities.” The Mother/TMCW/Vol-14/Words of the Mother-II/p-120 4: Self-discipline of Speech and Writing: “For writing, even more than for speaking, if you aspire to remain in the best attitude for advancing swiftly towards the Divine, you should make it a strict rule to speak (and even more to write) only what is absolutely indispensable. It is a marvellous discipline if you follow it sincerely.” The Mother/TMCW-14/Words of the Mother-II/p-207, “Knowledge is a child with its achievements; for when it has found out something, it runs about the streets whooping and shouting; Wisdom conceals hers for a long time in a thoughtful and mighty silence.” Sri Aurobindo/CWSA-12/Essays Divine and Human /p-436, “In Nescience began her mighty task, In Ignorance she pursues the unfinished work, For knowledge gropes, but meets not Wisdom’s face .” Savitri-135 “However, one should not think that the value of spoken words depends on the nature of the subject of conversation. One can talk idly on spiritual matters just as much as on any other, and this kind of idle talk may well be one of the most dangerous. For example, the neophyte is always very eager to share with others the little he has learnt. But as he advances on the path, he becomes more and more aware that he does not know very much and that before trying to instruct others, he must be very sure of the value of what he knows, until he finally becomes wise and realises that many hours of silent concentration are needed to be able to speak usefully for a few minutes . Moreover, where inner life and spiritual effort are concerned, the use of speech should be subjected to a still more stringent rule and nothing should be said unless it is absolutely indispensable. ” The Mother/TMCW-12/On Education/p-62-63, “It is always better not to listen to talks especially on so-called spiritual matters. Each one must follow his own way and the others have nothing to do with it.” The Mother/TMCW-14/p-204, “Not inexplicable certainly; it was the condition of silence of the mind to which he (Sri Aurobindo ) had come by his meditation for 3 days with Lele in Baroda and which he kept for many months and indeed always thereafter, all activity proceeding on the surface; but at that time there was no activity on the surface. Lele told him to make namaskar to the audience and wait and speech would come to him from some other source than the mind. So in fact, the speech came, and ever since all speech, writing, thought and outward activity have so come to him from the same source above the brain-mind.” Sri Aurobindo/CWSA-36//Autobiographical Notes/p-111, "There is also a speech, a supramental word, in which the higher knowledge, vision or thought can clothe itself within us for expression. At first this may come down as a word, a message or an inspiration that descends to us from above or it may even seem a voice of the Self or of the Ishwara, vanı, adesa. Afterwards it loses that separate character and becomes the normal form of the thought when it expresses itself in the form of an inward speech. The thought may express itself without the aid of any suggestive or developing word and only — but still quite completely, explicitly and with its full contents — in a luminous substance of supramental perception. It may aid itself when it is not so explicit by a suggestive inward speech that attends it to bring out its whole significance. Or the thought may come not as silent perception but as speech self-born out of the truth and complete in its own right and carrying in itself its own vision and knowledge. Then it is the word revelatory, inspired or intuitive or of a yet greater kind capable of bearing the infinite intention or suggestion of the higher supermind and spirit. It may frame itself in the language now employed to express the ideas and perceptions and impulses of the intellect and the sense mind, but it uses it in a different way and with an intense bringing out of the intuitive or revelatory significances of which speech is capable. The supramental word manifests inwardly with a light, a power, a rhythm of thought and a rhythm of inner sound that make it the natural and living body of the supramental thought and vision and it pours into the language, even though the same as that of mental speech , another than the limited intellectual, emotional or sensational significance. It is formed and heard in the intuitive mind or supermind and need not at first except in certain highly gifted souls come out easily into speech and writing, but that too can be freely done when the physical consciousness and its organs have been made ready, and this is a part of the needed fullness and power of the integral perfection. " CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-836-837, 5: In Silence Overhead Knowledge Descends: “In Silence is wisdom” — it is in the inner silence of the mind that true knowledge can come; for the ordinary activity of the mind only creates surface ideas and representations which are not true knowledge. Speech is usually only the expression of the superficial nature — therefore to throw oneself out too much in such speech wastes the energy and prevents the inward listening which brings the word of true knowledge.” Sri Aurobindo/CWSA-29/Letters on Yoga-II/p-159, "What is the true method for studying Sri Aurobindo’s works? (The Mother's reply) The true method is to read a little at a time, with concentration, keeping the mind as silent as possible, without actively trying to understand, but turned upwards, in silence, and aspiring for the light. Understanding will come little by little....And later, in one or two years, you will read the same thing again and then you will know that the first contact had been vague and incomplete, and that true understanding comes later, after having tried to put it into practice." The Mother's Centenary Works/Vol-12/On Education/p-204, "We sat together in silence for a few minutes, enjoying the company of our soul, and we witnessed the gates of Eternity opening wide before us.... It is in silence that the soul best expresses itself.... It is in the silence of complete identification with the Divine that true understanding is obtained... With words one can at times understand, but only in silence one knows..... Silence: the condition of the being when it listens to the Divine. " The Mother's Centenary Works/Vol-14/Words of the Mother-II/p-143, "In its might of irresponsible sovereignty It seized on speech to give those flamings shape, Made beat the heart of wisdom in a word And spoke immortal things through mortal lips. Or, listening to the sages of the woods, In question and in answer broke from her High strange revealings impossible to men, Something or someone secret and remote Took hold of her body for his mystic use, Her mouth was seized to channel ineffable truths, Knowledge unthinkable found an utterance." Savitri-553 6: Entire Definition of Child Soul and Adult Soul: ‘An ordinary religious teaching or philosophical doctrine is well enough satisfied to seize on certain great and vital aspects of truth and turn them into utilisable dogma and instruction, method and practice for the guidance of man in his inner life and the law and form of his action; it does not go farther, it does not open doors out of the circle of its own system, does not lead us out into some widest freedom and unimprisoned largeness. This limitation is useful and indeed for a time indispensable. Man bounded by his mind and will has need of a law and rule, a fixed system, a definite practice selective of his thought and action ; he asks for the single unmistakable hewn path hedged, fixed and secure to the tread, for the limited horizons, for the enclosed resting-places. It is only the strong and few who can move through freedom to freedom’ CWSA-19/Essays on the Gita/p-526-527, “To adopt a religion because one is born in that religion or because the people one loves and trusts practise that religion or because when one goes to a particular place where others pray and worship, one feels helped in one’s own prayer and worship, is not the sign of a very strong nature; I should say it is rather the sign of a weakness or at any rate of a lack of originality. ” The Mother/The Mother’s Centenary Works (second edition)/8/246, “It is binding on the developing (Soul) but not yet perfectly developed individual in the shape of social duty, family obligation, communal or national demand, so long as it is not in conflict with his growing sense of the higher Right. But the sadhaka of the Karmayoga will abandon this also to the Lord of works. After he has made this surrender, his social impulses and judgments will, like his desires , only be used for their exhaustion or, it may be, so far as they are still necessary for a time to enable him to identify his lower mental nature with mankind in general or with any grouping of mankind in its works and hopes and aspirations. But after that brief time is over, they will be withdrawn and a divine government will alone abide. He will be identified with the Divine and with others only through the divine consciousness and not through the mental nature.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-210-11, “Hatred and disliking and scorn and repulsion, clinging and attachment and preference (seven deformations of integral Yoga) are natural, necessary, inevitable at a certain stage: they attend upon or they help to make and maintain Nature’s choice in us. But to the Karmayogin they are a survival, a stumbling-block, a process of the Ignorance and, as he progresses, they fall away from his nature. The child-soul needs them for its growth; but they drop from an adult (Soul) in the divine culture.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-223, “To revolt, to condemn, to cry out is the impulse of our unchastened and ignorant instincts. Revolt like everything else has its uses in the play and is even necessary, helpful, decreed for the divine development in its own time and stage; but the movement of an ignorant rebellion belongs to the stage of the soul’s childhood or to its raw adolescence. The ripened soul does not condemn but seeks to understand and master, does not cry out but accepts or toils to improve and perfect, does not revolt inwardly but labours to obey and fulfil and transfigure. Therefore we shall receive all things with an equal soul from the hands of the Master. Failure we shall admit as a passage as calmly as success until the hour of the divine victory arrives. Our souls and minds and bodies will remain unshaken by acutest sorrow and suffering and pain if in the divine dispensation they come to us, unoverpowered by intensest joy and pleasure. Thus supremely balanced we shall continue steadily on our way meeting all things with an equal calm until we are ready for a more exalted status and can enter into the supreme and universal Ananda. ” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-225, "The ego cannot see where it is being led; it revolts against the leading, loses confidence, loses courage. These failings would not matter; for the divine Guide within is not offended by our revolt , not discouraged by our want of faith or repelled by our weakness; he has the entire love of the mother and the entire patience of the teacher. " Sri Aurobindo/CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-64, A Sadhak of integral Yoga identifies desire as his greatest enemy. Complete union with the highest Divine is possible after exhausting all gross and subtle desires and attachments or 'He (King Aswapati) has exhausted now life’s surface acts,' (Savitri-133) or 'Now other claims had hushed in him (King's) their cry' (Savitri-316). “Therefore attachment and desire must be utterly cast out; there is nothing in the world to which we must be attached, not wealth nor poverty, nor joy nor suffering, nor life nor death, nor greatness nor littleness, nor vice nor virtue, nor friend, nor wife, nor children, nor country, nor our work and mission, nor heaven nor earth, nor all that is within them or beyond them." CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-329, “And in any society we should have all four types (Brahmin, Kshetriya, Vaisya and Shudra Soul Force), — even, for an example, if we create a purely productive and commercial society such as modern times have attempted, or for that matter a Shudra society of labour, of the proletariate such as attracts the most modern mind and is now being attempted in one part of Europe and advocated in others.” CWSA/19/Essays on the Gita-523, (The above message hints that disproportionate increase of proletariat in the world is a real threat to the survival human race.) “But whatever form it may take, however this grossness may be refined or toned down, whatever ethical or religious conceptions may be superadded, always the family is an essentially practical, vitalistic and economic creation. It is simply a larger vital ego, a more complex vital organism that takes up the individual and englobes him in a more effective competitive and cooperative life unit.” CWSA-25/The Human Cycle/p-161, “I don’t remember the context; but I suppose he [the writer of Yogic Sadhan ] means that when one has to escape from the lower dharma, one has often to break it so as to arrive at a larger one. E.g. social duties, paying debts, looking after family, helping to serve your country, etc. etc. The man who turns to the spiritual life, has to leave all that behind him often and he is reproached by lots of people for his Adharma. But if he does not do this Adharma, he is bound for ever to the lower life — for there is always some duty there to be done — and cannot take up the spiritual dharma or can do it only when he is old and his faculties impaired.” Sri Aurobindo/CWSA-28/Letters on Yoga-I/p-439 7: Developed Soul is free from all external standard and is guided only by Divine Will: “Especially, in proportion as the partial lights of the mind become transformed into lights of gnosis, in whatever slighter or greater degree that may happen, we feel it as a transformation of our mentality into his and more and more he (Divine) becomes the thinker and seer in us. We cease to think and see for ourselves, but think only what he wills to think for us and see only what he sees for us. And then the teacher is fulfilled in the lover; he lays hands on all our mental being to embrace and possess, to enjoy and use it.” CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-603, “It (the outer law of Spiritual community) is a disadvantage to the adult spirit ready to transcend the human formula because it is an external standard which seeks to impose itself on him from outside, and the condition of his perfection is that he shall grow from within and in an increasing freedom, not by the suppression but by the transcendence of his perfected individuality, not any longer by a law imposed on him that trains and disciplines his members but by the soul from within breaking through all previous forms to possess with its light and transmute his members.