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Six Fold Divine Call "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 "All the action of the perfected soul will be even such a constant divine giving of itself and its powers, an outflowing of the knowledge, light, strength, love, joy, helpful shakti which it possesses in the Divine and by his influence and effluence on all around it according to their capacity of reception or on all this world and its creatures. That will be the complete result of the complete self-giving of the soul to the Master of our existence." Sri Aurobindo CWSA/19/Essays on the Gita/p-490-491 “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, “The soul’s pregnant meeting with infinity” Savitri-682, “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, 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. 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 “One with the single Spirit inhabiting all,” Savitri-394 “Be one with the infinity of my power: For thou art the World-Mother and the Bride.” Savitri-691 “A virgin unity, a luminous spouse, Housing a multitudinous embrace To marry all in God’s immense delight,” Savitri-695 Then out of them, some can hold Her Divine Call to elevate the life of renunciation to the gradation of entire consecration of inner and outer life to the Divine and realise the Jivatma’s dynamic Divine union with Para-prakriti. This is also the period of activation of cosmic Consciousness. 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 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 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 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 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, “There he beheld in their mighty union’s poise The figure of the deathless Two-in-One, A single being in two bodies clasped, A diarchy of two united souls, Seated absorbed in deep creative joy; Their trance of bliss sustained the mobile world." Savitri-295 “The wedding of the eternal Lord and Spouse Took place again on earth in human forms:” Savitri-411 “My spirit has glimpsed the glory for which it came, The beating of one vast heart in the flame of things, My eternity (Paraprakriti) clasped by his eternity (Paramatma) And, tireless of the sweet abysms of Time, Deep possibility always to love.” Savitri-435 “Imperishable, a tongue of sacrifice, It flamed unquenched upon the central hearth Where burns for the high houselord and his mate The homestead’s sentinel and witness fire From which the altars of the gods are lit.” Savitri-639 “Inscribe the long romance of Thee (Para prakriti ) and Me (Paramatma ).” Savitri-699, “A static Oneness (Paramatma) and dynamic Power (Para-prakriti) Descend in him, the integral Godhead’s seals; (Third Divine union) His soul and body take that splendid stamp.” (first and fourth Divine union of a Spiritual man) Savitri-24 In the third Divine Call the relation between static and dynamic Brahman are reconciled. Thus few can offer their whole Soul and Nature and give everything to realise their absolute consecration to the Divine and His Shakti and become ‘a child and eternal portion’²¹ of Divine Mother’s Consciousness. They realise Brahman and Maya union in the Supramental plane and subsequently the realisation of dual Avatara or union of Paramatma and Paraprakriti in the Psychic heart centre. Or Sri Aurobindo's mission was ‘not to create mathas , ascetics and Sannyasis ; but to call back the souls of the strong to the Lila of Krishna and Kali .'²⁶ Sri Aurobindo further observed, "This is the stage I have reached in spite of all setbacks and recoils, imperfectly indeed in the secureness and intensity of the state, but well enough in the general type. When that has been done, then we may hope to found securely the play in us of his divine Knowledge governing the action of his divine Power."²⁷ Few climb to Her un-perishing Sun, the Supramental Plane and channel to earth mind, earth life and earth matter, the wizard Divine Ray in order to entirely remould Nature and Soul into the way and power of Supernature. Here the rejection of life, rejection of difficulty, rejection of disorder and flight into Nirvana are superseded by acceptance of life, acceptance of difficulty, and acceptance of disorder and transform them into an all-embracing higher life, true solution of the all-material problem, divine harmony, self-absorbed Delight and great victory. The Fourth Divine Call: “A mystery of married Earth (Matter) and Heaven (dynamic Spirit) Annexed divinity to the mortal scheme.” Savitri-25, “It (Infinity) marries the earth to screened eternities.” Savitri-98, “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, “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 “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 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. This Para-prakriti’s union with Apara-prakriti or large-scale invasion of Brahman energy into Subconscient and Inconscient world and ploughing the hard and recalcitrant soil of material life and insists 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, without ecstasy and without public admiration and King Aswapati entered this world of night and ‘bore the fierce inner wounds that are slow to heal.’¹⁵ The Fifth Divine Call: “Even if he (Avatar) escapes the fiercest fires, Even if the world breaks not in, a drowning sea, Only by hard sacrifice is high heaven earned: He must face the fight, the pang who would conquer Hell.” Savitri-447 “Although Light grows on earth and Night recedes, Yet till the evil is slain in its own home And Light invades the world’s inconscient base And perished has the adversary Force, He (successive Avataras ) still must labour on, his work half done.” Savitri-448-49 Then it is the fewest who receive the Call to manifest the Avatara, a greater and vaster instrumental and emanative action of the Divine, to whom She reveals Herself in its entirety, samagram-mam .¹ An Avatar must call down the supreme Light to the darkest abysms and till all the evils are slain in their Subconscient and Inconscient home, his labour continues and his task is half done. He hopes to arrest the ‘wheels of (earth’s) Doom’² and pays God’s debt to earth with his large suffering, ‘million wounds,’¹⁴ and with the body’s death. All the miseries of earth knock at his door for redemption. With his death¹² earth is newborn and opens for all his Soul’s vast Light, Love and Delight. The Sixth Divine Call: “One (last Avatar ) yet may come armoured, invincible; His will immobile meets the mobile hour; The world’s blows cannot bend that victor head; Calm and sure are his steps in the growing Night; The goal recedes, he hurries not his pace, He turns not to high voices in the night; He asks no aid from the inferior gods; His eyes are fixed on his immutable aim.” Savitri-449 The highest Divine Call received by the last Avatar, as hinted in two places in Savitri is to end the Law of Pain, ‘Evil turns back to its original good,’¹⁰ and to ‘vanquish Time and Death.’³ His being is charged with the mandate from Eternity to change the sorrowful earth’s old dusty law, to open the iron doors of Fate towards Divine Light and to lead mankind towards ‘Truth’s wide and golden road.’⁴ Thus, mankind will be able to hold the last siddhi, perfection of integral Yoga, known as ‘Truth supreme.’¹¹ Through Narad, Sri Aurobindo made humanity aware, of the mission and task of the last Avatar , who will vanquish Time and Death. “He (last Avatar ) still must travel Hell the world to save. Into the eternal Light he shall emerge On borders of the meeting of all worlds; There on the verge of Nature’s summit steps The secret Law of each thing is fulfilled, All contraries heal their long dissidence. There meet and clasp the eternal opposites, There pain becomes a violent fiery joy; Evil turns back to its original good, And sorrow lies upon the breasts of Bliss: She has learned to weep glad tears of happiness; Her gaze is charged with a wistful ecstasy. Then shall be ended here the Law of Pain.” Savitri-450-451 “This mortal life shall house Eternity’s bliss, The body’s self taste immortality. Then shall the world-redeemer’s (last Avatara’s ) task be done.” Savitri-451 Narad advised humanity to wait all Time of All Life till the arrival of the last Avatar and ‘bear this great world’s law of pain’¹⁷ with the aid of a Psychic Being. “A little bliss is lent thee from above, (moderate seekers of truth) A touch divine upon thy human days. Make of thy daily way a pilgrimage, For through small joys and griefs thou mov’st towards God. Haste not towards Godhead on a dangerous road, (ascetic path of saintly inactivity) Open not thy doorways to a nameless Power, Climb not to Godhead by the Titan’s road.” (not to torture the body) Savitri-451 Lastly, Narad could not see whether the present Incarnation of Savitri and Satyavan or The Mother and Sri Aurobindo could conquer death. They tried with the existing capacity of Supramental descent and limitation of opening of recalcitrant body and only by a collaboration of both, Death can 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 sheath 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 Call. The first Divine Call of union with the static Divine must be prolonged in order to experience the second Divine Call of union with Dynamic Divine Mother. These static and Dynamic Divine movements must be intensified to experience the third call which is a calling down of Supramental Brahman and supramental Maya to heart centre. Thus Psychic being becomes the centre of union of Paramatma and Paraprakrit i and the God’s Supramental door opens. Then the fourth Divine Call is initiated which is the calling down of Supramental Divine Mother, Paraprakriti to nether Material life, Apara-prakriti and thus Brahman Consciousness penetrates into Subconscient and Inconscient Sheaths and Divinises life. The Mother and Sri Aurobindo’s plunge into Subconscient and Inconscient Sheath and meeting of 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 the 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 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, 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, Download this WEB PAGE as a PDF file: “Write to him that compliance with his request to see me is impossible. I do not see anyone — I do not speak with anybody or give oral instructions in Yoga . As for the rest, this is a special path of Yoga and only those are accepted who have a special call to it, not merely a general desire for the spiritual life. It is not a life of Sannyasa or a Yoga that can be done by Japa etc. but something much more difficult, so difficult that even those who have a call do not find it easy to go through to the end, and for those who have not the call, it would be impossible. If he likes, however, he can go on practising his Japa with an aspiration towards this path and if he gets any experiences by which a call to it becomes evident, then I can reconsider his case.” Sri Aurobindo CWSA-35/Letters on Himself and the Ashram/p-554, “When I spoke of being faithful to the light of the soul and the divine Call, I was not referring to anything in the past or to any lapse on your part. I was simply suggesting the great need in all crises and attacks, — to refuse to listen to any suggestions, impulses, lures and to oppose to them all the call of the Truth, the imperative beckoning of the Light. In all doubt and depression, to say “ I belong to the Divine, I cannot fail ”; to all suggestions of impurity and unfitness, to reply “ I am a child of Immortality chosen by Sri Aurobindo and the Mother ; I have but to be true to myself and to them — the victory is sure; even if I fell, I would be sure to rise again ” ; to all impulsions to depart and serve some other ideal, to reply “ This is the greatest, this is the Truth, this alone can satisfy the soul within me; I will endure through all tests and tribulations to the very end of the divine journey.” This is what I mean by faithfulness to the Light and the Call." Sri Aurobindo CWSA-32/The Mother with Letters on the Mother/p-104 ,

The New Research “Even if one person could put himself faithfully at the disposal of the Truth, he could change the country and the world.” THE MOTHER The Mother's Agenda-19.04.1969 “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-555 Emergence of Integral Personality Read More Read More 1 The Agenda of Sri Matriniketan Ashram Research: The First Objective of Research: It will include in its scope the richly varied objective Material and subjective Spiritual experience, reconcile them in the beyond intellect Cosmic Self through the movement of vertical Consciousness and make the future opulent with all that is the best in the past and present. Thus the following promise is concentrated: "Content abide not with one conquered realm; Adventure all to make the whole world thine, To break into greater kingdoms turn thy force." Savitri-536 The Second Objective of Research: It will accumulate in itself all that is the most affirmative and the completest invisible energies and pour them out on the surrounding by an intense Aspiration, a Master Action and a King Idea so that one mighty Deed in the Occult plane can change the whole course of world events and external things. "A prayer, a master act, a king idea Can link man’s strength to a transcendent Force. Then miracle is made the common rule, One mighty deed can change the course of things; A lonely thought becomes omnipotent." Savitri-20 "Knows that one high step might enfranchise all" Savitri-371 The Third Objective of Research: The unending opulence of the Matter and Spirit cannot be exhausted by all the Saints, Seers and Scientists of all Time and the continuous uncovering and working out of Their unending secrets, endless truths and timeless mystery are the constant preoccupations of subjective Research. " He (Avatar) must call light into its dark abysms, Else never can Truth conquer Matter’s sleep And all earth look into the eyes of God. All things obscure his knowledge must relume, All things perverse his power must unknot: He must pass to the other shore of falsehood’s sea, He must enter the world’s dark to bring there light. The heart of evil must be bared to his eyes, He must learn its cosmic dark necessity, Its right and its dire roots in Nature’s soil." Savitri-450 The Fourth Objective of Research: It will strive to provide the utmost fulfillment and perfection of objective and subjective