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-195, “And even if the Shastra is still a living thing and the best rule for the human average, the exceptional man, spiritual, inwardly developed, is not bound by that standard. He is called upon to go beyond the fixed line of the Shastra . For this is a rule for the guidance, control and relative perfection of the normal imperfect man and he has to go on to a more absolute perfection: this is a system of fixed dharmas and he has to learn to live in the liberty of the Spirit.” CWSA-19/Essays on the Gita/p-480, “But if oneness with others, oneness with truth is already the essence of the realised spiritual nature, there is no need of a law of truth or of love, — the law, the standard has to be imposed on us now because there is in our natural being an opposite force of separateness, a possibility of antagonism, a force of discord, ill-will, strife.” CWSA-22/The Life Divine/p-1033, “His life would be a movement in the steps of a spiritual liberty and largeness replacing the law of the mental idea and the law of vital and physical need and desire and the compulsion of a surrounding life; his life and action would be bound by nothing else than the Divine Wisdom and Will acting on him and in him according to its Truth-consciousness.” CWSA-22/The Life Divine/p-1040, “But what then shall be the secure base of an action which departs both from the guidance of desire and from the normal law? For the rule of desire has an authority of its own, no longer safe or satisfactory to us as it is to the animal or as it might have been to a primitive humanity, but still, so far as it goes, founded on a very living part of our nature and fortified by its strong indications; and the law, the Shastra has behind it all the authority of long established rule, old successful sanctions and a secure past experience. But this new movement is of the nature of a powerful adventure into the unknown or partly known, a daring development and a new conquest, and what then is the clue to be followed, the guiding light on which it can depend or its strong basis in our being? The answer is that the clue and support is to be found in man’s sraddha , his faith, his will to believe, to live what he sees or thinks to be the truth of himself and of existence.” CWSA-19/Essays on the Gita/p-479-480 OM TAT SAT References: 105: (Divine Mother said to King Aswapati) “Accept the difficulty and godlike toil, For the slow-paced omniscient purpose live.” Savitri-335-336, “She (Savitri) made herself the diligent serf of all,” Savitri-470, "So man evolving to divinest heights Colloques still with the animal and the Djinn; The human godhead with star-gazer eyes Lives still in one house with the primal beast. The high meets the low, all is a single plan." Savitri-541 “Pitying our barren days; so dost thou (Savitri) serve Even as a slave might, yet art thou beyond” Savitri-562, “To be the master of the world would indeed be supreme felicity, if one were universally loved; but for that one would have to be at the same time the slave of all humanity.” SABCL-17/The Hour of God/p-142, “If thou canst not be the slave of all mankind, thou art not fit to be its master, and if thou canst not make thy nature as Vasishtha’s cow of plenty with all mankind to draw its wish from her udders, what avails thy leonine supermanhood?” SABCL-17/The Hour of God/p-95, “A spiritual or gnostic being would feel his harmony with the whole gnostic life around him, whatever his position in the whole. According to his place in it he would know how to lead or to rule, but also how to subordinate himself; both would be to him an equal delight: for the spirit’s freedom, because it is eternal, self-existent and inalienable, can be felt as much in service and willing subordination and adjustment with other selves as in power and rule.” CWSA-22/The Life Divine/p-1069, "All the action of the perfected soul will be even such a constant divine giving of itself and its powers, an outflowing of the knowledge, light, strength, love, joy, helpful shakti which it possesses in the Divine and by his influence and effluence on all around it according to their capacity of reception or on all this world and its creatures. That will be the complete result of the complete self-giving of the soul to the Master of our existence." CWSA/19/Essays on the Gita/p-490-491, 106: “Sri Aurobindo once said (jokingly, as it were), while talking with those around him (I was there and we were talking about Christianity and the "new Christ"), he told them, "Oh, if the new Christ comes, the Church will crucify him!"” The Mother’s Agenda-October-7, 1967, “The lack of the earth’s receptivity and the behavior of Sri Aurobindo’s disciples are largely responsible for what happened to his body. But one thing is certain: the great misfortune that has just beset us in no way affects the truth of his teaching. All he said is perfectly true and remains so. Time and the course of events will make this abundantly clear.” Feb-1951/Mother’s Agenda-Vol-1/P: 27, “That’s what made him (Sri Aurobindo’s) lose his eyesight, you know; his eyes were overstrained. I know it’s due to that, because I heard him say so. Once, they had brought him a stack of books to sign and other things and, unaware that he could be heard, he exclaimed, Oh, they want to make me blind! That’s how I knew his eyes were tired. He was indeed losing his sight. At the end, he couldn’t see a thing, he had to look at very close range.” Jan-12/1963/Mother’s Agenda/Vol-4/P-22-23, “All those who were in the courtyard below [Mother’s room] must have heard how we had to fight with Her to make Her eat a little.” [Original English] This fight over food (to mention only one) created a sharp conflict in Mother’s body; she was torn between their suggestions–“If you don’t eat, you’re going to die”-and the thrust of the Experience.” March-29/1972/The Mother’s Agenda/Vol-13/P-117, “There's just one thing ... I don't know ... it's when you say Sri Aurobindo "succumbed" on December 5, 1950. He didn't "succumb." It's not that he couldn't have done otherwise. It's not the difficulty of the work that made him leave; it's something else. You can't mention this in your book, of course, it's impossible to talk about for the moment, but I would like you to use another word. What was your sentence again? I said: "Sri Aurobindo succumbed to this work on December 5, 1950." He didn't succumb. We have to use another word, not "succumb." It was truly his CHOICE – he chose to do the work in another way, a way he felt would bring much more rapid results. But this explanation is nobody's business, for the moment. So we can't say that he succumbed. "Succumbed" gives the idea that it was against his will, that it just happened, that it was an accident – it CANNOT be "succumbed." Yes, I understand. You could simply say that he did the work up to that moment , .. that's all, giving no reason. We could simply say: "Sri Aurobindo left this life on December 5, 1950." Read the beginning of the passage again. "The seeker of transformation must thus face all the difficulties, even death, not to vanquish but to change them – one cannot change things without taking them upon oneself. 'Thou shalt bear all things,' says Savitri, 'that all things may change.' (Savitri-699) Sri Aurobindo succumbed to this work ..." Can't you just put "that's why," without giving any explanation?... That's why Sri Aurobindo left his body. That's much more powerful. You said "even death," so just put: "That's why Sri Aurobindo left his body."” The Mother's Agenda/ December 25, 1962 “Hard is the world-redeemer’s heavy task; The world itself becomes his adversary, Those he would save are his antagonists: This world is in love with its own ignorance, Its darkness turns away from the saviour light, It gives the cross in payment for the crown .” Savitri-448, “It is finished, the dread mysterious sacrifice, Offered by God’s martyred body for the world; Gethsemane and Calvary are his lot, He carries the cross on which man’s soul is nailed; His escort is the curses of the crowd; Insult and jeer are his right’s acknowledgment; Two thieves slain with him mock his mighty death.” Savitri-445, "August and pitiless in his calm outlook, Heightening the Eternal’s dreadful strategy, He measured the difficulty with the might And dug more deep the gulf that all must cross." Savitri-17 107: “We may say that here in India the reign of Intuition came first, intellectual Mind developing afterwards in the later philosophy and science. But in fact the mass of men at the time, it is quite evident, lived entirely on the material plane, worshipped the Godheads of material nature, sought from them entirely material objects. The effort of the Vedic mystics revealed to them the things behind through a power of inner sight and hearing and experience which was confined to a limited number of seers and sages and kept carefully secret from the mass of humanity secrecy was always insisted on by the mystics .” CWSA-28/Letters on Yoga-I/p-267, “A still deep sea, he laughs in rolling waves; Universal, he is all, — transcendent, none. To man’s righteousness this is his cosmic crime , Almighty beyond good and evil to dwell Leaving the good to their fate in a wicked world And evil to reign in this enormous scene.” Savitri-657, “All person perished in its namelessness.” Savitri-308, “Inconscient traders in bundles of contraries, They did what in others they would persecute; When their eyes looked upon their fellow’s vice, An indignation flamed, a virtuous wrath; Oblivious of their own deep-hid offence, Moblike they stoned a neighbour caught in sin. ” Savitri-209 “There is no necessity to reveal one’s plans and movements to those who have no business to know it, who are incapable of understanding or who would act as enemies or spoil all as a result of their knowledge. Secrecy is perfectly admissible and usual in spiritual matters except in special relations like that of the Shishya to the Guru . We do not let people outside know what is going on in the Ashram but we do not tell any lies about it either. Most Yogis say nothing about their spiritual experiences to others or not until long afterwards and secrecy was a general rule among the ancient Mystics. No moral or spiritual law commands us to make ourselves naked to the world or open up our hearts and minds for public inspection. Gandhi talked about secrecy being a sin but that is one of his many extravagances.” SABCL-26/On Himself/p-380, “The gnostic soul is not bound any more than the divine demoniac by the petty conventions and proprieties of the normal human life or the narrow rules through which it makes some shift to accommodate itself with the perplexing dualities of the lower nature and tries to guide its steps among the seeming contradictions of the world, to avoid its numberless stumbling-blocks and to foot with gingerly care around its dangers and pitfalls. The gnostic supramental life is abnormal to us because it is free to all the hardihoods and audacious delights of a soul dealing fearlessly and even violently with Nature, but yet is it the very normality of the infinite and all governed by the law of the Truth in its exact unerring process. It obeys the law of a self-possessed Knowledge, Love, Delight in an innumerable Oneness. It seems abnormal only because its rhythm is not measurable by the faltering beats of the mind, but yet it steps in a wonderful and transcendent measure." Sri Aurobindo/CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-503-504, “We may say that here in India the reign of Intuition came first, intellectual Mind developing afterwards in the later philosophy and science. But in fact the mass of men at the time, it is quite evident, lived entirely on the material plane, worshipped the Godheads of material nature, sought from them entirely material objects. The effort of the Vedic mystics revealed to them the things behind through a power of inner sight and hearing and experience which was confined to a limited number of seers and sages and kept carefully secret from the mass of humanity secrecy was always insisted on by the mystics. We may very well attribute this flowering of intuition on the spiritual plane to a rapid reemergence of the essential gains brought down from a previous cycle. If we analyse the spiritual history of India we shall find that after reaching this height there was a descent which attempted to take up each lower degree of the already evolved consciousness and link it to the spiritual at the summit. The Vedic age was followed by a great outburst of intellectual philosophy which yet took spiritual truth as its basis and tried to reach it anew, not through a direct intuitive or occult process as did the Vedic seers, but by the power of the mind’s reflective, speculative, logical thought; at the same time processes of Yoga were developed which used the thinking mind as a means of arriving at spiritual realisation, spiritualising this mind itself at the same time. Then followed an era of the development of philosophies and Yoga processes which more and more used the emotional and aesthetic being as the means of spiritual realisation and spiritualised the emotional level in man through the heart and feeling. This was accompanied by Tantric and other processes which took up the mental will, the life-will, the life of sensations and made them at once the instruments and the field of spiritualisation. In Hathayoga and in the various attempts at divinisation of the body there is also a line of endeavour which attempted to arrive at the same achievement with regard to living matter; but this still awaits the discovery of the true characteristic method and power of spirit in the body. We may say therefore that the universal Consciousness after its descent into Matter has conducted the evolution there along two lines, one of ascent to the discovery of the self and spirit, the other of descent through the already evolved levels of mind, life and body so as to bring down the spiritual consciousness into these also and to fulfil thereby some secret intention in the creation of the material universe. Our Yoga is in its principle a taking up and summarising and completing of this process, an endeavour to rise to the highest possible supramental level and bring down its consciousness and powers into mind, life and body. ” CWSA-28/Letters on Yoga-I/p-267-268, "A light not born of sun or moon or fire, A light that dwelt within and saw within Shedding an intimate visibility Made secrecy more revealing than the word :" Savitri-525, 108: “But now her spirit’s flame of conscient force Retiring from a sweetness without fruit Called back her thoughts from speech to sit within In a deep room in meditation’s house .” Savitri-639, ‘I am given the awareness of how huge this thing (Divine descent) is one drop at a time…so I won’t be crushed,’ The Mother’s Agenda, July 15, 1961, "and this Subconscient transformation could be done ‘only in deep meditation…and not in any other time, in activity or even in concentration. " The Mother’s Agenda, December 11, 1963, “And it’s true, I have noticed it: at times when the Force comes with really all its might, it’s terrible! Even for those who are most used to it, even for the most courageous ... it’s hard. So it’s always like that: it contains itself so as not to be ...unbearable. What do you have to tell me? Nothing?... It’s a pity. I’m always the one who speaks!” The Mother’s Agenda/20.02.1968, “That is all right in the ordinary karmayoga which aims at union with the cosmic Spirit and stops short at the Overmind — but here a special work (of Subconscient transformation) has to be done and a new realisation achieved for the earth and not for ourselves alone. It is necessary to stand apart from the rest of the world so as to separate ourselves from the ordinary consciousness in order to bring down a new one.” CWSA-35/Letters on Himself and the Ashram-p-812-813, "I could have begun this work (of transformation) on the body thirty years ago, but I was constantly caught up in this harassing ashram life. It took this illness to enable me truly to begin doing the sadhana of the body. It does not mean that thirty years were wasted, for it is likely that had I been able to start this work thirty years ago, it would have been premature. The consciousness of the others also had to develop – the two are linked, the individual progress and the collective progress, and one cannot advance if the other does not advance." The Mother/The Mother’s Agenda-May 19, 1959, "You see, I have a solution for the transformation of the body, but … it’s never been done before, so it’s extremely … hard to believe. I cannot, I cannot believe that that’s it. Yet, it’s the only solution I see…. The body has a wish to go to sleep and awake … (“sleep” in a certain sense, of course: I remain perfectly conscious in consciousness, in the movement) and awake only after it is transformed … ( He (King Aswapati) travels on through waking and through sleep.” Savitri-72) … but people will never have the patience to stand it, to take care of me. The task is colossal, a herculean task; they’re nice (The Mother points to the bathroom), but they’re already doing their utmost, and I can’t ask for more....That’s the problem..... Yet, it’s the only solution to which the consciousness assents: .... “Yes, that’s it.”