living by entry into Supraphysical experience which lies behind our gross physical, vital and mental living and humanity will be liberated from all subjection of life to the multiplication of new wants, exaggeration of ambitious activities and an aggressive expansion of the collective ego. Thus life can become 'a marvellous journey of the spirit.' (Savitri-301) " In the kingdom of the Spirit’s power and light, As if one who arrived out of infinity’s womb He came new-born, infant and limitless And grew in the wisdom of the timeless Child; He was a vast that soon became a Sun." Savitri-301 OM TAT SAT Read More 2 Serving Humanity: The Scope of helping humanity: “Patriotism, cosmopolitanism, service of society, collectivism, humanitarianism, the ideal or religion of humanity are admirable aids towards our escape from our primary condition of individual, family, social, national egoism into a secondary stage in which the individual realises, as far as it can be done on the intellectual, moral and emotional level, —on that level he cannot do it entirely in the right and perfect way, the way of the integral truth of his being, — the oneness of his existence with the existence of other beings. But the thought of the Gita reaches beyond to a tertiary condition of our developing self-consciousness towards which the secondary is only a partial stage of advance.” Sri Aurobindo/CWSA-19/Essays on the Gita/p-136 The Necessity of Leadership: “The best, the individuals who are in advance of the general line and above the general level of the collectivity, are the natural leaders of mankind, for it is they who can point to the race both the way they must follow and the standard or ideal they have to keep to or to attain. But the divinised man is the Best in no ordinary sense of the word and his influence, his example must have a power which that of no ordinarily superior man can exercise.” Sri Aurobindo/CWSA-19/Essays on the Gita/p-138 The Necessity of Spiritual Leadership: “This too the divinised man becomes in the measure of his attainment, impersonal in his personality, unbound by quality or action even when maintaining the most personal and intimate relations with men, unbound by any dharma even when following in appearance this or that dharma . Neither the dynamism of the kinetic man nor the actionless light of the ascetic or quietist, neither the vehement personality of the man of action nor the indifferent impersonality of the philosophic sage is the complete divine ideal. These are the two conflicting standards of the man of this world and the ascetic or the quietist philosopher, one immersed in the action of the Kshara, the other striving to dwell entirely in the peace of the Akshara; but the complete divine ideal proceeds from the nature of the Purushottama which transcends this conflict and reconciles all divine possibilities.” Sri Aurobindo/CWSA-19/Essays on the Gita/p-141 The Necessity of Supramental Leadership: “The supramental man on the contrary will think more with the universal mind or even may rise above it, and his individuality will rather be a vessel of radiation and communication to which the universal thought and knowledge of the Spirit will converge than a centre. The mental man thinks and acts in a radius determined by the smallness or largeness of his mentality and of its experience. The range of the supramental man will be all the earth and all that lies behind it on other planes of existence. ..Ordinarily the supramental knowledge will be organised first and with the most ease in the processes of pure thought and knowledge, jnana , because here the human mind has already the upward tendency and is the most free. Next and with less ease it will be organised in the processes of applied thought and knowledge because there the mind of man is at once most active and most bound and wedded to its inferior methods. The last and most difficult conquest, because this is now to his mind a field of conjecture or a blank, will be the knowledge of the three times, trikaladrsti .” Sri Aurobindo/CWSA/24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-837, 839 The Permanent Help: “Someone had written to (the) Mother, “I want my money to be used exclusively to conquer the causes of our sufferings and misery.” (The) Mother had replied, “That is what we are working towards here, but not in the artificial way of the philanthropists, who only deal with the outward effects. We want to eliminate forever the CAUSE of suffering, by divinizing matter through integral transformation.” The Mother's Agenda/10th April-1968. The permanent help and panacea of all problems of existence is possible through a triple reversal of Consciousness and inner change of Nature. All of the issues of humanity can be resolved by the permanent elevation of individual and collective Consciousness through Integral Evolution and Supramental Influence initially dynamised through a few individuals (A few can climb to an unperishing sun, (Savitri-689)) and finally spreads to elevate the general Consciousness of the race (His gates to the world were swept with seas of light. (Savitri-236)). OM TAT SAT Read More 3 The Agenda of Integral Tantra Yoga : First Agenda: Integral Yoga begins with the method of Vedanta to arrive at the aims of Tantra . In the integral Yoga Psychical experience, especially of the kind associated with what is often called occultism and savours of the miraculous, should be altogether subordinated to Spiritual truth and wait upon that for its own interpretation, illumination and sanction. The Second Agenda: In Vedantic method the Spirit is all important means of arriving at the Shakti. In Tantric method the Shakti is the all important means of arriving at the Spirit. The Third Agenda: Integral Tantra Yoga of Knowledge, Dakshina Marga begins with the descent of fragments of Truth Supreme. Integral Tantra Yoga of Love, Vama Marga begins with the descent of fragments of Supreme Love. The Fourth Agenda: Integral Yoga is a combination of Vedantic Sacrifice ‘the Brahman is offered to the Brhaman by the Brhaman ’ (The Gita-3.24) or 'Living for me, by me, in me they shall live' (Savitri-699) and Vedic or Tantric Sacrifice ‘the Shakti is offered to the Shakti by the Shakti ’. OM TAT SAT Read More 4 The Root Formula of Integral Yoga : The Root Formula One: All the problems of existence can be resolved by the discovery of the Inconscient Self. “For the key is hid and by the Inconscient kept; The secret God beneath the threshold dwells.” Savitri-68 The Root Formula Two: Desire is identified as the 'Keyword' and root problem that takes shelter in the Inconscient sheath. “Then lest a human cry should spoil the Truth He tore desire up from its bleeding roots And offered to the gods the vacant place. Thus could he bear the touch immaculate. A last and mightiest transformation came. His soul was all in front like a great sea Flooding the mind and body with its waves; His being, spread to embrace the universe, United the within and the without To make of life a cosmic harmony, An empire of the immanent Divine.” Savitri-318 The Root Formula Three: Inconscient Self can be opened by massive Supramental Intervention. “This ever she meant since the first dawn of life, This constant will she covered with her sport, To evoke a Person in the impersonal Void, With the Truth-Light strike earth’s massive roots of trance, Wake a dumb self in the inconscient depths And raise a lost Power from its python sleep That the eyes of the Timeless might look out from Time And the world manifest the unveiled Divine.” Savitri-72-73, “As when a searchlight stabs the Night’s blind breast And dwellings and trees and figures of men appear As if revealed to an eye in Nothingness, All lurking things were torn out of their veils And held up in his vision’s sun-white blaze.” Savitri-151, The Root Formula Four: All the problems of existence can be resolved by the intervention of Divine Force from above the head and below the feet…. Or it can be also resolved by the intervention of dynamic Spirit from within the heart, below the feet, around the world and above the head. “Our life is entrenched between two rivers of Light , We have turned space into a gulf of peace And made the body a Capitol of bliss.” Savitri-531 “It (dynamic Spirit) is within, below, without, above.” Savitri-98 OM TAT SAT Read More 5 The Main Formula (Maha Mantra ) of Integral Yoga : The First Formula: All Life is Yoga. (Maha Mantra) The Second Formula: All Yoga is a compression of one’s Evolution by all possible ways of union with the Divine. The Third Formula: All Evolution is the awakener of higher states of Consciousness. The Fourth formula: All Consciousness is one but in action, it involves in many-fold concentrated Effort and spontaneous movement of Shakti to realize every possible line of Spiritual experience. The Fifth Formula: All Effort is the synthesis of all the wide and supple Methods. The Sixth Formula: All the method is the synthesis of central Truth of self-discipline. The Seventh Formula: The practice of all self-discipline leads to continuous union with the Self. The Eighth Formula: All Dispensable self-disciplines are termed as Psycho-physical methods, which mean to pursue inner development with the help of outer aid, support. The Ninth Formula: All Indispensable self-disciplines are termed as Psychic, Spiritual and Supramental methods which mean to pursue inner development without the support of any outer aid. The Tenth Formula: All Dispensable self-disciplines are used to subordinate all Indispensable self-disciplines, and its indispensability is felt after the Spiritual foundation is established on a secure basis. OM TAT SAT Read More 6 The Main Frame of Integral Yoga : The Three Basic Requisites: are of (1) unflinching patience, (2) absolute courage and (3) colossal faith. The Three Basic Inward Concentrations: are (1) of exclusive concentration of the one object worthy of pursuit, (2) contemplation and (3) silencing of mind. The Three Central secrets: are of entire consecration, constant inward remembrance of one central liberating knowledge and renounce all the inner support of central egoism. The Three Central Dynamic Processes: are that of development of true psychic being, sublimation of human into Divine Love and elevation of mental consciousness into spiritual and Supramental plane. The Three Central Methods: of Integral Yoga are that of gradually intensive and purposeful working of divine force, which subsequently compels all Nature to undergo a Divine change and the Divine Power uses all life as means of world transformation. The Three Central Vedantic Principles of Integral Yoga: are derived from the three Vedantic method of knowledge; it is either knowledge in the will working out through action or knowledge in the intellect through discernment or knowledge of the heart expressed in love and faith. The Three Central Vedic Principles of Integral Yoga: are the perfection of the body by the Psycho-physical method of Hathayoga ; the perfection of the mind and Psychic being by disciplining of mind through Rajayoga and the transformation of Nature by synthetic Yoga of Tantra . Integral Yoga does not propose the ceaseless practice of Psycho-physical Sciences of Hathayoga and Tantra and ceaseless practice of Psychic Science of Rajayoga , ‘but their methods can either altogether be dispensed with or used only for a preliminary or else a casual assistance.’ In integral Yoga the utility of Psycho-physical Science is felt after Spiritual foundation is established through Karma, Jnana and Bhakti Yoga . The Three Central Inner Revolutions: are that of the abolition of desire, making life an instrument and the disappearance of ego. The Three Basic or Fundamental Realisations: are that of (1) experience of Timeless, Spaceless and Silent Brahman, (2) of dissolution of self and world in the Unknowable, --Moksha, Nirvana and (3) the Source of Being and its relation with Becoming which builds a strong foundation of integral Yoga. The Three Inner or Central Intuitions: These are indispensable for the perfection of Spiritual being acting directly on earth Nature; they are the awareness of witness Purusha, sakhi, who watches the action of Nature, to give them new directions, refinement and extension related with subtle and flexible creation, and an inner awareness of his Spiritual and Supramental being who are master of his Nature. Here Intuition is at once (1) witness, sakhi, (2) source of consent, anumanta , and (3) almighty Lord of the Nature, Maheswara. The Three Central Objects of Integral Yoga: The object of integral Yoga must be accepted wholly by those who follow it and they are the Divinity in one Self, total discovery of the Divinity in the world and total discovery of the dynamism of some transcendent Eternal. OM TAT SAT Read More 7 From Puri to Pondicherry : The Preliminary Teaching: The stages through which the Gita has developed its preliminary teachings are that firstly, it spoke of the destruction of desire and attachment and conquest of senses by stilling the mind; secondly of equality and peace; thirdly of passionless, impersonal and sacrificial action and recognition of the Supreme as the doer of all work; fourthly of inner renunciation of desire and ego preferable to the outer renunciation of life and action; fifthly, the doctrine of Avatara and the Divine birth. The Higher Teaching: The Gita’s higher teachings are that of Divine work by rising above the gunas ; secondly, besides its earlier declaration that Knowledge is greater than Works, Bhakti is considered the greatest element in Yoga; thirdly the relation between Works, Knowledge and Divine Love and their synthesis as means of supreme realisation; fourthly, the vision of Universal Purusha , which ‘can be seen, known, entered into only by that Bhakti which regards, adores and loves Me alone in all things’; fifthly, the inter-relation between the multiple Soul, Kshara , immutable Self, Akshara , and the Supreme Self, Purushottama who is the Master of Works, Knowledge and Love; sixthly, Sraddha , faith, as an important aid for the manifestation of Para Prakriti . The Highest Teaching: The most secret teaching of the Gita is the Knowledge of the whole Godhead, samagram mam, which can be gained by four gradations of exclusive knowledge attended with five gradations of all-inclusive knowledge, by knowing which will leave nothing yet to be known. The Highest Teaching hinted but not developed: It has been hinted constantly in myriad terms of Vasudevah sarvamiti , the Godhead is all that is the universe and all that is in the universe, Prakritm mamikam, into My Divine nature, Prakritim me param , My supreme nature, Prakritim swam, My own nature, Prakritir jiva-bhuta , Divine Nature which has become the jiva, Madbhavam agatah , have arrived at My nature of being, daivi prakriti, (The Gita-9.13) Divine nature and Param bhavam , Supreme nature or the ultimate becoming, sadharmyam agatah , those who have become of like nature and law of being with the Divine; but these terminologies were nowhere explained entirely. These are left as clues for the greatest Spiritual developments, which can be resolved fully through ascending advance of spiritual experience. OM TAT SAT Read More 8 The Seven Fold Self Ignorance : 1: Original Ignorance: Not knowing the origin, Source of our existence, the Supramental Self or extending ahead to Bliss Self. 2: Cosmic Ignorance: Not knowing the immobile and immutable Self, the Spiritual Self. 3: Egoistic Ignorance: Not knowing the Universal Self, the Cosmic Self. 4: Temporal Ignorance: Not knowing the Psychic Being. 5: Psychological Ignorance: Not knowing the subliminal Self which constitutes our true physical being, true vital being and true mental being. 6: Constitutional Ignorance: Not knowing the Subconscient Self, Inconscient Self and their influence on the waking Self. 7: Practical Ignorance: Not knowing the right relation of the surface physical, vital and mental Nature with the above ten Selves. To understand practical Ignorance we can concentrate on the following lines of Savitr i: "Our outward happenings have their seed within,” Savitri-52 “This earth is not alone our teacher and nurse; The powers of all the worlds have entrance here.” Savitri-153 “In a contrary balance to earth’s truth of things The gross weighs less, the subtle counts for more; On inner values hangs the outer plan.” Savitri-186 OM TAT SAT Read More 9 An Inspiration from Sri Aurobindo's Writings : 1: All of Sri Aurobindo’s writings from the early days of Baroda to the last days of Pondicherry are identified as the accumulation of overhead descended knowledge. 2: Out of them The Synthesis of Yoga, The Life Divine, The Mother and Savitri are identified as high-concentration approved writings or the best standard available to the race to pursue integral Yoga. 3: All his other writings are extremely helpful to those who are entirely conscious of the whole aim and the final Spiritual destination. They will be able to trace the sequential change of His world vision and world action with the growth and expansion of His Divine Consciousness. 4: The Mother confirmed, “Thus, Sri Aurobindo represented a totality of comprehension and knowledge and power; and every one of his books is at once a symbol and a representation. Every one of his books contains symbolically, potentially, what is in him. Therefore, if you concentrate on the book, you can, through the book, go back to the source . And even, by passing through the book, you will be able to receive much more than what is just in the book. ” TMCW-8/Questions and Answers-1956/p-163, A sincere entry into His Teachings (or Their Teachings) confirms a brief Supramental touch and this touch can be prolonged by the formation, development and densification of multiple subtle bodies. OM TAT SAT Read More 10 Sri Aurobindo's Hope on Woman : “I am beginning to understand why Sri Aurobindo always said it was woman that could build a bridge between the two. I am beginning to understand. One day, I will explain. I am beginning to understand. Sri Aurobindo used to say: it is woman that can build a bridge between the old world and the supramental world. Now I understand.” The Mother The Mother’s Agenda-26.04.1972 “After I knew that God was a woman, I learned some-thing from far-off about love; but it was only when I became a woman and served my Master and Paramour that I knew love utterly.” Sri Aurobindo TMCW-10/On Thoughts and Aphorisms/p-329 “God has so arranged life that the world is the soul’s husband; Krishna its divine paramour. We owe a debt of service to the world and are bound to it by a law, a compelling opinion, and a common experience of pain and pleasure, but our heart’s worship and our free and secret joy are for our Lover.” Sri Aurobindo TMCW-10/On Thoughts and Aphorisms/p-340 Sri Aurobindo had kept great hope on women, in building the future. Their main objective of life is not procreation, or enjoyment of life with men but to accumulate Spiritual energy. The ‘virgin bridals of the dawn’ (Savitri-401) are identified as the future of the Nation and they can keep their mind, life and body untouched and pure to enter union with the Divine in all the ten planes of Consciousness and realise the full delight and perfection of all those planes or ‘virgin who comest perfected by joy.’ (Savitri-424) They are also representative symbols of ‘citizens of that mother state.’ (Savitri-262) Thus Para-prakriti dominated Indian women can dream of the emergence of 'a virgin earth' or 'Heaven’s joys might have been earth’s if earth were pure.' Savitri-123) OM TAT SAT Read More The All Orissa Girls Meet 11 Questions Raised By the Death God in Savitri : Before conquering Death from without, which is an issue of all life, a Sadhak is given the triple task of conquering Death from within (1) by universalisation of Consciousness, (2) by illumining the Subconscient and Inconscient planes and (3) by change of Nature through activation of 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 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 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 Mothe r The Mother’s Centenary Works/Vol.3/p-179,

Merry Christmas 2025 “You know, mon petit, I said one day that in the history of earth, wherever there was a possibility for the Consciousness to manifest, I was there; this is a fact. It's like the story of Savitri : always there, always there, always there, in this one, that one – at certain times there were four emanations simultaneously! At the time of the Italian and French Renaissance. And again at the time of Christ, then too. ... Oh, you know, I have remembered so many, many things! It would take volumes to tell it all. And then, more often than not (not always, but more often than not), what took part in this or that life was a particular yogic formation of the vital being–in other words something immortal. And when I came this time, as soon as I took up the yoga, they came back again from all sides, they were waiting. ” The Mother The Mother’s Agenda-27 June 1962 "All true Truth of love and of the works of love the psychic being accepts in their place: but its flame mounts always upward and it is eager to push the ascent from lesser to higher degrees of Truth, since it knows that only by the ascent to a highest Truth and the descent of that highest Truth can Love be delivered from the cross and placed upon the throne; for the cross is the sign of the Divine Descent barred and marred by the transversal line of a cosmic deformation which turns it into a stake of suffering and misfortune. Only by the ascent to the original Truth can the deformation be healed and all the works of love, as too all the works of knowledge and of life, be restored to a divine significance and become part of an integral spiritual existence." Sri Aurobindo CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-157 Merry Christmas 2025 “There is no place for rigid orthodoxy, whether Hindu, Mahomedan or Christian in the future. Those who cling to it, lose hold on life and go under — as has been shown by the fate of the Hindus in India and of the orthodox Mahomedan countries all over the world. It is only where there has been an opening to new light and inevitable change that strength is returning as in Turkey and Persia. In the supramental creation fundamental truth will always find a place ; but orthodoxy means a clinging to narrow limitations, and limitations of that kind cannot exist in the supramental creation. All that is permanently true will be taken up into the creation of the future.” Sri Aurobindo CWSA-35/Letters on Himself and the Ashram-697-698 “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 This is the injunction (“Accept the difficulty and godlike toil, For the slow-paced omniscient purpose live.” Savitri-335-336,) issued in Savitri to 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 drops all his separative identity by uniting more and more with the universal Divine. Thus, the gulf between developed and developing Soul is bridged by former becoming the slave of the latter (“She (Savitri) made herself the diligent serf of all,” Savitri-470). This also reminds us that in Earth’s Spiritual history, the gulf created between Divine Consciousness and ordinary human consciousness resulted in the crucifixion 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 Avataras in other planes of Consciousness. A Sadhak of Integral Yoga must be well aware of the above developments and must be rightly related with the surrounding world through ‘secrecy and silence’ for whom, '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.' (CWSA-31/Letters on Yoga-IV/p-686-687) If an integral Sadhaka has evolved from a European background, his advantage of pursuing integral Yoga is that he progresses very quickly with the aid of ‘material sincerity and material honesty’⁶³ and he has ‘no difficulty in arriving at realisation on the lines of Vedanta. ’⁷⁹ The Vedantic aim of Jivatma’s union with Paramatma is identified as first Divine Call of integral Yoga. He faces immense difficulties⁵⁸ in the change of Nature due to its long Subconscient memory of age-long tale of oppression, intolerance, use of violence, atrocity and slavery of Christian negation which considers this world as a Spiritual fall from its origin. ‘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…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.’’⁶² In integral Yoga, this correction is made that the world is not disgraceful but adorable and proposes to realise Brahman in all things. This realisation of the Divine in all things or Jivatma’s union with Para-prakriti is identified as the second Divine Call of integral Yoga. The Mother proposes that ‘There is nothing other than He! This should be repeated from morning to night, from night to morning, because we forget it every minute.’¹¹¹ (References are from The Mother’s Manifestation manuscript) If an integral Sadhaka has evolved from orthodox Brahmin tradition, then he has to transcend three Hindu negations of (1) the chain of karma, (2) escape from wheel of rebirth, Mukti, 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. In integral Yoga binding law of karma is replaced with the Spiritual freedom or the law of the Self; 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. 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. Those integral Bhakti Yogis who are descended emanations of Overmental God, they generally show three characteristics in their outer life; their physical body radiates beauty, light, love and delight; secondly, their Nature are exempt from the problem of lower desire-driven instinct and lastly, their Spiritual being is far stronger than their mind and intellect. The last characteristic makes their life Spiritually developed due to predominant Bhakti and mentally developing in Nature due to an untrained intellect and hence integration of Being and Nature suffers difficulty. A developed intellect has the capacity to purify, well organise and enlarge three inconscient energies of tamas, rajas and sattwa so that they can be initially fit to hold the truth and vision of Intuition⁶⁴ and finally become capable to hold the Supramental energy. Integral Yoga demands equally strong, severely trained and equal collaboration of the Spiritual, Mental, Vital and Physical being. The Christian emphasis on love indicates the dynamic side of its universal action. Christ from His cross humanised Europe, purified humanity and brought for earth the sense of charity, compassion and fraternity. If it is the responsibility of the developed Soul to reconcile the Supreme Consciousness revealed in Spirit with the Supreme Consciousness veiled and distorted in Matter, then he will have to go through a series of successes and failures, a succession of Spiritual rise of Consciousness and Spiritual fall of Consciousness in all Life and all Time till the full Divinity is retained. If developed Soul is an Avatara , as hinted in Savitri , then he would bear ‘million wounds’ in his secret heart. After being established in the highest Consciousness of Turiya , the everlasting Day, Savitri has to fight ‘million battles’ on earth through successive births and bodies. This indicates that after being established in supreme Consciousness, a developed Soul has to concentrate, contemplate and meditate on the problem of Existence, adore and consecrate the Divine veiled and concealed in the Multiplicity of creation and become a part of The Mother’s world transformation action. The greatness of his fiery Spirit is always subjected to a supreme test by recalcitrant Matter. The theory of Maya, the Illusionist theory, as proposed by Shankara is the sense of illusion or unreality of cosmic existence as formulated by mind; it really cuts the knot of the world problem; it is an escape, a separation from Nature. This sense of unreality powerfully seizes the consciousness of a Spiritual seeker with great force when the mind withdraws from its constructions, one passes into pure Selfhood void of all sense of individuality and Consciousness is plunged into a trance of pure Superconscient existence. Buddha took one step further to declare the unreality of the Self and God; for they too are constructions of the mind. Any error, division and confusion of mind between the activities of Saguna Brahman and quiescence of Nirguna Brahman would not be a creative cosmic Illusion, Maya , but only a wrong understanding of realities of Existence and a wrong relation created by Ignorance. A real solution of existence and world-existence can only stand upon the truth that accounts for their validity, integralises, harmonises and gathers together all their experience in the supreme all-reconciling Oneness. Still, there are other decisive Spiritual experiences that of greater Divine union with the double Spiritual experience of Cosmic Consciousness and Nirvana of world-consciousness which can undo the whole theory of (mental) Maya , which can remove Ignorance and Falsehood from material life and this world is experienced as real as Brahman. The illusionist word Maya, of the later Vedantist, which means cunning, fraud and illusion has declined from its original meaning of knowledge, skill and intelligence of Ancient Vedantist. Integral Yoga retains the ancient original Vedantic sense of Maya, which is all-comprehending, all-containing and all-embracing Consciousness of the Supreme, that affirms and includes the truth of all Spiritual experience, integralises all Knowledge, and experiences That which being known all is known. (Supramental) Maya is the supreme and universal Consciousness and Force of the Eternal and Infinite and it is at once transcendental, universal and individual and it can put forth many states of Consciousness at a time. The world appears to be an Illusion, (mental) Maya by virtue of the presence of lower Nature and apparent denial of Ignorance which seeks to become affirmation and this Illusion-Power which creates appearances can be removed by ascending into the higher Consciousness and Matter can be the solid ground for manifestation of the highest Divine. The shadow of the great Refusal or principle of negation prevailing over principle of affirmation of post Buddhistic era of the East was reincarnated in the West as Christian negation 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 forces of these martyrs conquered against the empire-force so that the oppression of Christianity prevailed but not the compassionate Christ. The victorious religion becomes militant and dominant Church and the Christianity organise themselves into mutual strife and they battled together fiercely to live, grow and possess the world as much possible to their utmost capacity. They limit the Infinite as one and only Incarnation. 