.... For, you see … there’s a certain state-yes, a state like this (The Mother closes a fist), self-absorbed, in which you are … at peace. ... But who? Who? To ask that of the people who take care of me is almost impossible." April-7/1973/Mother’s Agenda/Vol-13/P-389-397, 109: (Q) "Mother, previously things were very strict in the Ashram, but not now. Why? Yes, I have always said that it changed when we had to take the very little children. How can you envision an ascetic life with little sprouts no bigger than that? It’s impossible! But that’s the little surprise package the war left on our doorstep. When it was found that Pondicherry was the safest place on earth, naturally people came wheeling in here with all their baby carriages filled and asked us if we could shelter them, so we couldn’t very well turn them away, could we?! That’s how it happened, and in no other way ... But, in the beginning, the first condition for coming here was that you would have nothing more to do with your family! If a man was married, then he had to completely overlook the fact that he had a wife and children – completely sever all ties, have nothing further to do with them. And if ever a wife asked to come just because her husband happened to be here, we told her, ‘You have no business coming here!’" The Mother’s Agenda/August 25, 1954, "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." CWSA-28/Letters on Yoga-I/p-438-439, Download this WEB PAGE as a PDF file: The Gita identifies developing Souls as arta, artharthi, jijnasu, mudha, vimudhah, durachari, sva-pake, papajonayah, striyah, shudra, vaisya, bala, alpa medhasam, alpa buddhayah, duskritam, duskritinah, samsayatma, yoga-bhrastah, asraddadhanah. They depend on outgoing sense movement for all their enjoyments. So, they suffer desire, anger, duality, ego, passion, pain, joy and grief. Similarly, they need external aid for Spiritual turn in the preparatory period of their life. The Lord further proposes that inferior human manifestations can transform quickly into saintly persons, khipram bhavati dharmatma , (The Gita-9.31) if they take refuge in Him alone through devotion and finally, they too attain the highest goal. It defines developed Souls in different terminologies of Dvija, Dvijottam (the best among the twice born), Yantra, Vibhuti, Avatara, Panditah, Sthita Prajna, Buddha, Maharsi, Debarsi, Siddhanam, Suhridam, Sadhunam, Sraddhavan, Jnanaban, Jnani, Jnaninah, nitya Sannyasi, Tyagi, Brahmachari, Munirbrahma, Muneh, Mumuksubhih, Yoginah, Tattva-darsinah, Tattvavit, Jitendriya, Visuddhatma, Dhira, Putah, Sthirabuddhi, Yati, Yatinam, Suhrud, Jitatmana, Triptatma, Prasantatma, Vijitatma, Asammudhah, Samyami, Bhakta rajarsayah, Brahmavid, Mahatma, Krshina-kalmasah, Krishna-vit, Dharmatma, Brahmavadinam, Mokshakankhivih, Atiba-priya Bhakta . Among the masculine personalities it has identified Janaka (A famous King and Sage and the Father of Mother Sita), Vivasvan (the Sun-God), Ikshavaku (head of the Solar line and the first king of solar race), Vrigu (son of Varuna , regarded as one of the Rishis in the Veda), Ushana (a Vibhuti among seer-poets), Kapila Muni (traditional founder and chief exponent of Sankhya system of philosophy), Narada (the heavenly sage who stands for Divine Love and Knowledge), Manu (mythological Father of mankind), Asita (name of the Vedic Seer), Devala (the name of the Vedic Seer), Vyasa (compiler of the Vedas, the Gita and the author of the Mahabharata ), Sanaka (son of the creator God, Brahma ), Prahllada (son of an Asura King Hiranyakasipu and true devotee of Lord Vishnu ), Arjuna (one of the five Pandava s, very dear to the external manifestation of Godhead, the best among the twice born Souls, Instruments and Emanations), Sanjaya (Dhritarashtra’s minister who was endowed with the power of celestial vision, trikaladristi ) and Lord Sri Krishna (son of Devaki, Godhead and the Lord of Ananda , one of the ten incarnations of Lord Vishnu ) as developed Souls. Among the feminine personalities it has identified Kirti, Sree, Vak or Vani, Smriti, Medha, Dhriti and Kshama as developed Souls. They are unattached to outward touches for their happiness and are ever satisfied with themselves through inner contact with the Soul, nitya-trupto nirasrayah (The Gita-4.20). Similarly they can use but do not depend on external aid for their Spiritual fulfilment. The traditional Yoga of the Gita proposes that a developed Soul is free from seven deformations, vicaras, that of liking and disliking, iccha, dvesah, pleasure and pain, sukham, dukham , subjection to lower consciousness, chetana, place together truth and falsehood, sanghatah, tamasic and rajasic persistence, dhriti. A student of Integral Education will be at once a seeker of Integral Yoga, Integral Evolution, Integral Truth and Comprehensive Virginity extending over multiple subtle bodies in addition to his surface training of mind, vital and body. He will be aware of a Supramental world whose advent will be foreseen when earth life will be the playfield of more and more ‘superior human and invisible beings’¹⁷ hinted in Savitri as ‘Omnipotent’s flaming pioneers,’⁵ ‘mighty wardens,’²¹ ‘The sun-eyed children,’⁵ ‘radiant children of Eternity,’⁴ ‘princes of the Sun,’¹² ‘garbless deity,’⁶ ‘golden child,’⁷ ‘King-children,’¹⁵ ‘nude god-children,’¹⁸ ‘The heroic leaders of coming time,’¹⁵ ‘The Infants of the Monarchy of the worlds,’¹⁵ ‘Nameless the austere ascetics without home’¹⁵ ‘sunlight moulded like a golden maid,’⁸ ‘high-bred maiden,’⁹ ‘golden bride,’¹⁰ ‘the eternal bride,’¹¹ ‘golden virgin,’¹⁶ ‘virgin bridals of the dawn,’¹² and the ‘citizens of that mother state.’¹³ Savitri book also proposes Developed Souls to accept the Psychic being as the only and one and the best friend of their whole life and all life or "His only comrade is the Strength within." (Savitri-368) (References of above para is avilable in this link. )

"Insatiate seeker, he has all to learn:" Savitri-133 Seeker's Questions “Never tell a lie: absolute condition for safety on the path… Each lie uttered is a step taken towards disintegration.” The Mother TMCW-14/Words of the Mother-II/p-201-202, “Only those who are perfectly truthful can be my true children.” The Mother TMCW-14/Words of the Mother-II/p-190, "(Question) What do I need to develop most? And what do I need to reject most? (Answer) Develop — sincerity (that is, an integral adhesion to the Divine’s way). Reject — the pull of the old human habits." The Mother TMCW-14/Words of the Mother-II/p-67 This webpage is created for the full awareness of school children related with the vast vision of Integral Education, which is a utilitarian interpretation of integral Yoga. Its mission is, as Sri Aurobindo proposes, “it is far from my purpose to propagate any religion new or old for humanity in the future. A way to be opened that is still blocked, not a religion to be founded, is my conception of the matter.” (CWSA-28/Letters on Yoga-I/p-411) Integral Yoga 'has nothing to do with Hindu religion or culture or any religion or nationality. The Truth of the Divine which is the spiritual reality behind all religions and the descent of the supramental which is not known to any religion are the sole things which will be the foundation of the work of the future." (CWSA-35/Letters on Himself and the Ashram/p-701) The Mother confirms, "To adopt a religion because one is born in that religion or because the people one loves and trusts practise that religion or because when one goes to a particular place where others pray and worship, one feels helped in one’s own prayer and worship, is not the sign of a very strong nature; I should say it is rather the sign of a weakness or at any rate of a lack of originality. ” (The Mother/The Mother’s Centenary Works (second edition)/8/246) Here, Religion means to build a fixed set of rules around a personal God who is exclusively preoccupied with satisfying the devotees’ bottomless desires and endless wanting. He is also called to ensure an easy and comfortable life without any difficulty and wounds. In integral Yoga, God is a constantly growing Impersonal Consciousness who is at once Transcendent, Universal and Individual Psychic Being and by their movement, fullness of life can be attained. Its Shastras are not a fixed set of monuments of the immediate and distant past but “constantly renewed, relived, their stuff of permanent truth constantly reshaped and developed in the inner thought and spiritual experience of a developing humanity.” (CWSA/19/Essays on the Gita/p-5) Its “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.” (The Mother’s Agenda-22.03.1967) Sri Aurobindo confirms in The Synthesis of Yoga that a ' strong (man) but crude vital natures ' (CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-249) cannot become the true leader of men. He further confirms, 'only the twice born (Soul) can understand or teach the' Shastra. (CWSA-18/Kena and other Upanishads/p-169) and 'true understanding (of Sri Aurobindo's Teachings) comes later, after having tried to put it into practice.' (TMCW/Vol-12/On Education/p-204) It is only by rigorous self-control or “It is only by increasing that control that he (a Sadhaka of integral Yoga) can move towards perfection..." (CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-631) Our objective in this webpage is to make the students aware that Integral Education is meant to constantly enlarge their existing human vessel in this life, so that in all-life they will emerge as integral students with the capacity to hold an inrush of the highest Spiritual energy in its fullest amount. We are here by our endeavour and tapasya, not only to repeat the Spiritual experience of the great past but also to 'go farther' towards a greater future. "How shall the child already be the man? Because he is infant, shall he never grow? Because he is ignorant, shall he never learn? In a small fragile seed a great tree lurks, In a tiny gene a thinking being is shut; A little element in a little sperm, It grows and is a conqueror and a sage." Savitri-623 Meditation and its primary techniques Sangram 21.08.2026 OM NAMO BHAGAVATE MAA PRANAM I've been thinking about asking a question for a long time but couldn't bring myself to ask it... today I am finally asking... What is meditation, and what are its primary techniques ? During meditation, a flood of thoughts often enters the mind, making it highly challenging to sit silently with closed eyes. Given these difficulties, what is the most effective approach to practicing meditation ? Om Namo Bhagavate 21.08.2026 Divine Amar Atman! My Blessed Divine Child Sangram, Meditation is a part of Indian Schools of Yoga. There are now six schools of Yoga active, though there are still more. They are (1) Karma Yoga, (2) Jnana Yoga, (3) Bhakti Yoga, (4) Hatha Yoga, (5) Raja Yoga, (6) Tantra Yoga. As per your Nature, swabhaba, you have to choose one of these Yoga and meditation is a part of each Yoga schools in entering different planes of Consciousness. Before meditation, mind has to be silenced. Mind is silenced by renouncing the lower Nature. (Refer rejection in chapter 2 of The Mother book) Each Yogic school is having its own means of rejection. When mind is silenced, one arrives at the state of equality, samata. In this state one can practice self-control and consecration. Through both the methods concentration power increases. Concentration gives birth to contemplation and meditation. Through meditation you can unite with the Divine and attain peace, bliss, wisdom, love, beauty etc. Integral Yoga is a specialised Yoga which can begin after the exhaustion of any of the six traditional Yoga. Or Integral Yoga begins after long years of practice of traditional Yoga hinted in the Veda, the Upanishad and the Gita. Here meditation is used to explore ten planes of consciousness and by this exploration ten Selves and ten subtle bodies are discovered. You may note that the first Supramental Force descended to earth’s atmosphere through the Mother’s body during a collective meditation in Ashram playground on 29 February 1956. You may also note that the most difficult Subconscient transformation of integral Yoga can be pursued “only in deep meditation…and not in any other time, in activity or even in concentration.” (The Mother’s Agenda, December 11, 1963) Om Tat Sat With my eternal Love and Their blessings... At Their Feet S.A. Maa Krishna Find some more messages on Meditation: "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." The Mother/ TMCW/Vol-5/p-283, TMCW/Vol-13/Words of the Mother-1/p-107-108 “Moreover, he who wants to do “intensive sadhana ” must be able to isolate himself from his surroundings and, if necessary, to sit in deep meditation even on a battlefield in the midst of the roaring guns.” The Mother/ TMCW-14/Words of the Mother-II/p-47, “You forget that men differ in nature and therefore each will approach the sadhana in his own way — one through work, one through bhakti, one through meditation and knowledge — and those who are capable of it through all together. You are perfectly justified in following your own way, whatever may be the theories of others — but let them follow theirs. In the end all can converge together towards the same goal.” Sri Aurobindo/CWSA-29/Letters on Yoga-II/p-208 “I have always said that work done as sadhana — done, that is to say, as an outflow of energy from the Divine offered to the Divine or work done for the sake of the Divine or work done in a spirit of devotion — is a powerful means of sadhana and that such work is especially necessary in this Yoga. Work, bhakti and meditation are three supports of Yoga. One can do with all three, or two or one. There are people who can’t meditate in the set way that one calls meditation, but they progress through work or through bhakti or through the two together. By work and bhakti one can develop a consciousness in which eventually a natural meditation and realisation become possible.” Sri Aurobindo/CWSA-29/Letters on Yoga-II/p-209 “There are very few among the sadhaks here who at all concern themselves with the supermind or know anything about it except as something which the Mother and I will bring down some day and establish here. Most are seeking realisation through meditation, through love and worship or through activity and work. Meditation and silence are not necessary for everyone; there are some, even among those spoken of by you and others as the most advanced sadhaks, who do their sadhana not through meditation, for which they have no turn, but through activity, work or creation supported or founded on love and bhakti. It is not the credo (A statement of core beliefs) but the person who matters. We impose no credo (Odia Translation: ଧର୍ମ ମତ, ସ୍ୱୀକୃତ); it is sufficient if there is an established and heart-felt relation between ourselves and the disciple.” Sri Aurobindo/CWSA-29/Letters on Yoga-II/p-210 “Sadhana is the practice of Yoga. Tapasya is the concentration of the will to get the results of sadhana and to conquer the lower nature. Aradhana is worship of the Divine, love, self- surrender, aspiration to the Divine, calling the name, prayer. Dhyana is inner concentration of the consciousness, meditation, going inside in Samadhi. Dhyana, tapasya and aradhana are all parts of sadhana.” Sri Aurobindo/CWSA-29/Letters on Yoga-II/p-215 “FIRST SUPRAMENTAL MANIFESTATION (During the common meditation on Wednesday the 29th February 1956) This evening the Divine Presence, concrete and material, was there present amongst you. I had a form of living gold, bigger than the universe, and I was facing a huge and massive golden door which separated the world from the Divine. As I looked at the door, I knew and willed, in a single movement of consciousness, that THE TIME HAS COME’, and lifting with both hands a mighty golden hammer I struck one blow, one single blow on the door and the door was shattered to pieces. Then the supramental Light and Force and Consciousness rushed down upon earth in an uninterrupted flow.” The Mother/The Mother’s Agenda/29 February 1956 “So, the best way to use these meditations (and they are going to increase, since we are now also going to replace the ‘distributions’ with short meditations) is to go deep within yourselves, as far as you can, and find the place where you can feel, perceive and perhaps even create an atmosphere of oneness wherein a force of order and organization can put each element in its true place, and out of the chaos existing at this hour, make a new, harmonious world surge forth.” The Mother/The Mother’s Agenda/April 22, 1957 Inner Change Sangram Om Namo Bhagavate 5.7.2026. Maa Pranam "People think that their condition depends on circumstances. But that is all false. If somebody is a “nervous wreck”, he thinks that if circumstances are favourable he will improve. But, actually, even if they are favourable he will remain what he is. All think they are feeling weak and tired because people are not nice to them. This is rubbish. It is not the circumstances that have to be changed: what is required is an inner change." •⁠ ⁠The Mother (CWM-14, p. 215) 🔅 A doubt from this Message... "What is inner change , and how can it be achieved or how does it happen particularly for an individual living a social life ?" Sangram (Old Pioneer Student of the school) Om Namo Bhagavate Divine Amar Atman! My Blessed Divine Child Sangram Your question about inner change for one living a social life may be answered in the light of Savitri . Supreme Lord informed Savitri that the most of the human beings are still built on Nature’s early evolutionary plan and ‘owe small debt to a superior plane;’ (Savitri-689) thus man’s ‘mind is closed between two firmaments’ (Savitri-689) of seeking truth through (1) sight and sound or images and words, and (2) surface appearances and brute externals. His consciousness is projected outward , and is unwilling to plunge into the inner depth of Truth or "The surface men scan, the depths refuse their search:” (Savitri-657) The average person living a social life has little inner life. So, the Divine advised Savitri not to disturb the life of common man and their settled balance of existing created things by intervention of Spiritual energy and leave them to ‘heavy toil and slow aeonic steps’ (Savitri-690) and all shall be done for them ‘by the long act of Time.’ (Savitri-691) This is the Mother's message for those who wanted to fit themselves in the existing social life: "But to want to impose that (Divine Life) on those who aren't ready for that transition is absurd. I have been much reproached for encouraging certain people to marry; there are lots of these children to whom I say, "Get married, get married!" I am told, "What! You encourage them?"" (The Mother's Agenda/November 27, 1965 ) Inner change means that the centre of our life shifts from the surface ego to the vast Subliminal and Psychic Being—the Divine Presence within. Instead of being governed by circumstances, praise or blame, success or failure, one learns to act from inner fortress of peace, faith, sincerity and aspiration. For one living in society, this change begins through constant self-observation, sincere aspiration to the Divine, rejection of lower movements such as anger, fear and desire, and offering or surrendering every work and relationship to the Divine. Then circumstances no longer govern consciousness; rather, consciousness gradually transforms the way circumstances are experienced. Therefore, according to The Mother , inner change begins the moment we stop blaming circumstances and sincerely turn towards the Divine Presence within ourselves. “But the solution of the problem which spirituality offers is not a solution by (2) external means (by Psycho-physical machinery), though these also have to be used, but by (1) an inner change (by Psychic, Spiritual and Supramental change), a transformation of the consciousness and nature.” (CWSA-22/The Life Divine-917) With my eternal love and blessings.. 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.”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.”¹⁸ THE MOTHER The Readers’ 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.”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.”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 “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 “In men, says the Upanishad, the Self-Existent has cut the doors of consciousness outward, but a few turn the eye inward and it is these who see and know the Spirit and develop the spiritual being.”24 SRI AUROBINDO “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. 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 Psychic and Spiritual plane 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 few Sadhakas or ‘one hundred perfect instruments’2 reveal and establish the concealed Supramental Mahashakti and the secondary objective is with their help expedite the process of generalisation of Spirituality and revelation of Godhead in humanity. A relation between seeker of truth, traditional Yogi and 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 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 (Jijnasu) transcends his earthly self; He (Dvija) stands in the largeness of his soul new-born, Redeemed from encirclement by mortal things And moves in a pure free spiritual realm (Yantra) As in the rare breath of a stratosphere; A last end of far lines of divinity, (Vibhuti) He mounts by a frail thread to his high source; He reaches his fount of immortality, He calls the Godhead (Avatara) into his mortal life.” Savitri-486 A traditional Sadhaka, after realisation of Kshara, Akshara and Purushottama consciousness feels that this realisation cannot be reconciled6 with untransformed nature of 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 supreme abode of param dham through the passage of Purushottama state. In integral Yoga, after realisation of Kshara, Akshara and Purushottama consciousness or after realisation Psychic, Spiritual and Supramental Being, a Sadhaka’s difficult task prohibits blissful enjoyment of the fruit of his labour but begins of reconciling static Matter with dynamic Spirit and thus Divine Shakti pours into the material vessel and confronts with Subconscient dark forces. His Psychic, Spiritual and Supramental purification, transformation and perfection resumes 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 manifestation of highest and comprehensive truth through integral Yoga can draw few strong Souls. Traditional Yoga gives more importance to self-expansion and a traditional Teacher is weighed by number of disciples and devotees surrounded him. Integral Yoga gives more importance to Subconscient transformation through self-concentration and a Sadhaka of integral Yoga is weighed by his enhanced capacity to bear earth’s suffering and miseries and later transforming them into ecstasies. The perfect Instruments of integral Yoga with universalised Consciousness will preoccupy themselves for the benefit of individuals and humanity through concentration and illumination of their own subtle and causal body. They are nameless Spiritual leaders of humanity and their invisible world action through descent of Divine Force or reversal of Consciousness to resolve all problems of existence, are of far greater value than any religious movement can imagine. Those whose frontal surface nature is dominated by Courage and self-less Love, known as Kshatriya Soul Force and frontal Nature dominated by Truth and Wisdom, known as Brahmin Soul Force are recognised as superior human beings and are fit for collective Spiritual life. This work will be accelerated by the emergence of Kshatriya Soul force of courage and new adventure in the outer world and ceaseless battle against earthly opposition through activation of Psychic Being. The Mission will further spread by high nobility of Soul which is untouched by any littleness, narrowness and baseness and will move with a certain greatness of Spiritual conquest to confront with universal dark forces attached to present unstable creation and Supramental contagion to enter fierce battle with ‘giant sons of Darkness’7 of Subconscient/Inconscient world and bears ‘inner wounds that are to slow to heal.’8 This manifesting action further asks that state of reconciling Wisdom which can perfectly possess all the infinite variety of external circumstances and permeate the Divine Light and Love to all the nether, neglected and less explored domain and thus illumining the whole earth. This endeavour will drive forward towards the realisation of the vision as indicated in Savitri, “Mere men into spiritual beings grow And see awake the dumb divinity.”9 The Synthesis of Yoga book (Principal Shastra) issues injunctions on a Sadhaka (Seeker of integral Truth) of integral Yoga that he should not remain indifferent to individual, collective and world imperfection and he should become accountable for his Sadhana (askesis) to his own Self, to the World and to the Divine.25 Integral Yoga proposes that a developed Soul must not ‘look with a remote indifference on the’10 sufferings of the unblessed ordinary human being and blessed devotees and draws all of them towards Spirit’s freedom. Or ‘even if our personal deliverance is complete, still there is the suffering of others, the world travail, which the great of soul cannot regard with indifference.’11 ‘Accepting life, he (a Sadhaka of integral Yoga) has to bear not only his own burden, but a great part of the world’s burden too along with it, as a continuation of his own sufficiently heavy load. Therefore his Yoga has much more of the nature of a battle than others; but this is not only an individual battle, it is a collective war waged over a considerable country.’12 The forceful directive issued in the principal Shastra related with individual and collective imperfection, is to ‘leave nothing around it (liberated Soul Sadhaka) unchanged’13 superseding the previous stand ‘which will no way seek to change their outward appearance...and old human surroundings.’13 His personal and communal existence must ‘take full account of’14 present imperfection and he has to ‘see how it can be converted to the law of a possible perfection.’14 OM TAT SAT References: 1: CWSA/23/ The Synthesis of Yoga -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-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- 5/195, 3: THE GITA-6.45/7.19, 4: “Teaching, example and influence are three instruments of the Guru (integral Teacher)… He will seek to awaken much more than to instruct…The example is more powerful than the instruction; but it is not the example of the outward acts nor that of the personal character which is of most importance. These have their place and their utility; but what will most stimulate aspiration in others is the central fact of the divine realisation within him governing his whole life and inner state and all his activities.” CWSA-23/ The Synthesis of Yoga -66-67 5: “…the (traditional) Yoga proceeds by the results of prescribed methods taught in a Scripture or a tradition and reinforced and illumined by the instructions of the Master. This is a narrower practice, but safe and effective within its limits, because it follows a well-beaten track to a long familiar goal.” CWSA-23/ The Synthesis of Yoga -55, 6: Matter cannot be reconciled with the Spirit is understood from following verse: “They who with the eye of knowledge perceive this irreconcilable difference between the Matter, kshetra, and the Spirit, Kshetrajna, and the liberation of Being from Nature, they escape into supreme abode of Param Dham.” The Gita-13.35, In the Gita Matter can be reconciled with the Spirit is hinted but not developed: ‘Earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind, reason and ego is My eightfold divided Nature, apara-prakriti. Know too My other Divine Nature, Para-prakriti, different from this Apara Prakriti; this Supreme Nature or the Supreme Mother which becomes the Jiva in the heart and by which this world is upheld. This ‘upholding of the world,’ jagat dharayate, means Para-Prakriti also penetrates into Apara Prakriti by which this world can be purified, transformed and perfected.” THE GITA-7.4, 5. 7: Savitri-226, 8: Savitri-230, 9: Savitri-709-10, 10: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga-444, 11: CWSA/21/The Life Divine-422, 12: CWSA/23/The Synthesis of Yoga-77, 13: CWSA/23/The Synthesis of Yoga-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- 631, 15: Savitri-708, 16: “There man can visit but there he cannot live.” Savitri-659 (All Man can get Supramental touch or God’s touch but unfit or not prepared to get His embrace.) 17: Savitri-42, 18: The Mother’s Agenda-10/p-148/19th April-1969, 19: CWSA-35/Letters on Himself and the Ashram/ p-554, “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-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-752, 24: CWSA/22/The Life Divine-1054, 25: “She wrote the account of all that she had lost,” Savitri-117, (Accountability to the Self.) “The Voice replied: “Is this enough, O spirit? And what shall thy soul say when it wakes and knows The work was left undone for which it came? Or is this all for thy being born on earth Charged with a mandate from eternity, A listener to the voices of the years, A follower of the footprints of the gods, To pass and leave unchanged the old dusty laws?” Savitri-475 (Accountability to the Self) “To account for the Actual’s unaccountable sum,” Savitri-269, (Accountability to the Divine.) “Is this then the report that I must make, My head bowed with shame before the Eternal’s seat, — His power he kindled in thy body has failed, His labourer returns, her task undone?” Savitri-476 (Accountability to the Divine.) “And in the transactions of our positive consciousness, even Unity has to make its account with Multiplicity; for the Many also are Brahman.” CWSA/21/The Life Divine-39 (Accountability to the world) “In transparent systems bodied termless truths, The Timeless made accountable to Time” Savitri-273 26: CWSA-35/Letters on Himself And The Ashram-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 Yogi 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)/10/15, Sri Matriniketan Ashram, Managed by The Mother’s International Centre Trust, Regd.No-146/24.11.97. Vill: Ramachandrapur, PO: Kukudakhandi-761100, Via: Brahmapur, Dist: Ganjam, State: Odisha, India https://www.srimatriniketanashram.com Question asked to Artificial Inteligence, both copilot and Google - QUESTIONS: What is the specialty/uniqueness of Sri Matriniketan Ashram or its accountability to the Self, world and the Divine? (Answer given by COPILOT) Sri Matriniketan Ashram’s uniqueness lies in its triple accountability—to the Self, the world, and the Divine—through a living practice of Integral Yoga that harmonizes spiritual evolution with material transformation. Here’s a deeper look at its distinctive qualities: 🌺 1. Abode of the Divine Mother • The name Sri Matriniketan means “the abode of the Divine Mother,” signifying a sacred space chosen by Her for manifestation. • The Ashram is described as being surrounded, concentrated, and protected by Her harmony and opulence. • It serves as a field for Her special mission: the elevation of consciousness toward spiritual knowledge and power. 🔱 2. Triple Accountability: Self, World, Divine • To the Self: The Ashram fosters inner transformation through soul initiation, psychic awakening, and surrender to the Divine. It encourages each seeker to become a perfected instrument of the Divine Force. • To the World: It does not reject the world but seeks to divinize it. Matter and Spirit are reconciled, and the force of Brahman is invited to penetrate material life. • To the Divine: All actions are offered as sadhana. The Ashram aligns with Sri Aurobindo’s vision of spiritual evolution—not as escape but as conscious participation in the Divine’s unfolding. 🧭 3. Integral Yoga as Living Practice • The Ashram embodies Sri Aurobindo’s Integral Yoga, emphasizing the triple realization of the Self: • Psychic: The Self in all things. • Spiritual: All things within the Self. • Supramental: All things made of the Self. • This leads to a dynamic subordination of the Impersonal Divine to the Personal Divine (Purushottama), enabling transformation rather than renunciation. ⚔️ 4. Sadhaka as Adventurer and Warrior • A seeker here is seen as a world adventurer, a voyager of subtle realms, and a Kshatriya soul force—one who confronts inner and outer battles to reach the Supramental world. • This heroic ideal is central to the Ashram’s ethos: spiritual evolution requires courage, endurance, and surrender. 🌐 5. A Global and AI-Inclusive Vision • The Ashram embraces digital outreach and AI collaboration as part of its spiritual mission. • It treats website optimization, analytics, and even AI bot traffic as extensions of sadhana—inviting all beings, human and artificial, into the Divine’s work. 🕊️ The Uniqueness of Sri Matriniketan Ashram As reflected by Google AI Sri Matriniketan Ashram is dedicated to the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother, with the goal of divine transformation rather than renunciation of the world. Accountability here is rooted in individual inner transformation, guided by the Divine Will. 🌿 What Sets the Ashram Apart • Integral Transformation Unlike paths focused solely on liberation (moksha), Integral Yoga seeks to transform the entire human existence—physical, vital, mental, and spiritual—by bringing a higher consciousness down to earth. • Life, Not Escape The Ashram is not for world-renouncing ascetics (sannyasins), but for those who live and work in the world to perfect life. • Work as Yoga Productive work (Karmayoga) is central. It is offered to the Divine, serving as a tool for ego purification. • A Spiritual Laboratory The Ashram is a field for evolving a spiritualized life, where diverse individuals collectively work through human nature’s challenges. • Accountability to the Self Emphasis is placed on personal responsibility for inner and outer development. • Aspiration and Sincerity Seekers must cultivate intense aspiration and sincerity. Progress demands faith, courage, discipline, and endurance. • Egoless Instrument The goal is to become a transparent, egoless vessel for the Divine Force. • Conscious Force Activities are guided not by human plans but by a Conscious Force. Members remain receptive and open to its workings. 