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 not on earth. In order to overcome this exclusive Spirituality where this creation is identified as reprehensible; 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 speciality of Catholicism is that they worship virgin Mother, Para-prakriti, and have occult knowledge of Subliminal plane and Protestants have something of the inner Divine Presence. Integral Yoga accepts and adores the compassionate Christ⁴⁵ as Divine Incarnation. The Cross¹⁰ which symbolises purification and suffering, is transformed in integral Yoga into symbol of strong and perfect union between the Soul and Nature and all that purified humanity is culminated by its fulfilment. In integral Yoga, Father is the source of existence, Paramatma , dynamises as the holy Spirit which is the pure Brahmic Consciousness descending on the Son of Man, Jesus ; this same Divine Consciousness also descends into the simple humanity of Apostles in order to establish the kingdom of Heaven, the Divine Life. The Son of Man, Nara, is also the Son of God, Narayana, and both the elements are reconciled through the double movement of Consciousness in order to arrive at integral Godhead, complete Christhood , Nara-Narayana. ¹⁹ A double Divine of the Vedanta and triple Divine of the Gita are consistent with Christian ideology; ‘the Divine Transcendent (Paramatma) and the Divine Immanent (Jivatma) (of Vedanta) — is…, perfectly familiar to Christian ideas and to Christian experience.’⁶¹ The trinity of the Individual (Psychic Being), Cosmic (Spiritual Being) and Transcendent (Supramental Being) of integral Yoga are the God in Son, God in Father and God in Holy Spirit (Holy Ghost) of the Christian doctrine and Kshara Purusha, Akshara Purusha and the Uttama Purusha of the Gita respectively; ‘the Holy Ghost looks very much like a rather mysterious and inexpressible Transcendence and its descent…(is)…the descent of Light, Purity, Peace... or Power of the supramental Spirit.’⁶ ¹ The Mother force in Virgin Mary is extended in integral Yoga as Virgin Savitri , the descent of Para-prakriti into human form, who promises that earth life can be made an equal and peer of heaven and heaven’s joy can native grow on mortal soil if earth can be made pure and virgin. Savitri further promises to transform the seven-fold sorrows of Subconscient world (this can be linked with Mother Mary’s seven sorrows) into seven-fold Bliss and ‘Misery shall pass abolished from the earth.’⁴⁶ (Reference from The Mother’s Manifestation Manuscript.) So, the future Christ who transforms the cross of crucifixion into a source of infinite Light, Joy and Power or the future Hindu Godhead Kalki with His sword destroying opposing asuric forces, for which humanity is waiting patiently is foreseen by Sri Aurobindo not as PERSON but as condition or the state of Consciousness, to which all humanity can elevate to establish the kingdom of Heaven on Earth. Any free and all-governing personal Godhead was denied by the Buddha who declared that all personality is a creation of Ignorance and construction of mind and subject to Karma , but Buddhism became popular after the Buddha was accepted as the Buddhist Godhead. The disadvantage of the adoration of personal Godhead in most of the religious schools is that they create an unbridgeable gulf between God and man, Brahman and the world and the possibility of man ascending to the status of God and God descending to earth life becomes remote. The justification of current Religious notions about the personal aspect of the Deity is the Omnipotence, Omniscience and Omnipresence which is a vast Consciousness containing all ideas in itself as its own ideas, one vast Will containing all energies in itself as its own energy. The error created by man in his relation with God elevates an actual and practical differentiation in Being, Consciousness and Force into an essential division. If man has to ascend to the status of God, then he has to go beyond the paralysing division of the mind where Knowledge is not self-divided, Force is not self-divided, Being is not self-divided and there will be no ideas that clash with other ideas and no opposition of the will or force with other wills or forces. A Sadhaka of integral Yoga has to realise the Integral Divine primarily as Comprehensive Consciousness, Vijnana, the force of Oneness and Order, the harmonious law of guiding truth, impersonal psychological truth of the Divine Consciousness, Nirguna Brahman and secondarily as apprehensive Consciousness, Prajnana , cosmic differentiation, adoration of personal aspect of monotheistic and polytheistic Deities, Saguna Brahman and an infinite multiplicity of ignorant and suffering beings unaware of the Self. Recapitulation: 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 the World is as real as Brahman and Brahman Force can penetrate into material life and Divinise it. It accepts the Buddhist doctrine of Nirvana as the initial Spiritual realisation and rejects its negation that the world, the Self and the Divine are the construction of Mind and hence are unreal. It accepts the Gita’s self-discipline of Karma, Jnana and Bhakti Yoga and rejects its objective of escape into 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 Christ as the Divine Incarnation, its gospel of universal Love, brotherhood, equality and charity and rejects the Christian doctrine of limiting the infinite to one and only Divine Incarnation, solution of all problems of existence in the Heaven beyond, long Subconscient memory of oppression, miseries and acceptance of creation as the error of God. OM TAT SAT References: - “THE PECULIARITY of the Gita among the great religious books of the world is that it does not stand apart as a work by itself, the fruit of the spiritual life of a creative personality like Christ, Mahomed or Buddha or of an epoch of pure spiritual searching like the Veda and Upanishads, but is given as an episode in an epic history of nations and their wars and men and their deeds and arises out of a critical moment in the soul of one of its leading personages face to face with the crowning action of his life, a work terrible, violent and sanguinary, at the point when he must either recoil from it altogether or carry itthrough to its inexorable completion. It matters little whether or no, as modern criticism supposes, theGita is a later composition inserted into the mass of the Mahabharata by its author in order to invest its teaching with the authority and popularity of the great national epic.” CWSA-19/ Essays on the Gita/p-12 “India has from ancient times held strongly a belief in the reality of the Avatara, the descent into form, the revelation of the Godhead in humanity. In the West this belief has never really stamped itself upon the mind because it has been presented through exoteric Christianity as a theological dogma without any roots in the reason and general consciousness and attitude towards life. But in India it has grown up and persisted as a logical outcome of the Vedantic view of life and taken firm root in the consciousness of the race.” CWSA-19/ Essays on the Gita/p-13 “When we thus understand the conception of Avatarhood, we see that whether for the fundamental teaching of the Gita, our present subject, or for spiritual life generally the external aspect has only a secondary importance. Such controversies as the one that has raged in Europe over the historicity of Christ, would seem to a spiritually-minded Indian largely a waste of time; he would concede to it a considerable historical, but hardly any religious importance; for what does it matter in the end whether aJesus son of the carpenter Joseph was actually born in Nazareth or Bethlehem, lived and taught and was done to death on a real or trumped-up charge of sedition, so long as we can know by spiritual experience the inner Christ, live uplifted in the light of his teaching and escape from the yoke of the natural Law bythat atonement of man with God of which the crucifixion is the symbol? If the Christ, God made man, lives within our spiritual being, it would seem to matter little whether or not a son of Mary physically lived and suffered and died in Judea. So too the Krishna who matters to us is the eternal incarnation of the Divine and not the historical teacher and leader of men.” CWSA-19/ Essays on the Gita-15 “But if we look at after results, an easy optimism becomes even less possible. See the patriot dying in order that his country may be free, and mark that country a few decades after the Lord of Karma has paid the price of the blood and the suffering that was given; you shall see it in its turn an oppressor, an exploiter and conqueror of colonies and dependencies devouring others that it may live and succeed aggressively in life. The Christian martyrs perish in their thousands, setting soul-force against empire-force that Christ may conquer, Christianity prevail. Soul-force does triumph, Christianity does prevail, — but not Christ; the victorious religion becomes a militant and dominant Church and a more fanatically persecuting power than the creed and the empire which it replaced. The very religions organise themselves into powers of mutual strife and battle together fiercely to live, to grow, to possess the world.” CWSA-19/ Essays on the Gita-44 “The Gita in later chapters speaks highly of the Veda and the Upanishads. They are divine Scriptures, they are the Word. The Lord himself is the knower of Veda and the author of Vedanta, vedavid veda¯ ntakr.t; the Lord is the one object of knowledge in all the Vedas, sarvair vedair aham eva vedyah. , a language which implies that the word Veda means the book of knowledge and that these Scriptures deserve their appellation. The Purushottama from his high supremacy above the Immutable and the mutable has extended himself in the world and in the Veda. Still the letter of the Scripture binds and confuses, as the apostle of Christianity warned his disciples when he said that the letter killeth and it is the spirit that saves; and there is a point beyond which the utility of the Scripture itself ceases. The real source of knowledge is the Lord in the heart; “I am seated in the heart of every man and from me is knowledge,” says the Gita; the Scripture is only a verbal form of that inner Veda, of that self-luminous Reality, it is sabdabrahma: the mantra, says the Veda, has risen from the heart, from the secret place where is the seat of the truth, sadanad rasya, guhayam. That origin is its sanction; but still the infiniteTruth is greater than its word. 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, na¯nyad astı¯ti va¯dinah.. 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. Heard or unheard before, that always is the truth which is seen by the heart of man in its illumined depths or heard within from the Master of all knowledge, the knower of the eternal Veda.” CWSA-19/ Essays on the Gita-92-93 “The second portion of these passages which has here been given in substance, explains the nature of divine works, divyam˙ karma, with the principle of which we have had to deal in the last essay; the first, which has been fully translated, explains the way of the divine birth, divyam˙ janma, the Avatarhood. But we have to remark carefully that the upholding of Dharma in the world is not theonly object of the descent of the Avatar, that great mystery of the Divine manifest in humanity; for theupholding of the Dharma is not an all-sufficient object in itself, not the supreme possible aim for themanifestation of a Christ, a Krishna, a Buddha, but is only the general condition of a higher aim and a more supreme and divine utility. For there are two aspects of the divine birth; one is a descent, the birth of God in humanity, the Godhead manifesting itself in the human form and nature, the eternal Avatar; the other is an ascent, the birth of man into the Godhead, man rising into the divine nature and consciousness, madbhavam agatah ; it is the being born anew in a second birth of the soul. It is that new birth which Avatarhood and the upholding of the Dharma are intended to serve. This double aspect in the Gita’s doctrine of Avatarhood is apt to be missed by the cursory reader satisfied, as most are, with catching a superficial view of its profound teachings, and it is missed too by the formal commentator petrified in the rigidity of the schools. Yet it is necessary, surely, to the whole meaning of the doctrine. Otherwise the Avatar idea would be only a dogma, a popular superstition, or an imaginative or mystic deification of historical or legendary supermen, not what the Gita makes all its teaching, a deep philosophical and religious truth and an essential part of or step to the supreme mystery of all, rahasyamuttamam.” CWSA-19/ Essays on the Gita-147-148 “If there were not this rising of man into the Godhead to be helped by the descent of God into humanity, Avatarhood for the sake of the Dharma would be an otiose phenomenon, since mere Right, mere justice or standards of virtue can always be upheld by the divine omnipotence through its ordinary means, by great men or great movements, by the life and work of sages and kings and religious teachers, without any actual incarnation. The Avatar comes as the manifestation of the divine nature in the human nature, the apocalypse of its Christhood, Krishnahood, Buddhahood, in order that the human nature may by moulding its principle, thought, feeling, action, being on the lines of that Christhood, Krishnahood, Buddhahood transfigure itself into the divine. The law, the Dharma which the Avatar establishes is given for that purpose chiefly; the Christ, Krishna, Buddha stands in its centre as the gate, he makes through himself the way men shall follow. That is why each Incarnation holds before men his own example and declares of himself that he is the way and the gate; he declares too the oneness of his humanity with the divine being, declares that the Son of Man and the Father above from whom he hasdescended are one, that Krishna in the human body, manusım˙ tanum asritam , and the supreme Lord and Friend of all creatures are but two revelations of the same divine Purushottama, revealed there in his own being, revealed here in the type of humanity.” CWSA-19/ Essays on the Gita/p-148-149 “The divine manifestation of a Christ, Krishna, Buddha in external humanity has for its inner truth the same manifestation of the eternal Avatar within in our own inner humanity. That which has been done in the outer human life of earth, may be repeated in the inner life of all human beings.” CWSA-19/ Essays on the Gita/p-160 “On the other hand, this entering into the divine conscious- ness may be attended by a reflex action of the Divine entering or coming forward into the human parts of our being, pouring himself into the nature, the activity, the mentality, the corporeality even of the man; and that may well be at least a partial Avatarhood. The Lord stands in the heart, says the Gita, — by which it means of course the heart of the subtle being, the nodus of the emotions, sensations, mental consciousness, where the individual Purusha also is seated, — but he stands there veiled, enveloped by his Maya. But above, on a plane within us but now superconscient to us, called heaven by the ancient mystics, the Lord and the Jivastand together revealed as of one essence of being, the Father and the Son of certain symbolisms, theDivine Being and the divine Man who comes forth from Him born of the higher divine Nature,1 the virgin Mother, para prakriti, para maya, into the lower or human nature. This seems to be the innerdoctrine of the Christian incarnation; in its Trinity the Father is above in this inner Heaven; the Son orsupreme Prakriti become Jiva of the Gita descends as the divine Man upon earth, in the mortal body; theHoly Spirit, pure Self, Brahmic consciousness is that which makes them one and that also in which theycommunicate; for we hear of the Holy Spirit descending upon Jesus and it is the same descent whichbrings down the powers of the higher consciousness into the simple humanity of the Apostles.” CWSA-19/ Essays on the Gita/p-162-63 “A merely supernormal or miraculous Avatar would be a meaningless absurdity; not that there need be an entire absence of the use of supernormal powers such as Christ’s so- called miracles of healing, for the use of supernormal powers is quite a possibility of human nature; but there need not be that at all, nor in any case is it the root of the matter, nor would it at all do if the life were nothing else but a display of supernormal fireworks. The Avatar does not come as a thaumaturgic magician, but as the divineleader of humanity and the exemplar of a divine humanity. Even human sorrow and physical sufferinghe must assume and use so as to show, first, how that suffering may be a means of redemption, — asdid Christ, — secondly, to show how, having been assumed by the divine soul in the human nature, it can also be overcome in the same nature, — as did Buddha. The rationalist who would have cried to Christ, “If thou art the Son of God, come down from the cross,” or points out sagely that the Avatar was not divine because he died and died too by disease, — as a dog dieth, — knows not what he is saying:for he has missed the root of the whole matter. Even, the Avatar of sorrow and suffering must come before there can be the Avatar of divine joy; the human limitation must be assumed in order to show how it can be overcome; and the way and the extent of the overcoming, whether internal only or external also, depends upon the stage of the human advance; it must not be done by a non-human miracle.” CWSA-19/ Essays on the Gita/p-165 “No doubt, too, the inner descent of the Godhead to raise the human soul into himself is the main thing, — it is the inner Christ, Krishna or Buddha that matters. But just as the outer life is of immense importance for the inner development, so the external Avatarhood is of no mean importance for this great spiritual manifestation.” CWSA-19/ Essays on the Gita-167 “But obviously the purely practical, ethical or social and political mission of the Avatar which is thus thrown into popular and mythical form, does not give a right account of the phenomenon of Avatarhood. It does not cover its spiritual sense, and if this outward utility were all, we should have to exclude Buddha and Christ whose mission was not at all to destroy evil-doers and deliver the good, but to bring to all men a new spiritual message and a new law of divine growth and spiritual realisation. On the other hand, if we give to the word dharma only its religious sense, in which it means a law of religious and spiritual life, we shall indeed get to the kernel of the matter, but we shall be in danger of excluding a most important part of the work done by the Avatar. Always we see in the history of the divine incarnations the double work, and inevitably, because the Avatar takes up the workings of God in human life, the way of the divine Will and Wisdom in the world, and that always fulfils itself externally as well as internally, by inner progress in the soul and by an outer change in the life. The Avatar may descend as a great spiritual teacher and saviour, the Christ, the Buddha, but always his work leads, after he has finished his earthly manifestation, to a profound and powerful change not only in the ethical, but in the social and outward life and ideals of the race. He may, on the other hand, descend as an incarnation of the divine life, the divine personality and power in its characteristic action, for a mission ostensibly social, ethical and political, as is represented in the story of Rama or Krishna; but always then this descent becomes in the soul of the race a permanent power for the inner living andthe spiritual rebirth. It is indeed curious to note that the permanent, vital, universal effect of Buddhism and Christianity has been the force of their ethical, social and practical ideals and their influence even onthe men and the ages which have rejected their religious and spiritual beliefs, forms and disciplines; later Hinduism which rejected Buddha, his san˙gha and his dharma, bears the ineffaceable imprint of the social and ethical influence of Buddhism and its effect on the ideas and the life of the race, while in modern Europe, Christian only in name, humanitarianism is the translation into the ethical and social sphere and the aspiration to liberty, equality and fraternity the translation into the social and politicalsphere of the spiritual truths of Christianity, the latter especially being effected by men who aggressivelyrejected the Christian religion and spiritual discipline and by an age which in its intellectual effort of emancipation tried to get rid of Christianity as a creed. On the other hand the life of Rama and Krishna belongs to the prehistoric past which has come down only in poetry and legend and may even beregarded as myths; but it is quite immaterial whether we regard them as myths or historical facts, becausetheir permanent truth and value lie in their persistence as a spiritual form, presence, influence in the innerconsciousness of the race and the life of the human soul. Avatarhood is a fact of divine life andconsciousness which may realise itself in an outward action, but must persist, when that action is over and has done its work, in a spiritual influence; or may realise itself in a spiritual influence and teaching, but must then have its permanent effect, even when the new religion or discipline is exhausted, in the thought, temperament and outward life of mankind.” CWSA-19/ Essays on the Gita/p-170-171 “It is these things that condition and determine the work of the Avatar. In the Buddhistic formula the disciple takes refuge from all that opposes his liberation in three powers, the dharma, the sangha, the Buddha. So in Christianity we have the law of Christian living, the Church and the Christ. These three are always the necessary elements of the work of the Avatar. He gives a dharma, a law of self-discipline by which to grow out of the lower into the higher life and which necessarily includes a rule of action and of relations with our fellow men and other beings, endeavour in the eightfold path or the law of faith, love and purity or any other such revelation of the nature of the divine in life.” CWSA-19/ Essays on the Gita-173 “Equality has always been held up to admiration as the philosophic ideal and the characteristic temperament of the sages. The Gita takes up indeed this philosophic ideal, but carries it far beyond into a higher region where we find ourselves breathing a larger and purer air. The Stoic poise, the philosophic poise of the soul are only its first and second steps of ascension out of the whirl of the passions and the tossings of desire to a serenity and bliss, not of the Gods, but of the Divine himself in his supreme self-mastery. The Stoic equality, making character its pivot, founds itself upon self-mastery by austere endurance; the happier and serener philosophic equality prefers self-mastery by knowledge, by detachment, by a high intellectual indifference seated above the disturbances to which our nature is prone, uda¯ sı¯navad a¯ sı¯nah. , as the Gita expresses it; there is also the religious or Christian equality which is a perpetual kneeling or a prostrate resignation and submission to the will of God. These are the three steps and means towards divine peace, heroic endurance, sage indifference, pious resignation, titiksa, udasınata, namas or nati. The Gita takes them all in its large synthetic manner and weaves them into its upward soul-movement, but it gives to each a profounder root, a larger outlook, a more universal and transcendent significance. For to each it gives the values of the spirit, its power of spiritual being beyond the strain of character, beyond the difficult poise of the understanding, beyond the stress of the emotions.” CWSA-19/ Essays on the Gita/p-190 “He constructs for the Godhead the name and form of Indra or Agni, of Vishnu or Shiva, of a divinised Christ or Buddha, or else some composite of natural qualities, an indulgent God of love and mercy, or a severe God of righteousness and justice, or an awe-inspiring God of wrath and terror and flaming punishments, or some amalgam of any of these, and to that he raises his altars without and in his heart and mind and falls down before it to demand from it worldly good and joy or healing of his wounds or a sectarian sanction for an erring, dogmatic, intellectual, intolerent knowledge. All this up to a certain point is true enough. Very rare is the great soul who knows that Vasudeva the omnipresent Being is all that is, va¯ sudevah. sarvam iti sa maha¯ tma¯ sudurlabhah. .” CWSA-19/ Essays on the Gita/p-286 “The thought of the Gita here is not on a par with the indulgences and facilities of popular religion; it has nothing in common with the crude fancies that make the absolution and last unction of the priest, an edifying “Christian” death after an unedifying profane life or the precaution or accident of a death in sacred Benares or holy Ganges a sufficient machinery of salvation. The divine subjective becoming on which the mind has to be fixed firmly in the moment of the physical death, yam˙ smaran bhavam˙ tyajatiante kalevaram , must have been one into which the soul was at each moment growing inwardly during the physical life, sada tad-bhava-bhavitah . . “Therefore,” says the divine Teacher, “at all times remember me and fight; for if thy mind and thy understanding are always fixed on and given up to Me,mayi arpita-mano-buddhih. , to Me thou shalt surely come. For it is by thinking always of him with a consciousness united with him in an undeviating Yoga of constant practice that one comes to the divine and supreme Purusha.”” CWSA-19/ Essays on the Gita/p-296 “Teachers of the law of love and oneness there must be, for by that way must come the ultimate salvation. But not till the Time-Spirit in man is ready, can the inner and ultimate prevail over the outer and immediate reality. Christ and Buddha have come and gone, but it is Rudra who still holds the world in the hollow of his hand. And meanwhile the fierce forward labour of mankind tormented and oppressed by the Powers that are profiteers of egoistic force and their servants cries for the sword of the Hero of the struggle and the word of its prophet.” CWSA-19/ Essays on the Gita/p-386 “The Vedic law becomes a convention and a Buddha appears with his new rule of the eightfold path and the goal of Nirvana; and it may be remarked that he propounds it not as a personal invention, but as the true rule of Aryan living constantly rediscovered by the Buddha, the enlightened mind, the awakened spirit. But this practically means that there is an ideal, an eternal Dharma which religion, philosophy, ethics and all other powers in man that strive after truth and perfection are constantly endeavouring to embody in new statements of the science and art of the inner and outer life, a new Shastra. The Mosaic law of religious, ethical and social righteousness is convicted of narrowness and imperfection and is now besides a convention; the law of Christ comes to replace it and