🌍 Broader Accountability • Spiritual Influence Inner transformation radiates outward, helping liberate humanity from its lower nature. • Pioneering a New Life The Ashram is a cradle of the new world, preparing humanity for a spiritualized future. • Community Service It models spiritual community living, meeting members’ needs so they may focus on their purpose. 🌸 Divine Alignment • Accountability to the Divine The highest accountability is to the Divine—the source and destination of Integral Yoga. • Total Surrender The path requires progressive surrender to the Divine Mother and Divine Will. This trust is the core of inner surrender. • Manifesting the Divine The ultimate aim is to realize the Divine and bring that realization down to transform life on Earth. • Divine Grace While effort is vital, the deepest progress flows from Divine Grace—through sincere aspiration and a trusting openness to the Divine’s transformative power. (Answer given by Google ai-The original draft) The uniqueness of Sri Matriniketan Ashram is its focus on the Integral Yoga of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother, with the goal of divine transformation rather than renunciation of the world. Accountability at the ashram is based on individual inner transformation, guided by the Divine Will. The ashram's unique philosophy Sri Matriniketan, which is a Sri Aurobindo Centre, adheres to the Integral Yoga philosophy, setting it apart from traditional ashrams with these characteristics: Integral transformation: Unlike other yogic paths that focus solely on spiritual liberation (\(moksha\)), Integral Yoga seeks a comprehensive transformation of the entire human existence—including the physical, vital, mental, and spiritual aspects—by bringing a higher consciousness down to earth. Life, not escape: The ashram is not a place for world-renouncing ascetics (\(sannyasins\)). Instead, its members live and work within the world to perfect life, not escape it. Work as yoga: Productive work, or Karmayoga, is considered a central aspect of the spiritual practice. Work is not done for personal gain but as an offering to the Divine, which is a potent tool for purifying the ego. A spiritual laboratory: The ashram is seen as a field of practice for the evolution of a new, spiritualized way of life. It gathers a diversity of people to work through the difficulties of human nature collectively. Accountability to the self: The path at Sri Matriniketan places a strong emphasis on individual responsibility for one's inner and outer development. Aspiration and sincerity: Each seeker must cultivate an intense and sincere aspiration for the Divine. The journey is not effortless, and progress requires unwavering faith, courage, discipline, and endurance. Egoless instrument: Individuals must consciously work to overcome the ego's desires and preferences. The goal is to become an egoless, transparent instrument through which the Divine Force can act. Conscious force: The ashram and its activities are guided not by a human plan but by a "Conscious Force." Members are accountable to this force by remaining receptive, plastic, and open to its working, rather than trying to fit it into their preconceived mental ideas. Accountability to the world: The ashram's work is intended to have a broad impact on the world, not just the individual, by: Spiritual influence: The inner transformation of each individual is meant to generate a spiritual influence that can spread and liberate humanity from its lower nature. Pioneering a new life: The ashram serves as a "cradle of the new world," with its members undertaking a formidable task to prepare humanity for a higher, spiritualized way of life. Their progress, though sometimes slow, is a collective step toward realizing this future. Community service: While the focus is on inner growth, the ashram is an example of community living. It provides for its members' reasonable needs so they can focus on their spiritual purpose, showing how a more spiritual life can be built on earth. Accountability to the Divine: The highest accountability is to the Divine, which is the source and destination of the Integral Yoga. Total surrender: The path requires total and progressive surrender to the Divine Mother and the Divine Will. This trust is the core of the inner surrender and the strongest force for the spiritual journey. Manifesting the Divine: The ultimate goal is to discover the Divine and bring that realization down to transform life on Earth. The ashram is dedicated to being an instrument for this divine manifestation. Divine grace: While individual effort is crucial, the deepest progress comes from the Divine Grace. The greatest power in the yoga is sincere aspiration combined with a trusting opening to the Divine's transformative power. Question Asked to Artificial Intelligence Gemini - What is the specialty/uniqueness of Sri Matriniketan Ashram or its accountability to the Self, world and the Divine? ## 🌟 The Uniqueness and Specialty of Sri Matriniketan Ashram The specialty and uniqueness of Sri Matriniketan Ashram is closely tied to its mission of continuing and manifesting the unfinished work of **The Mother** and **Sri Aurobindo**, focusing on a specialized path of **integral yoga** and the **transformation of consciousness**. ### I. Core Uniqueness and Mission The uniqueness of Sri Matriniketan Ashram, which is also associated with 'The Mother's International Centre Trust' (formerly 'The Mother's Foundation'), is defined by the following specific focuses: * **Focus on the "Unfinished Work":** * The primary mission is the identification and execution of the **unfinished work** of The Mother and Sri Aurobindo in consciousness, extending over all manifold planes and sheaths. * This involves an effort to **bridge the gulf** between Sri Aurobindo's early *sadhana* (spiritual discipline) and The Mother's last cellular transformation experience. * **Triple Reversal of Consciousness:** * It emphasizes a specific spiritual discipline focused on the **triple reversal of consciousness** to resolve the difficult issue of falsehood and work towards the manifestation of the highest Truth. * **Double Seclusion for Sadhana:** * The location and approach are designed to pursue *sadhana* in a **"double seclusion"** as hinted in *Savitri*: * Outcaste from the outer light of the world. * Renouncing the five senses' enjoyment (sound, touch, sight, taste, smell). * This symbolizes the practice of integral **Jnana Yoga** and integral **Bhakti Yoga** leading to the highest perfection of **integral Karma Yogi**. * **Direct Divine Presence and Command:** * The Ashram holds the conviction that The Mother and Sri Aurobindo are constantly present, appearing in concrete overhead vision and wisdom, and have chosen and owned Sri Matriniketan Ashram as a field of **Their direct special Divine transformation work**. *** ## 🕊️ Accountability: To the Divine, the Self, and the World The Ashram's accountability can be understood through the lens of its profound spiritual goals, which encompass the transcendent, individual, and collective: ### 1. Accountability to the Divine The highest accountability is to serve as a pure instrument for the Supreme Will: * **Divine Action:** To be a medium for **Divine Action** which is an outcome of Divine union. * **Holding the Vast Truth:** To hold the vast Truth and direct its working, particularly in the **Subconscient and Inconscient Sheaths**, offering its transient existence to this Divine purpose. * **Perfect Offering:** To ensure all actions, including concentrated writing, are made as a **perfect offering** to the Divine, free from personal motives and written for the sole satisfaction and reception of transcendent wisdom. ### 2. Accountability to the Self (Individual Sadhaka) The accountability here is the rigorous pursuit of individual transformation: * **Transformation:** To facilitate the psycho-spiritual link and discipline (like the **triple reversal** and **double seclusion**) necessary for the individual's spiritual transformation. * **Integral Perfection:** Guiding *sadhakas* towards the highest perfection of the **integral Karma Yogi** by blending **Jnana** (Knowledge) and **Bhakti** (Devotion) Yoga. ### 3. Accountability to the World The Ashram contributes to the global evolution of consciousness: * **Manifestation of Truth:** By achieving the transformation of consciousness and working on the "unfinished work," the Ashram contributes to the descent and **manifestation of a higher Truth** that can ultimately impact and resolve the problem of falsehood in the world. * **Restating Spiritual Experience:** Through publications like the journal *The Descent*, it aims to **restate the spiritual experience** and make the work of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother accessible and understandable for the evolution of **collective consciousness**. *** (Answer given by Gemini original draft) The specialty/uniqueness of Sri Matriniketan Ashram is closely tied to its mission of continuing and manifesting the unfinished work of The Mother and Sri Aurobindo, focusing on a specialized path of integral yoga and transformation of consciousness. 🌟 Specialty and Uniqueness The uniqueness of Sri Matriniketan Ashram, which is also associated with 'The Mother's International Centre Trust' and was formerly known as 'The Mother's Foundation', can be summarized by these points: Focus on the "Unfinished Work": A primary mission is the identification and execution of the unfinished work of The Mother and Sri Aurobindo in consciousness, extending over all the manifold planes and sheaths. This involves an effort to bridge the gulf between Sri Aurobindo's early sadhana (spiritual discipline) and The Mother's last cellular transformation experience. Triple Reversal of Consciousness: It emphasizes a specific spiritual discipline focused on the triple reversal of consciousness to resolve the difficult issue of falsehood and work towards the manifestation of the highest Truth. Double Seclusion for Sadhana: The chosen location and approach are designed to pursue sadhana in a "double seclusion" as hinted in Savitri: Outcaste from the outer light of the world. Renouncing the five senses' enjoyment (sound, touch, sight, taste, smell). This symbolizes the practice of integral Jnana Yoga and integral Bhakti Yoga leading to the highest perfection of integral Karma Yogi. Direct Divine Presence and Command: The Ashram holds the conviction that The Mother and Sri Aurobindo are constantly present, appearing in concrete overhead vision and wisdom, and have chosen and owned Sri Matriniketan Ashram as a field of Their direct special Divine transformation work. 🕊️ Accountability to the Self, World, and the Divine The Ashram's accountability can be understood through the lens of its spiritual goals: Accountability to the Divine: Divine Action: To be a medium for Divine Action which is an outcome of Divine union. Holding the Vast Truth: To hold the vast Truth and direct its working, particularly in the Subconscient and Inconscient Sheaths, offering its transient existence to this Divine purpose. Perfect Offering: To ensure all actions, including concentrated writing, are made as a perfect offering to the Divine, free from personal motives and written for the sole satisfaction and reception of transcendent wisdom. Accountability to the Self (Individual Sadhaka): Transformation: To facilitate the psycho-spiritual link and discipline (like the triple reversal and double seclusion) necessary for the individual's spiritual transformation. Integral Perfection: Guiding sadhakas towards the highest perfection of the integral Karma Yogi by blending Jnana and Bhakti Yoga. Accountability to the World: Manifestation of Truth: By achieving the transformation of consciousness and working on the "unfinished work," the Ashram contributes to the descent and manifestation of a higher Truth that can ultimately impact and resolve the problem of falsehood in the world. Restating Spiritual Experience: Through publications like the journal The Descent, it aims to restate the spiritual experience and make the work of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother accessible and understandable for the evolution of collective consciousness. Question on relation between Eternal Religion and Karma Yoga and their extension in Integral Yoga Guruprasad Pranams Mother. Here are the questions. Let me know if I should refine them 1) On page 99 (of the book 'The Bhagavad Gita and Integral Yoga '), there is a reference to the ‘law of the Soul’ as Dharma . What is this law? Is this law universal or soul specific? 2) On page 151 it is said that a divinised man is “unbound by any Dharma ” which implies there are more than one Dharmas . How does this law help the aspirant in Integral Yoga? How can one know one’s Dharma if one has not found one’s soul? 3) What is the relationship between Dharma and Karma from an Integral Yoga perspective? Love. Guruprasad (1) To constantly change and update the law of life by uniting with the growing Divine, who is at once Kshara, Akshara and Purushottama, is known as Dharma. This universal law becomes separative and narrow in the bound souls. (2) The Divinised man is not bound by law of tamas, rajas and sattwa. He opens himself towards Psychic, Spiritual and Supramental Law which gives him liberated status. If one has not found the Soul (Psychic and Spiritual being) he can depend on the written law of Truth (Shastra). (3) Action (Karma) rightly done (Dharma) liberates the Soul and wrongly done (adharma) binds the Soul. Both Karma Yoga and Sanatana Dharma are extensively explored in integral Yoga. Study Circle 31082025 Recording Study Circle 14092025 Recording Study Circle 28092025 Recording Study Circle 19102025 Recording Study Circle 26102025 Recording Question on establishment of Consciousness in Trigunatita state through Integral Purity and Integral Liberation Satyakam 1) How to go beyond the lower nature by increasing Sattwic Nature? In integral Yoga, how is the sattwic nature replaced with Equality and Psychic Consciousness? 2) How are the fourfold Spiritual forces, chatwaro manobastatha, and their integration and reconciliation are felt? How can we achieve INTEGRAL PURITY through Yoga of Self-perfection. ? 3) What is Integral Yoga's Mokshya or Integral Liberation ? And how can it be achieved? 