claims at once to abrogate and to fulfil, to abrogate the imperfect form and fulfil in a deeper and broader light and power the spirit of the thing which it aimed at, the divine rule of living. And the human search does not stop there, but leaves these formulations too, goes back to some past truth it had rejected or breaks forward to some new truth and power, but is always in search of the same thing, the law of its perfection, its rule of right living, its complete, highest and essential self and nature.” CWSA-19/Essays on the Gita/p-478-79 “Altruism, philanthropy and service, Christian love or Buddhist compassion have not made the world a whit happier, they only give infinitesimal bits of momentary relief here and there, throw drops on the fire of the world’s suffering. All aims are in the end transitory and futile, all achievements unsatisfying or evanescent; all works are so much labour of effort and success and failure which consummate nothingdefinitive: whatever changes are made in human life are of the form only and these forms pursue each other in a futile circle; for the essence of life, its general character remains the same for ever.” CWSA-21/The Life Divine/p-433 “In the West where the syncretic tendency of the consciousness was replaced by the analytic and separative, the spiritual urge and the intellectual reason parted company almost at the outset; philosophy took from the first a turn towards a purely intellectual and ratiocinative explanation of things. Nevertheless, there were systems like the Pythagorean, Stoic and Epicurean, which were dynamic not only for thought but for conduct of life and developed a discipline, an effort at inner perfection of the being; this reached a higher spiritual plane of knowledge in later Christian or Neo-pagan thought-structures where East and West met together. But later on the intellectualisation became complete and the connection of philosophy with life and its energies or spirit and its dynamism was either cut or confined to the little that the metaphysical idea can impress on life and action by an abstract and secondary influence.” CWSA-22/The Life Divine/p-912 “Beyond and above this preoccupation, as soon as mind is sufficiently developed, there awakes in man the spiritual preoccupation, the discovery of a self and inmost truth of being and the release of man’s mind and life into the truth of the Spirit, its perfection by the power of the Spirit, the solidarity, unity, mutuality of all beings in the Spirit. This was the Eastern ideal carried by Buddhism and other ancient disciplines to the coasts of Asia and Egypt and from there poured by Christianity into Europe. But these motives, burning for a time like dim torchlights in the confusion and darkness created by the barbaric flood that had submerged the old civilisations, have been abandoned by the modern spirit which has found another light, the light of Science.” CWSA-22/The Life Divine/p-1088 “Even then his nature calls for a human intermediary so that he may feel the Divine in something entirely close to his own humanity and sensible in a human influence and example. This call is satisfied by the Divine manifest in a human appearance, the Incarnation, the Avatar — Krishna, Christ, Buddha. Or if this is too hard for him to conceive, the Divine represents himself through a less marvellous intermediary, — Prophet or Teacher. For many who cannot conceive or are unwilling to accept the Divine Man, are ready to open themselves to the supreme man, terming him not incarnation but world-teacher or divine representative.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-65 “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 “It is indeed by the religio-ethical sense that the law of universal goodwill or universal compassion or of love and service to the neighbour, the Vedantic, the Buddhistic, the Christian ideal, was created; only by a sort of secular refrigeration extinguishing the fervour of the religious element in it could the humanitarian ideal disengage itself and become the highest plane of a secular system of mental and moral ethics.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-152 “The later religions endeavour to fix the type of a supreme truth of conduct, erect a system and declare God’s law through the mouth of Avatar or prophet. These systems, more powerful and dynamic than the dry ethical idea, are yet for the most part no more than idealistic glorifications of the moral principles sanctified by religious emotion and the label of a superhuman origin. Some, like the extreme Christian ethic, are rejected by Nature because they insist unworkably on an impracticable absolute rule. Others prove in the end to be evolutionary compromises and become obsolete in the march of Time. The true divine law, unlike these mental counterfeits, cannot be a system of rigid ethical determinations that press into their cast-iron moulds all our life-movements. The Law divine is truth of life and truth of the spirit and must take up with a free living plasticity and inspire with the direct touch of its eternal light each step of our action and all the complexity of our life issues. It must act not as a rule and formula but as an enveloping and penetrating conscious presence that determines all our thoughts, activities, feelings, impulsions of will by its infallible power and knowledge.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga-203 “It is immaterial whether he wears the garb of the ascetic or lives the full life of the householder; whether he spends his days in what men call holy works or in the many-sided activities of the world; whether hedevotes himself to the direct leading of men to the Light like Buddha, Christ or Shankara or governskingdoms like Janaka or stands before men like Sri Krishna as a politician or a leader of armies; what heeats or drinks; what are his habits or his pursuits; whether he fails or succeeds; whether his work be one of construction or of destruction; whether he supports or restores an old order or labours to replace itby a new; whether his associates are those whom men delight to honour or those whom their sense of superior righteousness out- castes and reprobates; whether his life and deeds are approved by hiscontemporaries or he is condemned as a misleader of men and a fomenter of religious, moral or social heresies.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-271 “To use Christian language, the Son of God is also the Son of Man and both elements are necessary to the complete Christhood; or to use an Indian form of thought, the divine Narayana of whom the universe is only one ray is revealed and fulfilled in man; the complete man is Nara-Narayana and in that completeness he symbolises the supreme mystery of existence.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-329 “He is each separately and all altogether. He is Vishnu, Krishna, Kali; he reveals himself to us in humanity as the Christ personality or the Buddha personality. When we look beyond our first exclusively concentrated vision, we see behind Vishnu all the personality of Shiva and behind Shiva all the personality of Vishnu. He is the Ananta-guna, infinite quality and the infinite divine Personality which manifests itself through it. Again he seems to withdraw into a pure spiritual impersonality or beyond all idea even of impersonal Self and to justify a spiritualised atheism or agnosticism; he becomes to the mind of man an indefinable, anirdesyam . But out of this unknowable the conscious Being, the divine Person, who has manifested himself here, still speaks, “This too is I; even here beyond the view of mind, I am He, the Purushottama.”” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-586 “These are those forms of Vishnu, Shiva, Krishna, Kali, Durga, Christ, Buddha, which the mind of man seizes on for adoration. Even the monotheist who worships a formless Godhead, yet gives to him some form of quality, some mental form or form of Nature by which he envisages and approaches him. But to be able to see a living form, a mental body, as it were, of the Divine gives to the approach a greater closeness and sweetness.” CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-601 “To this day I remember the experience. Truly, that’s what I felt – I did not intellectualize it. Exactly the impression of what Christ must have experienced when he felt the weight of the cross. It was the weight of a whole world of darkness, unconsciousness, universal bad will, total incomprehension, something ...And it really felt like that ... as if I were carrying a frightful weight – which was frightful because of its darkness, not because of its weight. So I thought, ‘Well, well. This must be how Christ felt when they laid the cross on him.’” The Mother’s Agenda/ August 20, 1960 “Regarding Christmas, I’ll tell you a curious story. For a while, there was a Muslim girl close to me (not a believer, but her origins were Muslim; in other words, she wasn’t at all Christian) who had a special fondness for Santa Claus! She had seen pictures of him, read some books, etc. Then one year while she was here, she got it into her head that Santa Claus had to bring me something. ‘He has to bring you something for Christmas,’ she told me. ‘Try,’ I replied. I don’t know what all she did, but she prayed to him to bring me money. She fixed a certain sum. And on Christmas Eve, exactly this sum was given to me! And it was a large sum, several thousand rupees. Exactly the amount she had specified. And it came on that very day in quite an unexpected way. I found it very interesting.” The Mother’s Agenda, December 20, 1960 “Seen from the European angle, Sri Aurobindo represents an immense spiritual revolution, redeeming Matter and the creation, which to the Christian religion is fundamentally a fall – it’s really unclear how what has come from God could become so bad, but anyway, better not be too logical! it’s a fall. The creation is a fall. And that’s why they are far more easily convinced by Buddhism. I saw this particularly with R, whose education was entirely in European philosophy, with Christian and positivist influences; under these two influences, when he came into contact with Theon’s ‘cosmic philosophy’ and later Sri Aurobindo’s revelation, he immediately explained, in his Wherefore of the Worlds, that the world is the fruit of Desire – God’s desire. 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- December 20, 1961 “And to Théon, the God of the Jews and Christians was an Asura. This Asura wanted to be unique; and so he became the most terrible despot imaginable. Anatole France said the same thing (I now know that Anatole France had never read Théon's story, but I can't imagine where he picked this up). It's in The Revolt of the Angels. He says that Satan is the true God and that Jehovah, the "only God," is the monster. And when the angels wanted Satan to become the one and only God, Satan realized he was immediately taking on all Jehovah's failings! So he refused: "Oh, no – thank you very much!" It's a wonderful story, and in exactly the same spirit as what Théon used to say. The very first thing I asked Anatole France (I told you I met him once – mutual friends introduced us), the first thing I asked him was, "Have you ever read The Tradition?" He said no. I explained why I had asked, and he was interested. He said his source was his own imagination. He had caught that idea intuitively.” The Mother’s Agenda/ January 27, 1962 “You know, I don't like the story of Christ. Yes, that's.... That's exactly the point. The crucified god – no thanks. If he loses his skin, he loses it – so what, it doesn't matter. You understand?” The Mother’s Agenda-March-13, 1962 “(Satprem) I don't know why, but every time I come into contact with a Christian thought, it fills me with anger. Oh, I understand! Because it's true, you know, that an Asura is behind it all – not Christ! Sri Aurobindo considered Christ an Avatar (a minor form of Avatar). One emanation of the Divine's aspect of Love, he always said. But what people have made of him! ... Besides, the religion was founded two hundred years after his death. And it's nothing but a political construction, a tool for domination, built with the Lord of Falsehood in the background, who, in his usual fashion, took something true and twisted it. It's a real hodgepodge, that religion – the number of sects! The only common ground is the divinity of Christ, and it became asuric when he was made out to be unique: there has been but ONE incarnation, Christ. That's just where it all went wrong. We'll see. It is resisting, resisting everywhere. It's even more resistant than materialism.” The Mother’s Agenda-December-15, 1962, “The Vedic Rishis thirsted for Immortality, Buddha wanted Permanence.... Then I looked, wondering, "And what was Christ's path?"