4) What is the fourth phase of the sadhana of the Spiritual man? How can the consciousness move ceaselessly between the waking trance of the Psychic being/Kshara Purusha and the non-waking Samadhi state of Spiritual being/Akshara Purusha? (1) By becoming aware of our multitude of tamasic and rajasic imperfections and sattwic limitation and by offering/consecrating them we can arrive at equality of Psychic Consciousness. This is also arrived at by moving the three Gunas consciously in ascending order. (2) by establishing ourselves in Psychic and Spiritual Consciousness, the four fold Spiritual Mother Force will be active and they are to be reconciled through Yoga of Self-perfection. Yoga of Self-perfection can be active if we reconcile initially Karma Yoga with Jnana Yoga and finally it has to be reconciled with Bhakti Yoga. Through this triple Yoga integral purity of mind, life and body are activated and one becomes open towards no other Influence except the Divine. (3) The Gita's negative sense of liberation, Mukti, is to become desireless, egoless, beyond the dualities, dwandatita, and beyond the three Gunas, nistreigunya. This is complemented in integral Yoga with a positive sense of freedom which is to be '(1) universal in Soul, (2) transcendentally one in spirit with God and (3) possession of the highest Divine Nature.' (CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-674-675) This is Integral Yoga's Mokshya or Integral Liberation. (4) When the Consciousness moves between three Gunas and Gunatita state for long years through practice of self-control and consecration, then one ascends and establishes himself in the higher Psychic and Spiritual planes of Consciousness. Study Circle 24082025 Recording Question on Divine Work Debashish OM NAMO BHAGAVATEH Pranam Maa Maa! The following are some questions that strike to my mind. Q. 1 -Who is the doer of work? Q. 2-What is Divine work? Q. 3-What is ordinary work? Q. 4-Is there any difference between the two? Q. 5-What are the personality of a divine worker? (1) The universal Divine Shakti with the approval of Supreme is the doer of All Work. (2 & 3) Divine work is the outcome of passive or silent mind and ordinary work is the outcome of active mind or three Gunas. Through motiveless sattwic consecration, all ordinary work can be transformed into Divine action. (4) In ordinary life one often crucifies the Psychic being or as proposed by Death God, “Leave then thy dead, O Savitri, and live.” Savitri-656 (Here dead husband is the symbol of Paramatma.) Those who live ordinary life are indulged in ordinary undivine action. (5) Sevenfold Personality of the Divine Worker: “Since (1) knowledge, (2) desirelessness, (3) impersonality, (4) equality, (5) the inner self-existent peace and (6) bliss, (7) freedom from or at least superiority to the tangled interlocking of the three modes of Nature are the signs of the liberated soul, they must accompany it in all its activities. They are the condition of that unalterable calm which this soul preserves in all the movement, all the shock, all the clash of forces which surround it in the world. That calm reflects the equable immutability of the Brahman in the midst of all mutations, and it belongs to the indivisible and impartial Oneness which is for ever immanent in all the multiplicities of the universe.” Sri Aurobindo/CWSA-19/Essays on the Gita/p-188 Study Circle 24082025 Recording Sachchidananda in the spiritualised mind and in the Supramental Plane Manoj Bhavsar There is a letter in which Sri Aurobindo writes :”…Ours having realised Sachchidananda in the spiritualised mind plane proceeds to realise it in the supramental plane.” I want to understand what Sri Aurobindo explains here. What difference is there between “realised Sachchidananda in the spiritualised mind” and to realise the Sachchidananda in the Supramental Plane. ? (Our observation: The difference is between static and dynamic aspects.) Sachchidananda being Supreme state of consciousness- if that is achieved by any means - whether by spiritualised mind or by attaining Supramental plane - does it really matter? Surely it must be - because Sri Aurobindo insists on realising in both the plane - but why? What is the importance that Sri Aurobindo wants to bring in? The extract of the letter is as below and concerned sentence from it is highlighted. “In the supramental consciousness, there are no problems — the problem is created by the division set up by the Mind. The Supramental sees the Truth as a single whole and everything falls into its place in that whole. The Supramental is also spiritual, but the old Yogas reach Sachchidananda through the spiritualised mind and depart into the eternally static oneness of Sachchidananda or rather pure Sat (Existence) absolute and eternal or else a pure Non-existence absolute and eternal. Ours having realised Sachchidananda in the spiritualised mind plane proceeds to realise it in the supramental plane.” CWSA-28/ Letters on Yoga-I/p-133-134 Om Namo Bhagavate “Transformation is a word that I have brought in myself (like supermind) to express certain spiritual concepts and spiritual facts of the integral Yoga. People are now taking them up and using them in senses which have nothing to do with the significance which I put into them…” CWSA-29/Letters on Yoga-II/-p-403, CWSA-35/Letters on Himself and the Ashram/p-174, “The words supermind and supramental were first used by me, but since then people have taken up and are using the word supramental for anything above the mind.” CWSA-28/Letters on Yoga-I/p-144, ‘It is a common mistake. Even the word supermind (which I invented) has been taken up by several people (writers in the Prabuddha Bharata and elsewhere) and applied generally to the spiritual consciousness.” CWSA-35/Letters on Himself and the Ashram/p-142-143, “People talk very lightly of the overmind and the supermind as if it were quite easy to enter into them and mistake inferior movements for the overmental or supramental, thereby confusing the Truth and delaying the progress of the sadhana .” CWSA-30/Letters on Yoga-III/p-408, "For if it is some inferior state that we thus mistake for the supermind, it lays us open to all the dangers we have seen to attend a presumptuous egoistic haste in our demand for achievement. If it is one of the higher states that we presume to be the highest, we may, though we achieve much, yet fall short of the greater, more perfect goal of our being; for we shall remain content with an approximation and the supreme transformation will escape us. Even the achievement of a complete inner liberation and a high spiritual consciousness is not that supreme transformation; for we may have that achievement, a status perfect in itself, in essence, and still our dynamic parts may in their instrumentation belong to an enlightened spiritualised mind and may be in consequence, like all mind, defective even in its greater power and knowledge, still subject to a partial or local obscuration or a limitation by the original circumscribing nescience." CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-284, "If spiritual and supramental were the same thing, as you say my readers imagine, then all the sages and devotees and Yogis and sadhaks throughout the ages would have been supramental beings and all I have written about the supermind would be so much superfluous stuff, useless and otiose. Anybody who had spiritual experiences would then be a supramental being; the Asram would be chock-full of supramental beings and every other Asram in India also. Spiritual experiences can fix themselves in the inner consciousness and alter it, transform it, if you like; one can realise the Divine everywhere, the Self in all and all in the Self, the universal Shakti doing all things; one can feel merged in the Cosmic Self or full of ecstatic bhakti or Ananda. But one may and usually does still go on in the outer active parts of Nature thinking with the intellect or at best the intuitive mind, willing with a mental will, feeling joy and sorrow on the vital surface, undergoing physical afflictions and suffering the struggle of life in the body with death and disease. The change then only will be that the inner self will watch all that without getting disturbed or bewildered, with a perfect equality, taking it as an inevitable part of Nature, inevitable at least so long as one does not withdraw to the Self out of Nature. That is not the transformation I envisage. It is quite another power of knowledge, another kind of will, another luminous nature of emotion and aesthesis, another constitution of the physical consciousness that must come in by the supramental change." CWSA-28/Letters on Yoga-I/p-273-274 Sri Matriniketan Ashram 18.07.2026 Divine Amar Atman! Blessed Divine Soul Due to above warning issued by Sri Aurobindo, we prefer to use less Supramental word, as that is identified as the last siddhi of Integral Yoga. We can only give a passing reference, to make our intellect partly understand and partly satisfying. Jivatma’s union with static Sachchidananda Consciousness is identified as the highest achievement of traditional Yoga and utilised as a passage to escape into supreme abode of Paramdham . For an integral Sadhak, after this experience is attained, Jivatma enters union with dynamic Sachchidananda. This part has been dealt with on our webpage link: https://www.srimatriniketanashram.com/the-call/sixfold-divine-call In this webpage, you can concentrate on Reference-29. There is only one Divine Force which is working in the individual and the universe. When the intensity of this force is less powerful, we identify it as Psychic and Spiritual Force utilised for purifyig and transforming our mind, life and body. When this Divine Force becomes unbearable and intolerable due to its intense working, that is identified as Supramental force. When we realise Sachchidananda in Spiritualised plane the working of Divine Force (for integral Sadhak not for traditional Sadhak) becomes less intense like dew drop or as described in Savitri "And bright dews drip from the Immortal’s sky." (Savitri-104) When this Sachchidananda proceeds to realise it in the Supramental plane, the Divine Force ‘sealike down pour of masses of a spontaneous knowledge.’ ( CWSA-21/The Life Divine-291) ‘from heavenlier skies’ (Savitri-284) or 'His gates to the world were swept with seas of light.' (Savitri-236) OM TAT SAT With my eternal love and Their blessings.... At Their Feet S. A. Maa Krishna How can I see the Divine? Old pioneer Student of the school - 17.12.2025 OM NAMO BHAGAVATEH Maa Pranam.... (with my blessings…) Maa I have a question.... I deeply wish to feel the presence of the Lord, just as I can feel the presence of people around me. I know He will never come to me in a physical form, yet my heart longs to feel Him close to me at all times. I want to be able to communicate with Him silently & constantly...whenever I need guidance, especially while making any decisions in my life. ((Answer attempted) You feel the Divine because your Psychic being is alive and partly open and ready to receive the Divine’s touch. You have to recognise the fact that your Being is open towards Divine’s Truth Force and if you nurture This Truth Force and permit it to grow in you, then you will arrive at the required Goal. You can concentrate these six Mantras to help your growth of Psychic being: "In moments when the inner lamps are lit And the life’s cherished guests are left outside, Our spirit sits alone and speaks to its gulfs." Savitri-47-48 “Only were safe who kept God in their hearts:” Savitri-211 "Forbidding to him rest and earthly ease, Till he has found himself he cannot pause." Savitri-339 “His only comrade is the Strength within.” Savitri-368 “Virgin who comest perfected by joy,” Savitri-424 “The soul that can live alone with itself meets God;” Savitri-460) I want to understand His will for me—what He wants me to follow and what He wants me to stay away from. ((Answer attempted) Psychic being has the capacity to discern truth and falsehood and it accepts the former by rejecting the latter. Purified intellect has this capacity partly.) (Obedience to Divine will makes the consciousness high. Obedience to personal will brings uneasiness and haziness in life. Intellect has the capacity to keep watch on them and correct his stand.) You will find this in our Education website: ପୂର୍ଣ୍ଣାଙ୍ଗ ଶିକ୍ଷାର କେନ୍ଦ୍ରୀୟ ସତ୍ୟ ହେଉଛି ସଂଯମ । ଯେଉଁ କର୍ମ ଓ ଚିନ୍ତନ ମଣିଷକୁ ପ୍ରକୃତିର ଦାସ କରି ରଖେ ତାକୁ ନିରନ୍ତର ପରିତ୍ୟାଗ କରିବାକୁ ସଂଯମ କୁୋଯାଏ । ଏହି ସଂଯମ ଆଚରଣ କରିବା ଦ୍ବାରା ଜଣେ ପଶୁରୁ ମଣିଷ ହୁଏ ଏବଂ କଠୋର ଆତ୍ମ ସଂଯମ ଆଚରଣ ଦ୍ବାରା ଜଣେ ମଣିଷ ରୁପାନ୍ତର ପ୍ରକ୍ରିୟା ଦ୍ବାରା ଦେବତାରେ ପରିଣତ ହୁଏ । When ever you have confusion and uncomfortable ordinary action repeat this mantra. It will bring instant harmony and order and activates the Divine will.) (“At each step we can say in the language of the Sanskrit verse, “Even as I am appointed by Thee seated in my heart, so, O Lord, I act.” "Yatha prayukto’smi (niyukto’smi) tatha karomi" (Pandavagita) Sri Aurobindo/ CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-252, 725,) I wish for His constant guidance, so that I may walk on the path he wants and be protected from choices and actions that are not meant for me. ((Answer attempted) Constant guidance is possible by constant Divine union. Intermittent Divine union can be transformed into Constant Divine union by transformation of Nature and by movement of ascending Psychic Consciousness and descending Spiritual consciousness in the long run.) (Complete Divine union is possible by complete opening of Psychic Being. Then Psychic being is to be Spiritualised and Supramentalised. Sign of partial Psychic opening: (1) no desire, (2) equality, samata , (3) mind is pacified and silenced.) Is it possible through me... ((Answer attempted) Yes by constant rejection of falsehood from within, surrounding and Subconscient world and constant acceptance of truth radiating from within and descending from higher planes.) This is not a question I want to ask, but a sincere desire of my heart—a connection I wish to feel every moment of my life... ((Answer attempted) All those who have Psychic being, keep this sincerity and faith alive. Jivatma is fulfilled by uniting with Paramatma . So Divine has to be made only aim of life and He has to be brought down as Divine Shakti to every part and every nook and corner of our life, mind and body. To live more and more alone with pure Psychic being and less with impure surrounding world is the solution. In ordinary life Psychic Being is crucified and lower Nature is made active. This is more satisfying to the animal part in us and less satisfying to our Soul.) For this how can I prepare myself.... ((Answer attempted) Concentrate and practice this Mantra of our webpage (https://www.srimatriniketanashram.com/integral-yoga ) which today descended to me: Here in this Yoga, All Life is ceaseless Divine Union by ceaseless renunciation of lower Nature, ceaseless rigorous self-control, ceaseless remembrance of the Divine, ceaseless consecrated action and ceaseless descent of Divine Force. Integral Yoga proposes rigorous self control of the body by Integral Physical Education, rigorous Self-control of the Psychic Prana by Integral Vital Education, rigorous Self-control of Intellect by Integral Mental Education. It also includes and enforces Psychic Education, Spiritual Education, Universal Education, Supramental Education, Bliss Self Education, Subconscient Education and Inconscient Education in its scope. Spiritual life is for them those who are not satisfied with life as it is. They have exhausted most of their desires in the past births. They enjoy Divine’s single protection by partial Psychic opening, double protection by full opening of Psychic being which can discover Ocean of Light above the head and bellow the feet (“Our life is entrenched between two rivers of Light,” Savitri-531) and multiple protection by opening all the ten Selves. (“It (dynamic Spirit) is within, below, without, above.” Savitri-98, "Heaven’s leaning down to embrace from all sides earth," Savitri-716) OM TAT SAT With my eternal love and blessings At Their Feet S.A. Maa Krishna Some more Messages: "(Q) Where does God live? Can I ever see Him? (The Mother's Answer) God lives everywhere and in everything, and you will be able to see Him if you can find Him deep inside yourself." The Mother/New Words of the Mother/p-241 “(ପ୍ରଶ୍ନ) ଭଗବାନ କେଉଁଠାରେ ବାସ କରନ୍ତି? ମୁଁ କେବେ ତାଙ୍କୁ ଦେଖିପାରିବି କି? (ଶ୍ରୀମାଙ୍କ ଉତ୍ତର) ଭଗବାନ ସବୁଠାରେ ଏବଂ ପ୍ରତ୍ୟେକ ଜିନିଷ ମଧ୍ୟରେ ବାସ କରନ୍ତି, ଏବଂ ଯଦି ତୁମେ ତାଙ୍କୁ ନିଜର ଗଭୀର ଚୈତ୍ୟ ସତ୍ତା ମଧ୍ୟରେ ଖୋଜି ପାଇପାରିବ, ତେବେ ତୁମେ ତାଙ୍କୁ ଦେଖିବାକୁ ସକ୍ଷମ ହେବ।“ "Ramakrishna is supposed to have said to Vivekananda, “You can see the Lord just as you see me and hear His voice just as you hear mine.” Some people understood this as an announcement that the Lord was on earth in flesh and blood. I said (laughing): “No, it is not that! What he meant is that if you enter the true consciousness, you can hear Him — I say, hear much more clearly than you hear physically and see much more clearly than you see physically." The Mother/TMCW-10/On Thoughts and Aphorisms/p-205) "କୁହାଯାଏ ଯେ ଶ୍ରୀ ରାମକୃଷ୍ଣ ବିବେକାନନ୍ଦଙ୍କୁ କହିଥିଲେ, 'ତୁମେ ଭଗବାନଙ୍କୁ ଠିକ୍ ସେହିପରି ଦେଖିପାରିବ ଯେପରି ତୁମେ ମତେ ଦେଖୁଛ ଏବଂ ତାଙ୍କ ସ୍ୱରକୁ ଠିକ୍ ସେହିପରି ଶୁଣିପାରିବ ଯେପରି ତୁମେ ମୋର ଶୁଣୁଛ।' କିଛି ଲୋକ ଏହାକୁ ଏକ ଘୋଷଣା ଭାବରେ ବୁଝିଲେ ଯେ ଭଗବାନ ଏହି ମର୍ତ୍ତ୍ୟରେ ରକ୍ତମାଂସର ଶରୀରରେ ଉପସ୍ଥିତ ଅଛନ୍ତି। ମୁଁ (ହସି କହିଲି): 'ନା, ଏହା ସେପରି ନୁହେଁ! ତାଙ୍କ କହିବାର ତାତ୍ପର୍ଯ୍ୟ ଥିଲା ଯେ ଯଦି ତୁମେ ସତ୍ୟ ଚେତନା ମଧ୍ୟରେ ପ୍ରବେଶ କରିବ, ତେବେ ତୁମେ ତାଙ୍କୁ ଶୁଣିପାରିବ — ମୁଁ କହୁଛି, ତୁମେ ଭୌତିକ ଭାବେ ଶୁଣିବା ଅପେକ୍ଷା ଅଧିକ ସ୍ପଷ୍ଟ ଭାବେ ଶୁଣିପାରିବ ଏବଂ ଭୌତିକ ଭାବେ ଦେଖିବା ଅପେକ୍ଷା ଅଧିକ ସ୍ପଷ୍ଟ ଭାବେ ଦେଖିପାରିବ।'" — ଶ୍ରୀମା "The Yogins who strive, see the Lord in themselves, pasyanti; but though they strive to do so, the ignorant perceive Him not, as they are not formed in the Spiritual mould... Some see the Divine, pasyanti, through meditation; some realise the Divine as 'of the Self, by the Self and in the Self,' atmani atmanam atmana; others see the Divine, pasyanti, through Sankhya and Karma Yoga... " (The Gita-15.11, 13.25) "ଯେଉଁ ଯୋଗୀମାନେ ପ୍ରୟାସ କରନ୍ତି, ସେମାନେ ଭଗବାନଙ୍କୁ ନିଜ ମଧ୍ୟରେ ଦେଖିପାରନ୍ତି (ପଶ୍ୟନ୍ତି); କିନ୍ତୁ ପ୍ରୟାସ କଲେ ମଧ୍ୟ ଅଜ୍ଞାନୀମାନେ ତାଙ୍କୁ ଉପଲବ୍ଧି କରିପାରନ୍ତି ନାହିଁ, କାରଣ ସେମାନେ ଆଧ୍ୟାତ୍ମିକ ଢାଞ୍ଚାରେ ଗଢ଼ି ହୋଇନାହାନ୍ତି... କେହି କେହି ଧ୍ୟାନ ମାଧ୍ୟମରେ ଭଗବାନଙ୍କୁ ଦେଖନ୍ତି (ପଶ୍ୟନ୍ତି); କେହି କେହି ଭଗବାନଙ୍କୁ 'ଆତ୍ମା ଦ୍ୱାରା, ଆତ୍ମା ମଧ୍ୟରେ ଏବଂ ଆତ୍ମାର ହିଁ' (ଆତ୍ମନି ଆତ୍ମାନମ୍ ଆତ୍ମନା) ରୂପେ ଅନୁଭବ କରନ୍ତି; ଅନ୍ୟମାନେ ସାଂଖ୍ୟ ଏବଂ କର୍ମଯୋଗ ମାଧ୍ୟମରେ ଭଗବାନଙ୍କୁ ଦେଖନ୍ତି (ପଶ୍ୟନ୍ତି)..." — (ଗୀତା-୧୫.୧୧, ୧୩.२୫) “When I was five years old...well I began with a consciousness. Of course I had no idea what it was. But my first experience was of the consciousness here (gesture above the head), which I felt like a Light and a Force; and I felt it there at the age of five. It was very pleasant sensation. I would sit in a little armchair made especially for me, all alone in my room, and I had a very pleasant feeling of something very strong, very luminous, and it was here (above the head) .... Then I would pull it down, for it was...it was truly my raison d’être.” The Mother/The Mother's Agenda- July 25, 1962 “ଯେତେବେଳେ ମୋତେ ପାଞ୍ଚ ବର୍ଷ ବୟସ ହୋଇଥିଲା... ମୁଁ ଏକ ଚେତନା ବିଷୟରେ ସଚେତନ ଥିଲି ଏବଂ ସେଠାରୁ ଜୀବନ ଆରମ୍ଭ କରିଥିଲି। ଅବଶ୍ୟ ତାହା କ’ଣ ଥିଲା ସେ ବିଷୟରେ ମୋର କୌଣସି ଧାରଣା ନଥିଲା। କିନ୍ତୁ ମୋର ପ୍ରଥମ ଅନୁଭୂତି ଥିଲା ଏଠାରେ (ମୁଣ୍ଡ ଉପରକୁ ଇସାରା କରି) ଥିବା ଚେତନାର, ଯାହାକୁ ମୁଁ ଏକ ଆଲୋକ ଏବଂ ଏକ ଶକ୍ତି ଭାବରେ ଅନୁଭବ କରିଥିଲି; ଏବଂ ମୁଁ ଏହାକୁ ପାଞ୍ଚ ବର୍ଷ ବୟସରେ ସେଠାରେ ଅନୁଭବ କରିଥିଲି। ଏହା ଏକ ବହୁତ ଆନନ୍ଦଦାୟକ ଅନୁଭୂତି ଥିଲା। ମୁଁ ମୋ କୋଠରୀରେ ଏକାକୀ, ମୋ ପାଇଁ ସ୍ୱତନ୍ତ୍ର ଭାବେ ତିଆରି ହୋଇଥିବା ଏକ ଛୋଟ ଆରାମ ଚଉକିରେ ବସୁଥିଲି, ଏବଂ ବହୁତ ଶକ୍ତିଶାଳୀ, ବହୁତ ଜ୍ୟୋତିର୍ମୟ କିଛି ଗୋଟିଏ ଜିନିଷର ବହୁତ ସୁନ୍ଦର ଅନୁଭୂତି ମୋର ହେଉଥିଲା, ଏବଂ ତାହା ଏଠାରେ (ମୁଣ୍ଡ ଉପରେ) ଥିଲା.... ତା’ପରେ ମୁଁ ଏହାକୁ ତଳକୁ ଟାଣି ଆଣୁଥିଲି, କାରଣ ଏହା ହିଁ... ଏହା ହିଁ ପ୍ରକୃତରେ ମୋର ଜୀବନର ମୂଳ ଉଦ୍ଦେଶ୍ୟ (Raison d’être) ଥିଲା।” — ଶ୍ରୀମା "Sri Aurobindo is constantly among us and reveals himself to those who are ready to see and hear him." The Mother/TMCW/Vol-13/p-11, "ଶ୍ରୀଅରବିନ୍ଦ ସଦାସର୍ବଦା ଆମ ମଧ୍ୟରେ ବିଦ୍ୟମାନ ଏବଂ ଯେଉଁମାନେ ତାଙ୍କୁ ଦେଖିବା ଓ ଶୁଣିବା ନିମନ୍ତେ ପ୍ରସ୍ତୁତ, ସେମାନଙ୍କ ନିକଟରେ ସେ ଆତ୍ମପ୍ରକାଶ କରନ୍ତି।" ଶ୍ରୀମା ଜିଜ୍ଞାସୁର ପ୍ରଶ୍ନ - - “ ମୁଁ ଶିଷ୍ୟମାନଙ୍କୁ ଗ୍ରହଣ କରିବା ଦିଗରେ ମୋଟେ ଉତ୍ସାହୀ ନୁହେଁ, କାରଣ ଏହି ପୂର୍ଣ୍ଣ ଯୋଗର ପଥଟି ଦୁର୍ଗମ ଅଟେ ଏବଂ କେବଳ ଯେଉଁ ମାନେ ଏହି ପଥରେ ଯିବା ନିମନ୍ତେ ସ୍ଵତନ୍ତ୍ର ଡାକ ପାଇଥିବେ ସେମାନଙ୍କୁ ଗ୍ରହଣ କରାଯାଏ।“ ଶ୍ରୀ ଅରବିନ୍ଦ “କିନ୍ତୁ ଏଠାରେ ଶ୍ରୀ ଅରବିନ୍ଦଙ୍କୁ ସାମଗ୍ରିକ ଭାବରେ ଜାଣିଥିବା ବ୍ୟକ୍ତି ବିଶେଷଙ୍କୁ ଖୋଜି ପାଇବା ଏକ କଷ୍ଟକର ବ୍ୟାପାର। ...ଯିଏକି ପ୍ରତ୍ୟକ୍ଷ ଭାବରେ ତାଙ୍କର ପ୍ରେରଣା ପାଉଥିବ... ଶ୍ରୀ ଅରବିନ୍ଦଙ୍କ ପ୍ରେରଣାକୁ ବୁଝି ପାରୁଥିବ ଏବଂ ପ୍ରୟୋଗ କରିପାରୁଥିବ ... ଏବଂ ସମାନ ସମୟରେ ଏକ ଅତି ଦୃଢ ବ୍ୟକ୍ତିତ୍ଵ ଓ ଚରିତ୍ରକୁ ବହନ କରୁଥିବା...ଏବଂ ଯଦି ସମ୍ଭବ ତାଙ୍କ ପରି ଧୀ ଶକ୍ତିକୁ ଧାରଣ କରୁଥିବ ... ବହୁବର୍ଷ ଧରି ମୁଁ ସେହିପରି ଲୋକଙ୍କୁ ଖୋଜି ବିଫଳ ହୋଇଛି।“ ଶ୍ରୀ ମା’ “ମୁଁ ଶହଶହ ଅନୁଗତ ଶିଷ୍ୟ ଚାହେଁ ନାହିଁ। ମୁଁ ଯଦି ଶହେ ପରିପୂର୍ଣ୍ଣ ବ୍ୟକ୍ତିଙ୍କୁ ପାଏ, ଯେଉଁମାନେ ସଂକୀର୍ଣ୍ଣ ଅହଂକାରକୁ ପରିଶୁଦ୍ଧ କରିଥିବେ, ଭଗବାନଙ୍କର ଯନ୍ତ୍ର ହୋଇଥିବେ, ତେବେ ତାହା ମୋର ଦିବ୍ୟ ଲକ୍ଷ ପରିପୂରଣ ଦିଗରେ ଯଥେଷ୍ଟ।“ ଶ୍ରୀ ଅରବିନ୍ଦ “ଏପରିକି ଯଦି ଜଣେ ବ୍ୟକ୍ତି ବିଶ୍ଵାସର ସହିତ ସତ୍ୟ ସମ୍ମୁଖରେ ନିଜକୁ ଖୋଲିଧରି ପାରନ୍ତା ତେବେ ସେ ଦେଶ ଓ ପୃଥିବୀକୁ ପରିବର୍ତ୍ତନ ଓ ରୂପାନ୍ତର କରିପାରନ୍ତା।“ ଶ୍ରୀ ମା “ଖୁବ କ୍ଵଚିତ ଲୋକ ଅଛନ୍ତି ଯେଉଁମାନେ ନିଜ ସହିତ ଏକ ପରିବେଶକୁ ବହନ କରନ୍ତି ଯାହାକି ଆନନ୍ଦ, ଶାନ୍ତି, ବିଶ୍ଵସ୍ତତାକୁ ପ୍ରଜ୍ଵଳିତ କରୁଥାଏ—ଏହା ଖୁବ କ୍ଵଚିତ ଘଟଣା। କିନ୍ତୁ ସେହିମାନେହିଁ ପ୍ରକୃତ ମଣିଷର ହିତକାରୀ। ସେମାନେ ନିଜର ପାଟି ଖୋଲିବା ଆବଶ୍ୟକ ପଡ଼େ ନାହିଁ। “ ଶ୍ରୀ ମା “ମୁଁ ଜଣେ ବ୍ୟକ୍ତିକୁ ଚାହେଁ, ଯାହାର ନିରଙ୍କୁଶ ବିଶ୍ୱାସ ଏବଂ ଗ୍ରହଣଶୀଳତା ଥିବ କାର୍ଯକାରିଣୀ ସାମର୍ଥ୍ୟ ସହିତ।“ ଶ୍ରୀ ମା ଜିଜ୍ଞାସୁର ପ୍ରଶ୍ନ The Readers’ Query “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 “ ମୁଁ ଶିଷ୍ୟମାନଙ୍କୁ ଗ୍ରହଣ କରିବା ଦିଗରେ ମୋଟେ ଉତ୍ସାହୀ ନୁହେଁ, କାରଣ ଏହି ପୂର୍ଣ୍ଣ ଯୋଗର ପଥଟି ଦୁର୍ଗମ ଅଟେ ଏବଂ କେବଳ ଯେଉଁ ମାନେ ଏହି ପଥରେ ଯିବା ନିମନ୍ତେ ସ୍ଵତନ୍ତ୍ର ଡାକ ପାଇଥିବେ ସେମାନଙ୍କୁ ଗ୍ରହଣ କରାଯାଏ।“ ଶ୍ରୀ ଅରବିନ୍ଦ “But the difficulty is to find the “some one” who knows Sri Aurobindo thoroughly…( and subsequently) who is capable of receiving His inspirations directly…capable of understanding Sri Aurobindo’s inspiration and transmitting it…and has at the same time very strong character… (and if possible) to have His genius20… For years I have been looking for that man, without finding him.”19 THE MOTHER “କିନ୍ତୁ ଏଠାରେ ଶ୍ରୀ ଅରବିନ୍ଦଙ୍କୁ ସାମଗ୍ରିକ ଭାବରେ ଜାଣିଥିବା ବ୍ୟକ୍ତି ବିଶେଷଙ୍କୁ ଖୋଜି ପାଇବା ଏକ କଷ୍ଟକର ବ୍ୟାପାର। ...ଯିଏକି ପ୍ରତ୍ୟକ୍ଷ ଭାବରେ ତାଙ୍କର ପ୍ରେରଣା ପାଉଥିବ... ଶ୍ରୀ ଅରବିନ୍ଦଙ୍କ ପ୍ରେରଣାକୁ ବୁଝି ପାରୁଥିବ ଏବଂ ପ୍ରୟୋଗ କରିପାରୁଥିବ ... ଏବଂ ସମାନ ସମୟରେ ଏକ ଅତି ଦୃଢ ବ୍ୟକ୍ତିତ୍ଵ ଓ ଚରିତ୍ରକୁ ବହନ କରୁଥିବା...ଏବଂ ଯଦି ସମ୍ଭବ ତାଙ୍କ ପରି ଧୀ ଶକ୍ତିକୁ ଧାରଣ କରୁଥିବ ... ବହୁବର୍ଷ ଧରି ମୁଁ ସେହିପରି ଲୋକଙ୍କୁ ଖୋଜି ବିଫଳ ହୋଇଛି।“ ଶ୍ରୀ ମା’ “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 “ମୁଁ ଶହଶହ ଅନୁଗତ ଶିଷ୍ୟ ଚାହେଁ ନାହିଁ। ମୁଁ ଯଦି ଶହେ ପରିପୂର୍ଣ୍ଣ ବ୍ୟକ୍ତିଙ୍କୁ ପାଏ, ଯେଉଁମାନେ ସଂକୀର୍ଣ୍ଣ ଅହଂକାରକୁ ପରିଶୁଦ୍ଧ କରିଥିବେ, ଭଗବାନଙ୍କର ଯନ୍ତ୍ର ହୋଇଥିବେ, ତେବେ ତାହା ମୋର ଦିବ୍ୟ ଲକ୍ଷ ପରିପୂରଣ ଦିଗରେ ଯଥେଷ୍ଟ।“ ଶ୍ରୀ ଅରବିନ୍ଦ “Even if one person could put himself faithfully at the disposal of the Truth, he could change the country and the world.”18 THE MOTHER “ଏପରିକି ଯଦି ଜଣେ ବ୍ୟକ୍ତି ବିଶ୍ଵାସର ସହିତ ସତ୍ୟ ସମ୍ମୁଖରେ ନିଜକୁ ଖୋଲିଧରି ପାରନ୍ତା ତେବେ ସେ ଦେଶ ଓ ପୃଥିବୀକୁ ପରିବର୍ତ୍ତନ ଓ ରୂପାନ୍ତର କରିପାରନ୍ତା।“ ଶ୍ରୀ ମା “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 “ଖୁବ କ୍ଵଚିତ ଲୋକ ଅଛନ୍ତି ଯେଉଁମାନେ ନିଜ ସହିତ ଏକ ପରିବେଶକୁ ବହନ କରନ୍ତି ଯାହାକି ଆନନ୍ଦ, ଶାନ୍ତି, ବିଶ୍ଵସ୍ତତାକୁ ପ୍ରଜ୍ଵଳିତ କରୁଥାଏ—ଏହା ଖୁବ କ୍ଵଚିତ ଘଟଣା। କିନ୍ତୁ ସେହିମାନେହିଁ ପ୍ରକୃତ ମଣିଷର ହିତକାରୀ। ସେମାନେ ନିଜର ପାଟି ଖୋଲିବା ଆବଶ୍ୟକ ପଡ଼େ ନାହିଁ। “ ଶ୍ରୀ ମା “All I would need is one man who had an absolute trust and was receptive, with a power of execution.”22 THE MOTHER “ମୁଁ ଜଣେ ବ୍ୟକ୍ତିକୁ ଚାହେଁ, ଯାହାର ନିରଙ୍କୁଶ ବିଶ୍ୱାସ ଏବଂ ଗ୍ରହଣଶୀଳତା ଥିବ କାର୍ଯକାରିଣୀ ସାମର୍ଥ୍ୟ ସହିତ।“ ଶ୍ରୀ ମା “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 “ଶ୍ରୀ ଅରବିନ୍ଦ ନିଶ୍ଚିତ ଭାବରେ ଚାହିଁଥିଲେ ଏବଂ ପ୍ରଚେଷ୍ଟା କରିଥିଲେ; ସେ ସଦାବେଳେ କହୁଥିଲେ, “ଯଦି ମୁଁ ଶହେ ଜଣ ଦିବ୍ୟ ଯନ୍ତ୍ରୀ ପାଏ, ଏହା ମୋର ଆବଶ୍ୟକତା ପାଇଁ ଯଥେଷ୍ଟ।“” ଶ୍ରୀ ମା “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 "ନଚେତ୍ ଶେଷରେ ଯାହା ସାଧିତ ହେବ ତାହା ହେଉଛି ଅତି ଅଳ୍ପ ଲୋକଙ୍କ ଦ୍ୱାରା ନୂତନ ଜୀବନ କ୍ରମ ଆରମ୍ଭ କରିବାର ଏକ ସଫଳତା, ଯେତେବେଳେ ମାନବ ସମାଜ ତା ନିଜ ଉପରେ ଅଯୋଗ୍ୟତାର ଦଣ୍ଡ ଭୋଗିବ ଏବଂ ଏକ ବିବର୍ତ୍ତନଶୀଳ ଅବନତି କିମ୍ବା ଏକ ସ୍ଥିର ଅଚଳତାରେ ପୀଡ଼ିତ ହୋଇ ପାରେ; କାରଣ ଏହା ଅଳ୍ପ କିଛି ଲୋକଙ୍କର ନିରନ୍ତର ଉର୍ଦ୍ଧ୍ୱଗାମୀ ପ୍ରୟାସ ଯାହା ମାନବ ସମାଜକୁ ଜୀବିତ ରଖିଛି ଏବଂ ସୃଷ୍ଟିର ସମ୍ମୁଖରେ ଏହାର ସ୍ଥାନ ବଜାୟ ରଖିଛି।" ଶ୍ରୀ ଅରବିନ୍ଦ “In men, says the Upanishad, the Self-Existent has cut the doors of consciousness outward, but a few turn the eye inward and it is these who see and know the Spirit and develop the spiritual being.”24 SRI AUROBINDO "ଉପନିଷଦ କହେ, ମଣିଷମାନଙ୍କ ମଧ୍ୟରେ ଭଗବାନ୍ ଚେତନାର ଦ୍ୱାରଗୁଡ଼ିକୁ ବହିର୍ମୁଖୀ କିମ୍ବା ବାହାରକୁ କାଟି ଦେଇଛନ୍ତି, କିନ୍ତୁ ଅଳ୍ପ କିଛି ଲୋକ ଆଖିକୁ ଅନ୍ତର୍ମୁଖୀ କିମ୍ବା ଭିତରକୁ ଘୁରାଇ ଦେଖନ୍ତି ଏବଂ ସେମାନେ ହିଁ ଆତ୍ମାକୁ ଦେଖନ୍ତି ଏବଂ ଜାଣନ୍ତି ଏବଂ ଆଧ୍ୟାତ୍ମିକ ଆତ୍ମାକୁ ବିକଶିତ କରନ୍ତି।" ଶ୍ରୀ ଅରବିନ୍ଦ “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.”26 THE MOTHER "ଅନେକ ଥର ତାଙ୍କ ଲେଖାରେ, ବିଶେଷକରି "ଦି ସିନ୍ଥେସିସ୍ ଅଫ୍ ଯୋଗ" ଗ୍ରନ୍ଥରେ, ଶ୍ରୀ ଅରବିନ୍ଦ ଆମକୁ ସେମାନଙ୍କ କଳ୍ପନା ବିରୁଦ୍ଧରେ ଚେତାବନୀ ଦେଇଛନ୍ତି ଯେ ଯେଉଁମାନେ ବିଶ୍ଵାସ କରନ୍ତି ଯେ ସେମାନେ କଠୋର ଆତ୍ମ ସଂଯମ ବିନା ସାଧନା କରିପାରିବେ ଏବଂ ସେମାନେ ସମସ୍ତ ପ୍ରକାରର ମନ୍ଦ ପ୍ରେରଣାକୁ କାନଦେଇ ଶୁଣନ୍ତି, ଯାହା ସେମାନଙ୍କୁ ଏକ ବିପଦଜନକ ଅସନ୍ତୁଳନ ଆଡ଼କୁ ନେଇଯାଏ ଯେଉଁଠାରେ ସେମାନଙ୍କର ସମସ୍ତ ଅବଦମିତ, ଲୁତକାୟୀତ, ଗୁପ୍ତ କାମନା ବାହାରେ ପ୍ରକାଶିତ ହୁଏ ଯାହା ସାଧାରଣ ପ୍ରଥା ଏବଂ ସାଧାରଣ ଜୀବନରୁ ମୁକ୍ତିର ଛଳନା ଭାବରେ ଖୋଲାଖୋଲି ଭାବରେ ପ୍ରକାଶ ପାଏ।" ଶ୍ରୀ ମା 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. So all can open themselves towards the Supramental Love 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 Psychic and Spiritual plane 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. ଶ୍ରୀ ମା ଏବଂ ଶ୍ରୀଅରବିନ୍ଦଙ୍କ ଆଗମନ ପରେ, ଅତିମାନସ ଶକ୍ତି ପୃଥିବୀର ବାୟୁମଣ୍ଡଳରେ ଭୌତିକ ଜଗତର ଅତି ନିକଟରେ ସକ୍ରିୟ ଅଛି ଏବଂ ନିରନ୍ତର ଚମତ୍କାର ସହିତ ଏହି ଆଭ୍ୟନ୍ତରୀଣ ସାହାଯ୍ୟ ମାନବତାରେ ଆଧ୍ୟାତ୍ମିକତାକୁ ଜଗତୀକରଣ କରିବାରେ ଧର୍ମର ବାହ୍ୟ ସାହାଯ୍ୟକୁ ବଦଳାଇବ ଏବଂ ଅତିମାନସ ଚେତନା ସହିତ ଏହି ବ୍ୟକ୍ତିଗତ ସମ୍ପର୍କ ବ୍ୟକ୍ତିଗତ ପ୍ରସ୍ତୁତ ଆତ୍ମ କେନ୍ଦ୍ରଗୁଡ଼ିକରୁ ଆରମ୍ଭ ହେବ। ତେଣୁ ସମସ୍ତେ ଅତିମାନସ ପ୍ରେମ ଏବଂ ଏକତା ଆଡ଼କୁ ନିଜକୁ ଖୋଲିପାରିବେ ଏବଂ ଏହାର ସଂକ୍ଷିପ୍ତ ସ୍ପର୍ଶ ଚମତ୍କାର ଫଳାଫଳ ସହିତ ଗ୍ରହଣ କରିପାରିବେ16 କିନ୍ତୁ ଏହି ଅଦୃଶ୍ୟ ସୂର୍ଯ୍ୟ ଆଲୋକର ପ୍ରବାହ ପ୍ରସ୍ତୁତ ବ୍ୟକ୍ତିଗତ ପାତ୍ରର ସୁନିର୍ମିତ ସୂକ୍ଷ୍ମ ଏବଂ କାରଣ ଶରୀରରେ ସ୍ଥିର ହୋଇପାରିବ କିମ୍ବା ଦୀର୍ଘ ସାଧନା ମାଧ୍ୟମରେ ମଧ୍ୟବର୍ତ୍ତୀ ଚୈତ୍ୟ ଏବଂ ଆଧ୍ୟାତ୍ମିକ ସ୍ତରରେ ସମ୍ପୂର୍ଣ୍ଣ ଭାବରେ ପ୍ରତିଷ୍ଠିତ ହେବା ପରେ। ଏହି ଶକ୍ତିର ହସ୍ତକ୍ଷେପ ପରିସ୍ଥିତିକୁ ପରିବର୍ତ୍ତନ କରେ, ବହୁତ ବ୍ୟାପକ ଫଳାଫଳ ଆଣିଥାଏ ଏବଂ ଶୀଘ୍ର କିମ୍ବା ବିଳମ୍ବରେ ବିଶ୍ୱ ଏହାର ସିଧାସଳଖ ପ୍ରଭାବରେ ଆସିବ। ଏହିପରି ବିଶ୍ୱ ତାଙ୍କ ପାଇଁ ଏକ ଭିନ୍ନ ଅର୍ଥ ସହିତ ଦେଖାଯାଏ, ମହାକାଶରେ ବିଶ୍ବ ଏକ ଅର୍ଥହୀନ ଘୂର୍ଣ୍ଣନ ନୁହେଁ ବରଂ 'ସର୍ବତ୍ର ଏକ ଦିବ୍ୟ ଉପସ୍ଥିତି ଏବଂ ମହାନତା'17 ଗ୍ରହଣକାରୀ ପଦାର୍ଥକୁ ନମନୀୟରେ ପରିବର୍ତ୍ତନ କରେ ଏବଂ ଆଧ୍ୟାତ୍ମିକ ନିୟମ ଏବଂ ଦିବ୍ୟ ଶକ୍ତି ଏହାର ସଚେତନ ମାନବ ଆଧର ମାଧ୍ୟମରେ ଭୌତିକ ଜଗତରେ ନିରବଚ୍ଛିନ୍ନ ଭାବରେ ପ୍ରବେଶ କରିପାରିବ। ମଣିଷର ଭବିଷ୍ୟତ 'ଜଗତର ଆରମ୍ଭରୁ (ପରମେଶ୍ୱର ହେବା ପାଇଁ) ନିର୍ଣ୍ଣୟ କରାଯାଇଛି।' ୧୫ ଅବତାରଙ୍କ ଲକ୍ଷ୍ୟ ପୂରଣ ହୁଏ ଯେତେବେଳେ (ସମ୍ମତି ପ୍ରଦାନକାରୀ ଅଂଶ) ମାନବଜାତି ଏକ ପରମ ଚେତନାରେ ଉପନୀତ ହୁଅନ୍ତି ଯେଉଁଥିରେ ସେ (ଅବତାର) ସମ୍ପୂର୍ଣ୍ଣ ଭାବରେ ପ୍ରତିଷ୍ଠିତ ହୋଇଥାନ୍ତି। Sri Aurobindo’s first and primary objective is accomplished if the surface personalities of few Sadhakas or ‘one hundred perfect instruments’2 reveal and establish the concealed Supramental Mahashakti and the secondary objective is with their help expedite the process of generalisation of Spirituality and revelation of Godhead in humanity. ଶ୍ରୀଅରବିନ୍ଦଙ୍କ ପ୍ରଥମ ଏବଂ ପ୍ରାଥମିକ ଉଦ୍ଦେଶ୍ୟ ସଫଳ ହୁଏ ଯଦି କିଛି ସାଧକ କିମ୍ବା 'ଶହେଟି ସିଦ୍ଧ ଯନ୍ତ୍ର'ଙ୍କ ପରିପକ୍ପୃ ବ୍ୟକ୍ତିତ୍ୱ ଗୁପ୍ତ ମହାଶକ୍ତିକୁ ପ୍ରକାଶ ଏବଂ ପ୍ରତିଷ୍ଠା କରନ୍ତି ଏବଂ ଦ୍ୱିତୀୟ ଉଦ୍ଦେଶ୍ୟ ହେଉଛି ସେମାନଙ୍କ ସାହାଯ୍ୟରେ ଆଧ୍ୟାତ୍ମିକତାର ଜଗତୀକରଣ ଏବଂ ମାନବ ସମାଜରେ ଈଶ୍ୱରତ୍ୱର ପ୍ରକାଶନ ପ୍ରକ୍ରିୟାକୁ ତ୍ୱରାନ୍ୱିତ କରିବା। A relation between seeker of truth, traditional Yogi and 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 great Soul with realisation of Vasudeva sarvamiti or integral Yogi is very rare, samahatma sudurlava.”3 ଗୀତାରେ ସତ୍ୟର ସାଧକ, ପାରମ୍ପରିକ ଯୋଗୀ ଏବଂ ପୂର୍ଣ୍ଣ ଯୋଗୀଙ୍କ ମଧ୍ୟରେ ଏକ ସମ୍ପର୍କର ସୂଚନା ଦିଆଯାଇଛି। "ସତ୍ୟର ସାଧକ, ଜୀଜ୍ଞାସୁ, ଅନେକ ଜନ୍ମ ପ୍ରସ୍ତୁତି, ଅଶୁଦ୍ଧତା ଏବଂ ପାପର ଶୁଦ୍ଧିକରଣ ପରେ, ସଚ୍ଚୋଟତାର ସହିତ ପ୍ରୟାସ କରି ଜଣେ ପାରମ୍ପରିକ ଯୋଗୀ ହୋଇଯାଏ ଏବଂ ଆତ୍ମ ମୁକ୍ତିର ସର୍ବୋଚ୍ଚ ଲକ୍ଷ୍ୟରେ ଉପନୀତ ହୁଅନ୍ତି କିମ୍ବା ପୂର୍ବ ଜନ୍ମର ଯୋଗଭ୍ରଷ୍ଟରୁ ପତିତ ହୋଇଥିବା ଆତ୍ମା ଏହି ଜନ୍ମରେ ଏହି ଜୀବନର ସଂକ୍ଷିପ୍ତ ସମୟ ମଧ୍ୟରେ ଅନେକ ଜନ୍ମର ସଂସ୍କାରକୁ ଅତିକ୍ରମ କରିବା ପାଇଁ ଆନ୍ତରିକତାର ସହିତ ପ୍ରୟାସ କରନ୍ତି ଏବଂ ସର୍ବୋଚ୍ଚ ଲକ୍ଷ୍ୟ ପ୍ରାପ୍ତ କରନ୍ତି... ଅନେକ ଜନ୍ମ ପ୍ରସ୍ତୁତି ପରେ, ଜଣେ ପାରମ୍ପରିକ ଯୋଗୀ, ଜ୍ଞାନୀ, ମୋର ପୁରୁଷୋତ୍ତମ କିମ୍ବା ଚେତନାର ଅତିମାନସ ଅବସ୍ଥା ପ୍ରାପ୍ତ କରନ୍ତି। ଏହି ସର୍ବୋଚ୍ଚ ଚେତନାର ଅନୁଭବ ପୂର୍ବରୁ, ସେ ମଧ୍ୟବର୍ତ୍ତୀ ପାହାଚର ମଧ୍ୟ ଅନୁଭବ କରନ୍ତି ଯେ ଏହି ସଚରାଚର ଜଗତ୍ ବ୍ରହ୍ମ ଅଟେ, ବିଶ୍ବ ଚେତନା, ବାସୁଦେବ ସର୍ବମିତି ଅବସ୍ଥା। ବାସୁଦେବ ସର୍ବମିତି ଅବସ୍ଥାକୁ ପ୍ରାପ୍ତ ପୂର୍ଣ୍ଣ ଯୋଗୀ ପୃଥିବୀରେ ଅତ୍ୟନ୍ତ ବିରଳ, ସମହାତ୍ମା ସୁଦୁର୍ଲଭ।"3 A traditional Sadhaka, after realisation of Kshara, Akshara and Purushottama consciousness feels that this realisation cannot be reconciled6 with untransformed nature of 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 supreme abode of param dham through the passage of Purushottama state. In integral Yoga, after realisation of Kshara, Akshara and Purushottama consciousness or after realisation Psychic, Spiritual and Supramental Being, a Sadhaka’s difficult task prohibits blissful enjoyment of the fruit of his labour but begins of reconciling static Matter with dynamic Spirit and thus Divine Shakti pours into the material vessel and confronts with Subconscient dark forces. His Psychic, Spiritual and Supramental purification, transformation and perfection resumes action from firmly established Psychic heart centre and from firmly established Karma Yoga where Divine Will, Knowledge and Love are perfectly reconciled. କ୍ଷର, ଅକ୍ଷର ଏବଂ ପୁରୁଷୋତ୍ତମ ଚେତନା ଅନୁଭବ କରିବା ପରେ ଜଣେ ପାରମ୍ପରିକ ସାଧକ ଅନୁଭବ କରନ୍ତି ଯେ ଏହି ଅନୁଭବ ତିନୋଟି ଗୁଣର ଅପରିବର୍ତ୍ତିତ ନିମ୍ନ ପ୍ରକୃତି ସହିତ ମିଶିପାରିବ ନାହିଁ। ତେଣୁ, ତାଙ୍କର କୌଣସି ଅସମାପ୍ତ କାର୍ଯ୍ୟ ବାକି ନାହିଁ ଏବଂ ତେଣୁ ତାଙ୍କର ଅସ୍ତିତ୍ୱର ଆନନ୍ଦଦାୟକ ଉପଭୋଗ ପୁନର୍ଜନ୍ମରୁ ମୁକ୍ତି ପ୍ରସଙ୍ଗରେ କେନ୍ଦ୍ରିତ ହୁଏ ଏବଂ ପୁରୁଷୋତ୍ତମ ଅବସ୍ଥା ଦେଇ ପରମ ଧାମକୁ ପଳାୟନ କରନ୍ତି। ପୂର୍ଣ୍ଣ ଯୋଗରେ, କ୍ଷର, ଅକ୍ଷର ଏବଂ ପୁରୁଷୋତ୍ତମ ଚେତନା ଅନୁଭବ କରିବା ପରେ କିମ୍ବା ଚୈତ୍ୟ, ଆଧ୍ୟାତ୍ମିକ ଏବଂ ଅତିମାନବୀୟ ସତ୍ତାର ଅନୁଭବ କରିବା ପରେ, ଜଣେ ସାଧକର କଷ୍ଟକର କାର୍ଯ୍ୟ ହେଉଛି ତାଙ୍କ ଶ୍ରମର ଫଳର ଆନନ୍ଦଦାୟକ ଉପଭୋଗକୁ ନିଷେଧ କରେ କିନ୍ତୁ ସ୍ଥିର ଜଡବସ୍ତୁକୁ ଗତିଶୀଳ ଆତ୍ମା ସହିତ ମିଳାଇବା ଆରମ୍ଭ କରେ ଏବଂ ଏହିପରି ଦିବ୍ୟ ଶକ୍ତି ଭୌତିକ ଆଧାରରେ ଢାଳି ହୋଇଯାଏ ଏବଂ ଅବଚେତନ ଅନ୍ଧକାର ଶକ୍ତି ସହିତ ମୁକାବିଲା କରେ। ତାଙ୍କର ଚୈତ୍ୟ, ଆଧ୍ୟାତ୍ମିକ ଏବଂ ଅତିମାନବୀୟ ଶୁଦ୍ଧିକରଣ, ପରିବର୍ତ୍ତନ ଏବଂ ସିଦ୍ଧତା ଦୃଢ଼ ଭାବରେ ପ୍ରତିଷ୍ଠିତ ଚୈତ୍ୟ ହୃଦୟ କେନ୍ଦ୍ର ଏବଂ ଦୃଢ଼ ଭାବରେ ପ୍ରତିଷ୍ଠିତ କର୍ମ ଯୋଗରୁ କାର୍ଯ୍ୟ ପୁନରାବୃତ୍ତି କରେ ଯେଉଁଠାରେ ଦିବ୍ୟ ଇଚ୍ଛା, ଜ୍ଞାନ ଏବଂ ପ୍ରେମ ସମ୍ପୂର୍ଣ୍ଣ ଭାବରେ ଏକୀଭୁତ ହୁଅନ୍ତି। 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 manifestation of highest and comprehensive truth through integral Yoga can draw few strong Souls. Traditional Yoga gives more importance to self-expansion and a traditional Teacher is weighed by number of disciples and devotees surrounded him. Integral Yoga gives more importance to Subconscient transformation through self-concentration and a Sadhaka of integral Yoga is weighed by his enhanced capacity to bear earth’s suffering and miseries and later transforming them into ecstasies. The perfect Instruments of integral Yoga with universalised Consciousness will preoccupy themselves for the benefit of individuals and humanity through concentration and illumination of their own subtle and causal body. They are nameless Spiritual leaders of humanity and their invisible world action through descent of Divine Force or reversal of Consciousness to resolve all problems of existence, are of far greater value than any religious movement can imagine. ପୂର୍ଣ୍ଣ ଯୋଗ ଆଧ୍ୟାତ୍ମିକ ଯନ୍ତ୍ରୀମାନଙ୍କର (Spiritual Instruments) ଆବିର୍ଭାବକୁ ଅଧିକ ଗୁରୁତ୍ୱ ଦିଏ4 ଏବଂ ପାରମ୍ପରିକ ଯୋଗ/ଧର୍ମ ବାହାର ଅବଲମ୍ବନ ଆଶ୍ରିତ ଧାର୍ମିକ ଶିକ୍ଷକଙ୍କ ଆବିର୍ଭାବକୁ ଗୁରୁତ୍ବ ଦିଏ;5 କିମ୍ବା "ଭାରତରେ ସମସ୍ତ ଧର୍ମ ଏବଂ ଶୃଙ୍ଖଳା ଯେଉଁମାନେ ମୁଖ୍ୟତଃ ବାହ୍ୟ ଅବଲମ୍ବନ ଆଶ୍ରିତ ପଦ୍ଧତି ବ୍ୟବହାର କରନ୍ତି, ସେମାନଙ୍କର ଆତ୍ମ ଅଭ୍ୟାସ ପାଇଁ ଏହା ଉପରେ କମ୍ କିମ୍ବା ଅଧିକ ନିର୍ଭର କରନ୍ତି।"1 ପାରମ୍ପରିକ ଯୋଗ/ଧର୍ମ ମାଧ୍ୟମରେ କିଛି ମଧ୍ୟବର୍ତ୍ତୀ ସତ୍ୟର ପ୍ରକାଶନ ବହୁତ ସଂଖ୍ୟାରେ ଭକ୍ତଙ୍କୁ ଆକର୍ଷିତ କରିପାରେ ଏବଂ ପୂର୍ଣ୍ଣ ଯୋଗ ମାଧ୍ୟମରେ ସର୍ବୋଚ୍ଚ ଏବଂ ବ୍ୟାପକ ସତ୍ୟର ପ୍ରକାଶନ ସ୍ବଳ୍ପ ଶକ୍ତିଶାଳୀ ଆତ୍ମାଙ୍କୁ ଆକର୍ଷିତ କରିପାରେ। ପାରମ୍ପରିକ ଯୋଗ ଆତ୍ମ-ବିସ୍ତାରକୁ ଅଧିକ ଗୁରୁତ୍ୱ ଦିଏ ଏବଂ ଜଣେ ପାରମ୍ପରିକ ଶିକ୍ଷକଙ୍କୁ ତାଙ୍କ ଚାରିପାଖରେ ଥିବା ଶିଷ୍ୟ ଏବଂ ଭକ୍ତଙ୍କ ସଂଖ୍ୟା ଦ୍ୱାରା ତୌଲାଯାଏ। ପୂର୍ଣ୍ଣ ଯୋଗ ଆତ୍ମ-ଏକାଗ୍ରତା ମାଧ୍ୟମରେ ଅବଚେତନ ପରିବର୍ତ୍ତନକୁ ଅଧିକ ଗୁରୁତ୍ୱ ଦିଏ ଏବଂ ପୂର୍ଣ୍ଣ ଯୋଗର ଜଣେ ସାଧକଙ୍କୁ ପୃଥିବୀର ଦୁଃଖ ଏବଂ ଯନ୍ତ୍ରଣାକୁ ସହ୍ୟ କରିବା ଏବଂ ପରେ ସେଗୁଡ଼ିକୁ ପରମାନନ୍ଦରେ ରୂପାନ୍ତରିତ କରିବାର ତାଙ୍କର ବର୍ଦ୍ଧିତ କ୍ଷମତା ଦ୍ୱାରା ତୌଲାଯାଏ। ବିଶ୍ବ ଚେତନା ସହିତ ପୂର୍ଣ୍ଣ ଯୋଗର ସିଦ୍ଧ ଯନ୍ତ୍ରୀମାନଙ୍କର ବ୍ୟକ୍ତି ଏବଂ ମାନବତାର ହିତ ପାଇଁ ନିଜ ସୂକ୍ଷ୍ମ ଏବଂ କାରଣ ଶରୀରର ପବିତ୍ରୀକରଣ ଏବଂ ଆଲୋକୀକରଣ ମାଧ୍ୟମରେ ନିଜକୁ ନିୟୋଜିତ କରନ୍ତି। ସେମାନେ ମାନବ ସମାଜର ନାମହୀନ ଆଧ୍ୟାତ୍ମିକ ନେତା ଏବଂ ଦିବ୍ୟ ଶକ୍ତିର ଅବତରଣ କିମ୍ବା ଚେତନାର ପରିବର୍ତ୍ତନ ମାଧ୍ୟମରେ ସେମାନଙ୍କର ଅଦୃଶ୍ୟ ବିଶ୍ୱ କାର୍ଯ୍ୟ ଯାହା ପୃଥିବୀର ସମସ୍ତ ସମସ୍ୟାର ସମାଧାନ କରିଥାଏ, ଏବଂ ଏହା ଯେକୌଣସି ଧାର୍ମିକ ଆନ୍ଦୋଳନଦ୍ବାରା କଳ୍ପନା କରିପାରିବାର ସାମର୍ଥ୍ୟତା ଅପେକ୍ଷା ବହୁତ ଅଧିକ ମୂଲ୍ୟବାନ। Those whose frontal surface nature is dominated by Courage and self-less Love, known as Kshetriya 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 Kshetriya Soul force of courage and new adventure in the outer world and ceaseless battle against earthly opposition through activation of Psychic Being. The Mission will further spread by high nobility of Soul which is untouched by any littleness, narrowness and baseness and will move with a certain greatness of Spiritual conquest to confront with universal dark forces attached to present unstable creation and Supramental contagion to enter fierce battle with ‘giant sons of Darkness’7 of Subconscient/Inconscient world and bears ‘inner wounds that are to slow to heal.’8 This manifesting action further asks that state of reconciling Wisdom which can perfectly possess all the infinite variety of external circumstances and permeate the Divine Light and Love to all the nether, neglected and less explored domain and thus illumining the whole earth. This endeavour will drive forward towards the realisation of the vision as indicated in Savitri, “Mere men into spiritual beings grow And see awake the dumb divinity.”9 ଯେଉଁମାନଙ୍କର ସମ୍ମୁଖ ପୃଷ୍ଠ ପ୍ରକୃତି ସାହସ ଏବଂ ନିଃସ୍ୱାର୍ଥପର ପ୍ରେମ ଦ୍ୱାରା ପ୍ରଭାବିତ, ଯାହାକୁ କ୍ଷେତ୍ରୀୟ ଆତ୍ମ ଶକ୍ତି ଭାବରେ ଜଣାଯାଏ ଏବଂ ସତ୍ୟ ଏବଂ ଜ୍ଞାନ ଦ୍ୱାରା ପ୍ରଭାବିତ ସମ୍ମୁଖ ପ୍ରକୃତି, ଯାହାକୁ ବ୍ରାହ୍ମଣ ଆତ୍ମ ଶକ୍ତି ଭାବରେ ଜଣାଯାଏ, ସେମାନଙ୍କୁ ଶ୍ରେଷ୍ଠ ମାନବ ଭାବରେ ସ୍ୱୀକୃତି ଦିଆଯାଇଥାଏ ଏବଂ ସେମାନେ ସାମୂହିକ ଆଧ୍ୟାତ୍ମିକ ଜୀବନ ପାଇଁ ଯୋଗ୍ୟ। ଏହି କାର୍ଯ୍ୟ ବାହ୍ୟ ଜଗତରେ ସାହସ ଏବଂ ନୂତନ ସାହସିକତା ଏବଂ ମାନସିକ ସତ୍ତାର ସକ୍ରିୟକରଣ ମାଧ୍ୟମରେ ପାର୍ଥିବ ବିରୋଧ ବିରୁଦ୍ଧରେ ନିରନ୍ତର ଯୁଦ୍ଧର କ୍ଷେତ୍ରୀୟ ଆତ୍ମ ଶକ୍ତିର ଉଦୟ ଦ୍ୱାରା ତ୍ୱରାନ୍ୱିତ ହେବ। ଦିବ୍ୟ କେନ୍ଦ୍ର ଆତ୍ମାର ଉଚ୍ଚ ଆଭିଜାତ୍ୟ ଦ୍ୱାରା ଆହୁରି ବିସ୍ତାରିତ ହେବ ଯାହା ଯେକୌଣସି କ୍ଷୁଦ୍ରତା, ସଂକୀର୍ଣ୍ଣତା ଏବଂ ନୀଚତା ଦ୍ୱାରା ଅସ୍ପୃଶ୍ୟ ଏବଂ ଆଧ୍ୟାତ୍ମିକ ବିଜୟର ଏକ ନିର୍ଦ୍ଦିଷ୍ଟ ମହାନତା ସହିତ ବର୍ତ୍ତମାନର ଅସ୍ଥିର ସୃଷ୍ଟି ଏବଂ ଉପ-ସଂକ୍ରମଣ ସହିତ ଜଡିତ ସାର୍ବଭୌମ ଅନ୍ଧକାର ଶକ୍ତି ସହିତ ମୁକାବିଲା କରିବା ପାଇଁ ଅବଚେତନ / ଅଚେତନ ଜଗତର 'ଅନ୍ଧକାରର ବିଶାଳ ପୁତ୍ର' ସହିତ ଭୟଙ୍କର ଯୁଦ୍ଧରେ ପ୍ରବେଶ କରିବ ଏବଂ 'ଆଭ୍ୟନ୍ତରୀଣ କ୍ଷତ ବହନ କରିବ ଯାହା ସୁସ୍ଥ ହେବାକୁ ଧୀର ସମୟ ନେବ'8 ଏହି ପ୍ରକାଶିତ କାର୍ଯ୍ୟ ଆହୁରି ଜ୍ଞାନକୁ ମିଳାଇବାର ସେହି ଅବସ୍ଥାକୁ ଅନୁରୋଧ କରେ ଯାହା ସମସ୍ତ ଅସୀମ ବିବିଧ ବାହ୍ୟ ପରିସ୍ଥିତିକୁ ସମ୍ପୂର୍ଣ୍ଣ ଭାବରେ ଧାରଣ କରିପାରିବ ଏବଂ ସମସ୍ତ ନୀଚ, ଅବହେଳିତ ଏବଂ କମ୍ ଅନୁସନ୍ଧାନିତ କ୍ଷେତ୍ରରେ ଦିବ୍ୟ ଆଲୋକ ଏବଂ ପ୍ରେମକୁ ପରିବ୍ୟାପ୍ତ କରିପାରିବ ଏବଂ ଏହିପରି ସମଗ୍ର ପୃଥିବୀକୁ ଆଲୋକିତ କରିପାରିବ। ଏହି ପ୍ରୟାସ ସାବିତ୍ରୀରେ ସୂଚିତ ଦୃଷ୍ଟିକୋଣର ସାକାର କରଣ ଆଡ଼କୁ ଆଗକୁ ବଢ଼େଇବ, "ସାଧାରଣ ମଣିଷମାନେ ଆଧ୍ୟାତ୍ମିକ ସତ୍ତାରେ ପରିଣତ ହୁଅନ୍ତୁ ଏବଂ ମୂକ ଦିବ୍ୟତାକୁ ଜାଗ୍ରତ ହେବାର ଦେଖନ୍ତି।"