... Basically, he always said, "Love thy neighbor," in other words brotherhood (but that's a modern translation). For him, the idea was compassion, charity (the Christians say it's the "law of Love," but we're not yet there – that will come much later). So I wrote: Jesus preached Compassion.... Then I thought: now, Sri Aurobindo, it's quite clear; for him, the goal was Perfection. Perfection not in the sense of a summit but of an all-inclusive totality in which everything is represented, has a place. And I saw that this Perfection would come – must come – in stages. He announced something the realization of which will stretch over thousands of years. So it must come in stages. And I saw that what I find essential, indispensable (everything is there, everything finds a place, yet there is a kind of anguish – not a personal anguish but a terrestrial anguish), is Security. A need for Security – whatever you attempt, whatever you seek, even Love, even Perfection, it needs Security. Nothing can be achieved with the feeling that all opposing forces can come and sweep everything away. We must find the point where nothing can be touched or destroyed or halted. Therefore, it's Security, the very essence of Security. So I wrote: Sri Aurobindo promised Perfection and to attain it, the first requisite, what men need today, is Security.” The Mother’s Agenda-March-27, 1963 “Catholicism has two things that Protestantism lacks: the occult sense (not only the sense but even a certain occult knowledge), and the Mother – the Virgin. The Protestants have something the Catholics lack: the inner divine presence. It's only through those two things that you can catch them. But ... Well, we'll see.” The Mother’s Agenda-June-29, 1963 “I think the foremost idea of the one who left was to prevent war. Consciously, he (new Pope) wanted all Christians to love each other! (Mother laughs) A childish hope. To love each other in Jesus – whom theyleave on the cross. As Sri Aurobindo says, men ... men LOVE grief, that's why Jesus is still nailed on the cross. It's magnificent, that thing.” The Mother’s Agenda-June-29, 1963 “What seems ... bizarre to those who have gone beyond the petty, purely terrestrial limits – human terrestrial limits – is that belief in a SINGLE divine manifestation on the earth; all the religions are based on that, everyone says, "Christ was the only one," or "Buddha was the only one," or elsewhere"Mohammed was the only one," and so forth. Well, that "only one" is something IMPOSSIBLE as soon as you rise a little above the ordinary earth atmosphere – it appears childish. You can understand thething and accept it only as a sort of recurrent movement of the divine Consciousness on the earth. Of course, officially there is only Christ; may be for this man [Paul VI], he is still the greatest, but I would be surprised if he thought Christ was the only one. Only, Christ "has to" be the only one – you'd cut out your own tongue rather than say he's not! I don't think the question bothers him much (!) His concern is how to exert his power and keep people init, so as, maybe, to prove his superiority. This much conviction they still have, you see, that their religion IS superior to all others, their power is superior to all others, and therefore they have to be more powerful than the others. That's the main idea: "To be the most powerful." And what's the way, now, for them to gain that all-powerfulness? Already for two or three generations, they have understood the necessity of a broadening: the narrowness of their dogma gave them too many weak points.... But he [Paul VI] understands maybe even better. We'll see what happens.” The Mother’s Agenda-July-3, 1963 “It's much easier to answer out-and-out materialists who are convinced and sincere ("sincere" within the limit of their consciousness, that is) than to answer people who have a religion! Much easier. With Indians, it's very easy – they're heaven-blessed, these people, because it takes very little for them to be oriented in the right way. But there are two types of difficult religion, the Christian religion(especially in the form of Protestantism), and the Jewish religion. The Jews are also out-and-out materialists: you die, well, you die, it's over. Though I haven't quite understood how they reconcile that with their God, who moreover is Unthinkable and must not be named... but who, seen from the standpoint of a vaster truth, seems (I am not sure), seems to be an Asura. Because it's an almighty and UNIQUE God, foreign to the world – the world (as far as I know)and he are two completely different things. It's the same with Catholicism. Yet, if I remember correctly, their God created the world with apart of himself, no? (Satprem) No, no! No? Is it only man that he pulled out of his rib? (Satprem) No! It's out of Adam's rib that he pulled man, not out of his own rib! Aah! (Satprem) It's out of Adam's rib ... ... that he pulled woman. Aah! ... (Satprem) No, no, he "created" the world. Out of nothingness he made the world? (Satprem) That's right. Then it's the same problem, the same difficulty. It's quite simply an incomprehension. (Satprem) And in fact he sent his son to "save the world." Then his son doesn't belong to the creation? (Satprem) He is the son of God – not so the others. He is the ONLY son of God? (Satprem) Yes, of course! They've twisted everything. But Adam belonged to the creation, didn't he? (Satprem) Yes, while Christ isn't human, he is the son. But he took on a human body. (Satprem) Yes, but he's the son of God. He isn't a human being become divine, he is a divine being – "the son of God" – who took on a human body. But that's understood! All Avatars are like that. (Satprem) Yes, but he's the only one. It's all twisted. But the Virgin, in that affair? What happened to her? Because she was a woman, wasn't she? (Satprem) She was human. Yes ... because in the story, there's even a moment when Christ says, "What do I have to do with that woman"! But then, the Assumption? ... (silence) Of course, those who know understand very well – it's all symbolic. But for instance, I told you I spoke with the Pope for quite a long time the day of his election, and the conversation was abruptly interrupted by a reaction he had. (It was really a mental conversation we were having: I spoke, he replied, I heard his reply – I don't know whether he was conscious of something ... probably not, but anyway; it wasn't at all a formation of my own mind because I received quite unexpected replies.) But the conversation was interrupted abruptly by a reaction he had when I told him that God is everywhere and in all things; that everything is He; and then a great Force came down into me and I added, "Even when you descend into Hell, He is there too." Then everything stopped dead. Since then I've learned that it's part of their teaching: that what is terrible in Hell isn't so much the suffering, but that there is no God there; that it's the only part of the creation in which there is no God – there is no God in Hell. And I asserted that He is there too. But naturally, from an intellectual point of view, all those things are explained and find their place –man has never thought anything that wasn't the distortion of a truth. That's not the difficulty, it's that for religious people there are certain things they have a DUTY to believe, and to allow the mind to discuss them is a "sin" – so naturally they close themselves and will never be able to make any progress. Whereas the materialists, on the other hand, are on the contrary supposed to know and explain everything – they explain everything rationally. So (Mother laughs), precisely because they explain everything, you can lead them where you want to. There. (Satprem) There's nothing to be done with religious people. No. And it's not good to try either. If they cling to a religion, it means that that religion has helped them somehow or other, has helped something in them which in fact wanted to have a certitude without having to seek for it – to lean on something solid without being responsible for its solidity (someone elseis responsible! [Mother laughs]), and to leave their bodies in that way. So to want to pull them out of it shows a lack of compassion – they should just be left where they are. Never do I argue with someone who has a faith – let him keep his faith! And I take great care not to say anything that might shake his faith because it's not good – such people are unable to have another faith. But with a materialist ... "I don't argue, I accept your point of view; only, you have nothing to say – I've taken my position, take yours. If you are satisfied with what you know, keep it. If it helps you to live, very good. "But you have no right to blame or criticize me, because I am taking my position on your own basis. Even if all that I imagine is mere imagination, I prefer that imagination to yours." That's all.” The Mother’s Agenda-September-7, 1963 “In the Illustrated Weekly they have published photographs of the Pope's visit to Palestine, and there is one in which he is prostrating himself: he is kissing the ground on the Mount of Olives, where Christ, as the story goes, was informed that he would be crucified. It put me again in contact with that man. And his intention is clear: to make religion quite real, in the sense that it isn't a myth, it isn't a legend – it's truly God who came, and so on. So, to him, this is "human greatness" prostrating itself before the"divine sacrifice." There is another photograph in which he is embracing the Patriarch of the Orthodox Church – heretics formerly, now they embrace each other. And all the people around him (they are well-dressed, you know, with modern suits) look like puppets, mon petit! Oh, it's awful! ... Awful. He at least has a force – or a will, at any rate. And he has a plan, he knows what he wants. (silence) He is also the first Pope to travel by plane, so they took his photograph in the plane – he gives a "broad smile," he looks very happy. (long silence) In sum, it is the glorification of physical suffering as a means of salvation. (Satprem) I must say I find the whole story repugnant – that crucifixion being flaunted everywhere.There's nothing so clever about Christ! There are millions others who died without making such a fuss! That was also my feeling, and it was Théon's too. But Sri Aurobindo ... as for him, he clearly said that it had brought a sense of charity, humaneness and fraternity on earth that didn't exist before. (Satprem) Yes, it certainly did bring something. But they just remain there. Ah, the Falsehood is to remain stuck there, yes.” The Mother’s Agenda- January 25, 1964 “Have you seen the latest Illustrated Weekly? You know that the Pope is here, in Bombay, for the"Eucharistic Congress" – but what's the Eucharist, mon petit? (Satprem) It's the Communion. Ah, that's just what I thought!... There is in the Illustrated Weekly the history of those Eucharistic Congresses, and it seems a French lady was behind the origin of the first Congress (not so long ago, in the last century, I believe). And then (Mother smiles), there's a magnificent portrait of the Pope with a message he wrote specially for the Weekly's readers, in which he took great care not to use Christian words. He wishes them ... I don't know what, and (it's written in English) a celestial grace. Then I saw (he tried to be as impersonal as possible), I saw that in spite of everything, the Christians' greatest difficulty is that their happiness and fulfillment are in heaven. Instead of a celestial grace, they read to me, or I heard, a terrestrial grace! When I heard that, something in me started vibrating: "What! But this man has been converted!" Then I had it repeated and heard it wasn't that but really a celestial grace. This is the whole point. (Satprem) Exactly. They believe in a divine realization, but the divine realization isn't terrestrial, it's somewhere else, in a celestial world, that is, immaterial. And that is their great obstacle. Of course, in matters of faith (I don't mean for a very precise and very clear scientific mind), but in matters of faith, there is so far no clear proof that the Lord wants to realize Himself here; except, perhaps, for two or three visionaries who had the experience.... Someone asked me if there had been a supramental realization previously, that is, before historical times (because historical times are extremely limited, of course). Naturally, the question always corresponds to one of the things that are shown to me in moments of concentration. So I answered very spontaneously that there hadn't been a collective realization, but that there might have been one or several individual realizations, as examples of what would be and as a promise – a promise and examples: "This is what will be." I've had some very precise memories – lived memories – of a human life on earth, quite primitive (I mean outside any mental civilization), a human life on earth that wasn't an evolutionary life, but the manifestation of beings from another world. I lived in that way for a time – a lived memory. I still see it, I still have the image of it in my memory. It had nothing to do with civilization and mental development: it was a blossoming of force, of beauty, in a NATURAL, spontaneous life, like animal life, but with aperfection of consciousness and power that far surpasses the one we have now; and indeed with a power over all surrounding Nature, animal nature and vegetable nature and mineral nature, a DIRECT handling of Matter, which men do not have – they need intermediaries, material instruments, whereas this was direct. And there were no thoughts or reasoning: it was spontaneous (gesture indicating the direct radiating action of will on Matter). I have the lived memory of this. It must have existed on earth because it wasn't premonitory: it wasn't a vision of the future, it was a past memory. So there must have been a moment ... It was limited to two beings: I don't have the feeling there were many. And there was no childbirth or anything animal, absolutely not; it was a life, yes, a truly higher life in a natural setting, but with an extraordinary beauty and harmony! And I don't have the feeling it was (how can I explain?) something known; the relationships with vegetable life and animal life were spontaneous ones, absolutely harmonious, and with the sensation of an undisputed power (you didn't even feel it was possible for it not to be), undisputed, but without any idea that there were other beings on earth and that it was necessary to look after them or make a "demonstration" – nothing of the sort, absolutely nothingof mental life, nothing. A life just like that, like a beautiful plant or a beautiful animal, but with an inner knowledge of things, perfectly spontaneous and effortless – an effortless life, perfectly spontaneous. I don't even have the feeling that there was any question of food, not that I remember; but there was the joy of Life, the joy of Beauty: there were flowers, there was water, there were trees, there were animals, and all that was friendly, but spontaneously so. And there were no problems! No problems to be solved, nothing at all – one just lived! ....An uncomplicated life, definitely.” The Mother’s Agenda-December-2, 1964 “Because it doesn't seem possible to me (though I don't know), it doesn't seem possible to me that thestate of the earth is adequate to justify an integral transformation. As for Sri Aurobindo, he used to say that it would come in stages, that there would first be a sort of small formation, or a small creation that will receive the Light and be transformed, and that's what will work as a leaven for the generaltransformation. There are all the Christian, Buddhist theories, Shankara, all those who declare that the world is an "unreal Falsehood" and that it must disappear and give place to a "heaven" (a "new world" and a "heaven"). And this is among the most "aspiring" elements of mankind, those who aren't content with the world as it is, who don't say, "Oh, as long as I am here and alive, things are fine; afterwards, I don't care" – enjoy the short life. "Afterwards, well, it's over, and that's that; let me make the most of the