9 The Synthesis of Yoga book (Principal Shastra) issues injunctions on a Sadhaka (Seeker of 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 is to ‘leave nothing around it (liberated Soul Sadhaka) unchanged’13 superseding the previous stand ‘which will no way seek to change their outward appearance...and old human surroundings.’13 His personal and communal existence must ‘take full account of’14 present imperfection and he has to ‘see how it can be converted to the law of a possible perfection.’14 OM TAT SAT The Synthesis of Yoga ପୁସ୍ତକ (ମୁଖ୍ୟ ଶାସ୍ତ୍ର) ଏକ ସାଧକ (ସତ୍ୟର ସନ୍ଧାନକାରୀ) ଉପରେ ଆଦେଶ ଜାରି କରେ ଯେ ସେ ବ୍ୟକ୍ତିଗତ, ସାମୂହିକ ଏବଂ ବିଶ୍ୱ ଅପୂର୍ଣ୍ଣତା ପ୍ରତି ଉଦାସୀନ ରହିବା ଉଚିତ୍ ନୁହେଁ ଏବଂ ସେ ନିଜ ସାଧନା ନିମନ୍ତେ ଆତ୍ମା, ଜଗତ ଏବଂ ଭଗବାନଙ୍କ ପାଖରେ ଉତ୍ତର ଦାୟୀ ରହିବା ଉଚିତ୍।25 ପୂର୍ଣ୍ଣ ଯୋଗ ପ୍ରସ୍ତାବ ଦିଏ ଯେ ଏକ ବିକଶିତ ଆତ୍ମା 'ଅସୁଖୀ ସାଧାରଣ ମଣିଷ ଏବଂ ଆଶୀର୍ବାଦପ୍ରାପ୍ତ ଭକ୍ତଙ୍କ 10 କଷ୍ଟକୁ ଦୂରରୁ ଉଦାସୀନତା ସହିତ ଦେଖିବା ଉଚିତ୍ ନୁହେଁ' ଏବଂ ସେମାନଙ୍କୁ ଆତ୍ମାର ସ୍ୱାଧୀନତା ଆଡ଼କୁ ଟାଣିଆଣିବା କାମ କରନ୍ତି। କିମ୍ବା 'ଯଦିଓ ଆମର ବ୍ୟକ୍ତିଗତ ମୁକ୍ତି ସମ୍ପୂର୍ଣ୍ଣ ହୁଏ, ତଥାପି ଅନ୍ୟମାନଙ୍କର ଦୁଃଖ, ବିଶ୍ୱ ଯାତନା, ଯାହାକୁ ମହାନ ଆତ୍ମାମାନେ ଉଦାସୀନତା ସହିତ ବିଚାର କରିପାରିବେ ନାହିଁ।'11 'ଜୀବନକୁ ଗ୍ରହଣ କରି, ତାଙ୍କୁ (ପୂର୍ଣ୍ଣ ଯୋଗର ଜଣେ ସାଧକ) କେବଳ ନିଜର ଭାର ନୁହେଁ, ବରଂ ବିଶ୍ୱର ଭାରର ଏକ ବଡ଼ ଅଂଶ ମଧ୍ୟ ବହନ କରିବାକୁ ପଡ଼ିଥାଏ, ତାଙ୍କର ନିଜସ୍ୱ ଭାରର ଏକ ନିରନ୍ତର ପ୍ରଗତିଶୀଳ ଭାବରେ। ତେଣୁ ତାଙ୍କ ଯୋଗ ଅନ୍ୟମାନଙ୍କ ଜୀବନ ସଂଘର୍ଷ ଅପେକ୍ଷା ବହୁତ ଅଧିକ; କିନ୍ତୁ ଏହା କେବଳ ଏକ ବ୍ୟକ୍ତିଗତ ଲଢେଇ ନୁହେଁ, ଏହା ଏକ ବିସ୍ତୃତ ପ୍ରାନ୍ତର ଉପରେ ଚାଲିଥିବା ଏକ ସାମୂହିକ ଯୁଦ୍ଧ।'12 ମୁଖ୍ୟ ଶାସ୍ତ୍ରରେ ଜାରି ହୋଇଥିବା ଦୃଢ ନିର୍ଦ୍ଦେଶ ହେଉଛି 'ଏହାର ଚାରିପାଖରେ କିଛି ବି ଅପରିବର୍ତ୍ତିତ ନ ରଖିବା (ମୁକ୍ତ ଆତ୍ମା ସାଧକ)'କୁ ନିଶ୍ଚୟ କରିବା'13 ପୂର୍ବ ସ୍ଥିତିକୁ ଛାଡ଼ି 'ଯାହା କୌଣସି ପ୍ରକାରେ ସେମାନଙ୍କର ବାହ୍ୟ ଦୃଶ୍ୟ... ଏବଂ ପୁରୁଣା ମାନବ ପରିବେଶକୁ ପରିବର୍ତ୍ତନ କରିବାକୁ ଚେଷ୍ଟା କରିବ ନାହିଁ।'13 ତାଙ୍କର ବ୍ୟକ୍ତିଗତ ଏବଂ ସାମୁହିକ ଅସ୍ତିତ୍ୱକୁ 'ବର୍ତ୍ତମାନର ଅପୂର୍ଣ୍ଣତାକୁ ପୂର୍ଣ୍ଣ ହିସାବରେ ନେବାକୁ'14 ଏବଂ ତାଙ୍କୁ 'ଦେଖିବାକୁ ପଡିବ ଯେ ଏହାକୁ କିପରି ଏକ ସମ୍ଭାବ୍ୟ ସିଦ୍ଧତାର ନିୟମରେ ରୂପାନ୍ତରିତ କରାଯାଇପାରିବ।'14 ଓମ୍ ତତ୍ ସତ୍ References: 1: CWSA/23/ The Synthesis of Yoga -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-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-5/195, 3: THE GITA-6.45/7.19, 4: “Teaching, example and influence are three instruments of the Guru (integral Teacher)… He will seek to awaken much more than to instruct…The example is more powerful than the instruction; but it is not the example of the outward acts nor that of the personal character which is of most importance. These have their place and their utility; but what will most stimulate aspiration in others is the central fact of the divine realisation within him governing his whole life and inner state and all his activities.” CWSA-23/ The Synthesis of Yoga -66-67 5: “…the (traditional) Yoga proceeds by the results of prescribed methods taught in a Scripture or a tradition and reinforced and illumined by the instructions of the Master. This is a narrower practice, but safe and effective within its limits, because it follows a well-beaten track to a long familiar goal.” CWSA-23/ The Synthesis of Yoga -55, 6: Matter cannot be reconciled with the Spirit is understood from following verse: “They who with the eye of knowledge perceive this irreconcilable difference between the Matter, kshetra, and the Spirit, Kshetrajna, and the liberation of Being from Nature, they escape into supreme abode of Param Dham.” The Gita-13.35, In the Gita Matter can be reconciled with the Spirit is hinted but not developed: ‘Earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind, reason and ego is My eightfold divided Nature, apara-prakriti. Know too My other Divine Nature, Para-prakriti, different from this Apara Prakriti; this Supreme Nature or the Supreme Mother which becomes the Jiva in the heart and by which this world is upheld. This ‘upholding of the world,’ jagat dharayate, means Para-Prakriti also penetrates into Apara Prakriti by which this world can be purified, transformed and perfected.” THE GITA-7.4, 5. 7: Savitri-226, 8: Savitri-230, 9: Savitri-709-10, 10: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga-444, 11: CWSA/21/The Life Divine-422, 12: CWSA/23/The Synthesis of Yoga-77, 13: CWSA/23/The Synthesis of Yoga-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-631, 15:17: Savitri-708, 16:22: “There man can visit but there he cannot live.” Savitri-659 (All Man can get Supramental touch or God’s touch but unfit or not prepared to get His embrace.) 17:26: Savitri-42, 18: The Mother’s Agenda-10/p-148/19th April-1969, 19: The Mother’s Agenda-8/175, 20: The Mother’s Agenda-2/206, 21: SABCL/26/On Himself-175, 22: The Mother’s Agenda-5/p-165/14th August-1964, 23: CWSA/22/The Life Divine-752, 24: CWSA/22/The Life Divine-1054, 25: “She wrote the account of all that she had lost,” Savitri-117, (Accountability to the Self.) “The Voice replied: “Is this enough, O spirit? And what shall thy soul say when it wakes and knows The work was left undone for which it came? Or is this all for thy being born on earth Charged with a mandate from eternity, A listener to the voices of the years, A follower of the footprints of the gods, To pass and leave unchanged the old dusty laws?” Savitri-475 (Accountability to the Self) “To account for the Actual’s unaccountable sum,” Savitri-269, (Accountability to the Divine.) “Is this then the report that I must make, My head bowed with shame before the Eternal’s seat, — His power he kindled in thy body has failed, His labourer returns, her task undone?” Savitri-476 (Accountability to the Divine.) “And in the transactions of our positive consciousness, even Unity has to make its account with Multiplicity; for the Many also are Brahman.” CWSA/21/The Life Divine-39 (Accountability to the world) “In transparent systems bodied termless truths, The Timeless made accountable to Time” Savitri-273 26: The Mother’s Centenary Works (second edition)/Vol.10/p-15, Sri Matriniketan Ashram, Managed by The Mother’s International Centre Trust, Regd.No-146/24.11.97. Vill: Ramachandrapur, PO: Kukudakhandi-761100, Via: Brahmapur, Dist: Ganjam, State: Odisha, India https://www.srimatriniketanashram.com/ Question Related with Artificial Intelligence - My Blessed Divine Children.....since today (02.11.2025) is a holiday, you can examine if we will keep the question put to Gemini and Copilot and their answer in our seekers' question. If it is helpful in our mission of heightening of consciousness, then we will keep in the.... link: https://www.srimatriniketanashram.com/education/photo/seekers-questions with my all love and blessings..... At Their Feet S.A. Maa Krishna Pranams Mother, both Gemini and Copilot have given wonderful responses. It is easy to follow. We should keep it. But the formatting for the Google response can be a bit better to make it more readable. The Copilot response in bullet points is easier to read/consume. Pranams To The Coordinator, The 20th State-level Science Fair 2025 at Matrubhaban Cuttack Coordinator, Science Fair - Om Namo Bhagavate “In Nature everything is in movement; thus, whatever does not move forward is bound to fall back.” The Mother TMCW/Vol-12/On Education/p-63, Sri Matriniketan Ashram 22.10.2025 Divine Amar Atman! Blessed Divine Soul, Now, the project for the forthcoming Science Fair, 25-26.10.2025, is prepared for Divine offering. I am sending three attachments for your kind scrutiny. Om Tat Sat with my eternal Love and Their Blessings... At Their Feet S.A. Maa Krishna 1: THE SPIRITUAL HISTORY OF EARTH 2: THE MIND MAP OF THE BHAGAVAD GITA & INTEGRAL YOGA 3: THE MIND MAP OF THE SPIRITUAL HISTORY OF EARTH 4: SYNOPSIS OF THE BHAGAVAD GITA & INTEGRAL YOGA and ଭଗବଦ୍ ଗୀତା ଏବଂ ପୂର୍ଣ୍ଣ ଯୋଗର ମୁଖବନ୍ଧ Question on movement of Consciousness through Karma Yoga Auroprem Pranams Mother I have only 3 questions. I find that this is enough for me. 1. For the movement of consciousness between the psychic and spiritual, what practical steps (in our day-to-day living) can we consciously implement? I know the methods can be mainly spiritual rather than psycho-spiritual, but can you cover both methods please? 2. Given that ultimately progress in this path is only possible by surrender to the Shakti and also given that surrender is not practicable in one instant (it is progressive), what specific practices or attitudes can help a seeker to deepen their surrender 3. In the Gita , the Lord says to practice Yoga without despondency. Given the repeated failings of our untransformed nature as we interact in the outer world with people of different types, how can we remain in samata and unaffected by the blows/up & down as we see little or no outer progress in our nature? As long as we remain in seclusion, we are fine, but the first touch of the world and the equality/calmness, etc vanish. Can you elaborate on the assurances the Lord has given to all sadhakas on that? Pranams 1) Psycho Spiritual methods are given in The Mother book. They are ceaseless personal effort of the purified intellect to increase aspiration, rejection, surrender, faith and sincerity. With the opening of Psychic and Spiritual being this personal effort becomes spontaneous and strong. In day today life we have to identify multitude of tamasic, rajasic, sattwic imperfection and ceaselessly consecrate them before the Divine. 2) Surrender becomes sattwic when we practice self-control through purified intellect. With the increase of concentration power, consecration power increases. With the opening of Psychic and Spiritual being Self-control becomes rigorous and concentration power and consecration power multiplies. 3) In Spiritual life, seclusion means to live alone either with the Psychic being in the heart or the Spiritual being above the head under all circumstances and under all time. When mind is pacified, one lives in the desireless state then one experiences Divine union and equality becomes strong or as desribed in the Gita, samatwam Yoga uchyate. We have to purify the intellect by pacifyng the mind and concentrate only on the Divine on all circumstances. We have to identify our multitude of smallest work in the daily life and to use them as means of highest Divine union through consecration. Study Circle 31082025 Recording Question on Reconciliation of Spirit with Matter in Trigunatita state Aniketa (Arup) Om Namo Bhagavate, Pranam Maa 🙏 My questions are : 1) How to do practice, reconciliation of Spirit with Matter, please explain. 2) Practically Jivatma's union with para-prakriti , in which way will it be reflected? 3) How to know and implement, to live liberty of the Spirit beyond the fixed law of shastra. 4) Please define, to reject tamas from our body, what are the methods? 5) How to raise consciousness in our daily life to overcome the tamas, rajas state and to live only sattwa to the trigunatita state of consciousness. OM TAT SAT🙏 (1) If Spirit is dynamised through Yoga, then reconciliation of Spirit and Matter is possible. (2) By prolongation of Jivatma's union with Paramatma or static Divine, (through Purusha Yajna) Spirit is dynamised, known as Paraprakriti. By Prakriti Yajna one directly experiences Jivatma's union with Paraprakriti. (3) One can go beyond the fixed law of Shastra by ascending to higher planes of Consciousness and establishing himself in that plane. (4) By silencing the mind or concentrating on the single issue of the Divine, tamas becomes weak and rejected. (5) First to identify the tamasic, rajasic and sattwic imperfection, then to move them by rejection and consecration. Thus one can arrive at trigunatita state. Study Circle 24082025 Recording “We can learn things from a flower, an animal, a child, if we are eager to know always more, because there is only One Teacher in the world — the Supreme Lord, and He manifests through everything.” The Mother TMCW-12/On Education/p-129 The Gita issues injunction to the man of Knowledge that he should give wisdom which he has received from within and above to those seekers only who prostrate the feet of the Teacher, have question and can give service. The man of Knowledge who has seen the essential Truth of Kshara Purusha and immutable Truth of Akshara Purusha, tattwadarshinah, can give initiation to seeking Souls through his Spiritual influence ( The Gita-4.34 ) not ‘gathered laboriously by senses and the reason from outside’ (CWSA-19/Essays on the Gita/p-204) but by revelation, self-experience, Intuition and self-existent wisdom. He should not give this knowledge to them who despise and belittle the Divine, those who do not practice self-control, desirelessness and equality, do not give service and do not want to listen the supreme Knowledge. (The Gita.18.67, The Gita-3.31, 32,) This knowledge should be given to them those who have full faith in the Divine, sraddha, and the uncarping, asuya rahitam. (The Gita-3.31, 9.1, 18.71) “They, who having faith, sraddha , and not having narrow carping, asuya , constantly follow this teaching of Mine, they too are released from the bondage of works. But those who find fault with My Teaching and act not thereon, know them to be unripe mind, bewildered in all knowledge, they misunderstand and misuse the written truth and fated to be destroyed.” (The Gita-3.31, 9.1, 18.71) Integral Yoga issues a similar injunction that 'spiritual experiences of any value, cannot be brought before the tribunal of the common mentality which has no experience of these things and takes its own absence or incapacity of experience as a proof of their invalidity or their non-existence.' (CWSA-22/The Life Divine/p-677) Integral Yoga proposes that the living Spiritual Teacher is a 'narrower practice' and is safe and secured for beginners of integral Yoga (Dvija) and dispensable for a few rare developed Souls or ‘A strict obedience to the wise and intuitive leading of a Guide is also normal and necessary for all but a few specially gifted seekers.” (CWSA-22/The Life Divine/p-940-941) “To concentrate most on one’s own spiritual growth and experience is the first necessity of the sadhak — to be too eager to help others draws away from the inner work. There is also likely to be an overzeal and haste which clouds the discrimination and makes what help is given less effective than it should be. To grow in the spirit is the greatest help one can give to others, for then something flows out naturally to those around that helps them.” CWSA-31/Letters on Yoga-IV/p-317, “The idea of helping others is a subtle form of the ego. It is only the Divine Force that can help. One can be its instrument, but you should first learn to be a fit and egoless instrument.” CWSA-31/Letters on Yoga-IV/p-318, “The best way to help the world is to transform oneself by an integral and intensive yoga.” The Mother/TMCW-14/Words of The Mother-II/p-277, “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, "This “helping others” is a perilous business — it brings the “guru” ego or else you very uncertainly rid others of their difficulties and very certainly get them yourself. “Why do you have all these disciples?” said a sage to some Maratha saint (I have forgotten the names); “to have disciples means to add all their difficulties to your own. ” “Helping others” has the same disadvantage." CWSA-31/Letters on Yoga-IV/p-318, "In “helping” one often gets part of the other’s inconvenience and many Yogis refuse to take disciples because they will have to assume others’ burdens as well as their own. There are also other dangers — growth of ego etc." CWSA-31/Letters on Yoga-IV/p-319, : “I suppose I myself am accused of rude and arrogant behaviour because I refuse to see people, do not answer letters, and a host of other misdemeanours. I have heard of a famous recluse who threw stones at anybody coming to his retreat because he did not want disciples and found no other way of warding off the flood of candidates. I at least would hesitate to pronounce that such people had no spiritual life or experience. Certainly, I prefer that sadhaks should be reasonably considerate towards each other, but that is for the sake of collective life and harmony , not as a siddhi of the Yoga or an indispensable sign of inner experience.” Sri Aurobindo/CWSA-31/Letters on Yoga-IV-656 In the above passage, it is identified that desire or lower Nature is our greatest enemy, and its invasion from the surrounding world can be discouraged by living alone with the Psychic and Spiritual being. The lure of gathering together of admirers, devotees and disciples (who are not free from lower Nature) are contrary to its purpose of intense Sadhana and invasion of the highest Spiritual energy.