moment I've been given." What a queer conception! ... That's the other extreme.” The Mother’s Agenda-March 20, 1965, “And naturally, the ancient Vedas and all the old traditions announced a new earth, that's well known. But even the Christians. Even the Christians, yes. St. John said that there would be a new earth – that there would be, in fact, anew Christ, who corresponds to that of the Hindus. Kalki? Yes, Kalki. The description is very similar. And the Maitreya Buddha, too. Yes, but it seems we should be more cautious about him. According to Alexandra David-Neel, it's not a truly authentic text, it came afterwards, after Buddha's descendants: it isn't what Buddha himself is said to have preached. There is a controversy here. Of course, Alexandra belonged to the Buddhism of theSouth, which is very rigid and absolutely rejects all the fancies of the Buddhism of the North with itsinnumerable bodhisattvas and all the stories (they've got so many stories! pulp novels). And she rejected all that, saying it wasn't part of Buddha's authentic teaching. Buddha said that the world, this terrestrial world (maybe the universe, I don't know, the point isn't very clear), in any case the terrestrial world is the result of Desire (but I know someone who used to say [laughing], "Yes, it's God's desire to manifest!"), and that when "Desire" disappears, the world will disappear and there will be Nirvana. In other words, once the desire to manifest has disappeared, there is no Manifestation anymore. I don't think Buddha was ignorant; I think he knew very well the existence of invisible beings, of immortal beings (what men call gods) and probably the existence of a supreme God, too – he very likely knew it. But he didn't want people to think about it because it appeared to contradict his opinion that the world was the result of Desire and that, once Desire was withdrawn, the world withdrew – if there is an immortal world, things cannot happen that way. Basically, the further one goes, the more one realizes that all human teachings are opportunistic: they are told with an aim "in view"; one thing is told, and the other (not that it's not known) is deliberately ignored. It seems hard to me to find a different explanation, because as soon as you have passed beyond the Mind (and those people appear to have done so), all knowledge is ... (what's the word?) available, obtainable.” The Mother’s Agenda-March 20, 1965, “That's why certain minds have postulated that the creation was the result of an error. But we find all the possible conceptions: the perfect creation, then a "fault" that introduced the error; the creation itself as a lower movement, which must end since it began; then the conception of the Vedas according to what Sri Aurobindo told us about it, which was a progressive and infinite unfolding or discovery – indefinite and infinite – of the All by Himself.... Naturally, all these are human translations. For the moment, as long as we express ourselves humanly, it's a human translation; but depending on the initial stand of the human translator (that is, a stand that accepts the primordial "error," or the "accident" in the creation, or the conscious supreme Will since the beginning, in a progressive unfolding), the conclusions or the "descents" in the yogic attitude are different.... There are the nihilists, the "Nirvanists" and the illusionists, there are all the religions (like Christianity) that accept the devil's intervention in one form or another; and then pure Vedism, which is the Supreme's eternal unfolding in a progressive objectification. And depending on your taste, you are here or there or here, and there are nuances. But according to what Sri Aurobindo felt to be the most total truth, according to that conception of a progressive universe, you are led to say that, every minute, what takes place is the best possible for the unfolding of the whole. The logic of it is absolute. And I think that all the contradictions can only stem from a more or less pronounced tendency for this or that position, that other position; all the minds that accept the intrusion of a "fault" or an "error" and the resulting conflict between forces pulling backward and forces pulling forward, can naturally dispute the possibility. But you are forced to say that for someone who is spiritually attuned to the supreme Will or the supreme Truth, what happens is necessarily, every instant, the best for his personal realization – this is true in all cases. The unconditioned best can only be accepted by one who sees the universe as an unfolding, the Supreme growing more and more conscious of Himself. (silence) To tell the truth, all those things are without any importance (!) because in any case what IS exceeds entirely and absolutely all that the human consciousness may think of it. It is only when you stop being human that you know; but as soon as you express yourself, you become human again, and then you stop knowing. This is undeniable. And because of this incapacity, there is a sort of futility in wanting absolutely to reduce the problem to what human comprehension can understand of it. In that case, it's very wise to say, as Théon used to, "We are here, we have a work to do, and what's necessary is to do it as best we can, without worrying about the why and the how." Why is the world as it is?... When we are able to understand why, we'll understand. From a practical standpoint, that's obvious. But everyone takes his stand.... I have all the examples here, I have a little selection of samples of all the attitudes, and I see the reactions very clearly. I see the same Force – the same single Force – acting in this selection of samples and, of course, producing different effects; but those "different" effects are, to the deep vision, very superficial: it's just "they like to think that way, so then they like to think that way." But to tell the truth, the inner advance, the inner development, and the essential vibration aren't affected – not in the least. One aspires with all his heart to Nirvana, the other aspires with all his will to the supramental manifestation, and in both cases the vibratory result is about the same. And it's a whole mass of vibrations which prepares itself more and more to ... to receive what must be. There is a state – an essentially pragmatic state, spiritually pragmatic – in which of all human futilities, the most futile is metaphysics.” The Mother’s Agenda-May 19, 1965 “Now, the Italians worship the Virgin a lot, it's a lot in their makeup, and through that they would understand (those who are intelligent and see the symbol behind the story). There was a Pope (not the present one or the previous one, but the one before 62) who did remarkable things because he was in touch with the Virgin; he was a worshipper of the Virgin and that really put him on the right path. So I think that if they want a small book (it is a small book, you can even put it in your pocket – people are afraid of big books, they don't have time), there are lots of things in that small book, The Mother, lots of things. But the part on the "four aspects of the Mother" can really be felt only by Indians; those who have a Christian education (laughing) must find it very frightening (!) But we could omit that chapter. You see, the book was made from letters, so each piece is a whole; it wasn't at all composed as one piece: we arranged it as it is following the instructions Sri Aurobindo gave. But that last chapter (the biggest, besides) is mostly for India. It can be omitted.” The Mother’s Agenda-July 31, 1965 “We are going to send him a good photo of Sri Aurobindo. Which photo of Sri Aurobindo? If he was brought up in a Christian way, it's the photo where he is young which is good, they instantly see in it the face of Christ I ... All of them.... The day before yesterday again, an American painter, who is here and has read Sri Aurobindo's books, wanted to do a portrait of Sri Aurobindo (he never saw him) from photos – it's just as it was with the bust in Sri Aurobindo's room!99 They all make a mystic Sri Aurobindo with narrow temples, like that (gesture tapering upward), a long mystic face, because they can't get out of their Christianity! For them, of course, the Power, anything that expresses the Power, oh! ... (gesture of repulsion) I wanted to say that to this American. For them, spiritual life is sacrifice, it's the God who sacrifices himself: he renounces the joys of the earth and sacrifices his existence to save mankind. And they can't get out of it! So to those, it's the photo of the young Sri Aurobindo that should be sent, like the one in the reception room. Because he had just come out of his ascetic period here, and he still had a long face. The photo in the arm chair it's a bit too late; he was already beginning to feel that ... the world wasn't ready to go to the end. There is already the expression of suffering on his face. But the other photo is good. That's how I knew Sri Aurobindo: he had just come out of the photo in profile, in which he is very thin. As for Cartier-Bresson's photos, they were taken in 1950.” The Mother’s Agenda-October-16, 1965 “No, there is an insistence (the same insistence as this Gentleman’s, at any rate) on the impossibility of the thing, and it gives such obvious proof. Naturally, the inside doesn’t budge, it smiles – it doesn’t budge – but the body ... that gives it terrible tension. Because it’s very conscious of its infirmity (it can’t boast of being transformed), very conscious that it’s millions of miles away from transformation. So so it doesn’t take much to convince it. What’s more difficultis to give it the certitude that things will be different. It doesn’t even understand very well how they can be different.Then there come all other beliefs, all other so-called revelations, the heavens and so on. The whole of Christianity and Islam have very easily solved the problem: "Oh, no, things here will never be fine, but over there they can be perfect." That goes without saying. Then there is the whole of Nirvanism and Buddhism: "The world is an error that must disappear." So it all comes in waves, and the body feels very you understand, it would like to have a certitude of its possibility. That doesn’t often happen to it. But the attack was too strong; it was from everything and everywhere at the same time, so strong: "This Matter CANNOT be transformed." So it fought and fought and fought, and suddenly it was obliged to lie down. But as soon as it lies down and abandons itself completely, there is Peace, and such a strong Peace – so strong, so powerful. Then it’s fine.” The Mother’s Agenda-November-26, 1966 “I should add that it was a reply to a letter B. wrote to ask me all kinds of questions, in particular: "Why? These two nations being neighbors, why do they hate each other so much?" "... That curse on the Jews is a Christian story, it has nothing to do with the Muslims. "Violence and enmity ... When brothers hate each other, they do so much more intensely than others do. Sri Aurobindo said: 'Hatred denotes the possibility of a much greater love.' "The Arabs have a passionate nature. They live almost exclusively in the vital and its passions and desires, while the Israelites live mostly in the mind, with a great power of organization and realization, something quite exceptional. The Israelites are intellectuals with an exceptional will. They are not sentimental, that is to say, they don't like weakness. "The Muslims are impulsive, the Israelites are reasonable. "This is not the conflict that will decide the future of our civilization."” The Mother’s Agenda-June -21, 1967, “It came in two ways. Those things are SEEN, you understand, seen. Words come afterwards to try and transcribe what was seen. The first thing that came was thus: "Christians divinize suffering to make it a means of the earth's salvation." Then it came with just a small difference – these are subtleties, but From an intellectual standpoint, these are subtleties without value, but up there you seem to be almost touching the heart of things, that is, the essence – the deeper essence of events. So then, it came quite simply, like this: "Christianity DEIFIES suffering to make it the instrument of the earth's salvation." It's hard to explain because it's the state of consciousness that is different.... Now it's a memory, but at that time it was a vision – a very, very deep vision, very sharp, naturally exceeding all that occurred on earth, but also all the ways of expressing what occurred. The personality of Christ and so on – it was all so different! And it became, yes, I might say symbolic, but that's not it. At the same time, it placed this religion among all the others, in a very defined place in the earth evolution – in the evolution of the earth CONSCIOUSNESS. The experience lasted for a half-hour, but everything, everything was different different not in its appearance, different in its deeper significance.... Was the difference in my active consciousness? I don't know. I mean, did I make contact with a region of consciousness that was new to me? Possibly. But it seemed to me a wholly different vision of the earth and man's history. During the experience I remembered what Sri Aurobindo had written: "Men love suffering, therefore Christ still hangs on the cross in Jerusalem."98 And that was like (smiling) a sort of foam of thought quite on the surface, all the way up, bathed in the light from above, and like the intellectual way of expressing what I was seeing (gesture from above downward), which came from above.... From the point of view of light, it was a very interesting experience. And seen from above, what was the story like? You see, Sri Aurobindo says, "Man loves suffering, therefore Christ still hangs on the cross in Jerusalem," then I said, Christianity (I mean the universal, or anyway terrestrial, origin of whatexpressed itself on earth as the Christian religion), the action of this religion on earth has been to "deify suffering" because men NEEDED to understand – not only to understand but to feel and adhere to theraison d'être (the universal raison d'être) of suffering on earth as a means of evolution. We might, basically, say that they sanctified suffering so it may be recognized as a means indispensable to the evolution of the earth. So now, that action has been exploited to the full and more, and ought to be gone beyond, and that's whyit must be left behind in order to find something else. You also said once, "It is not a crucified but a glorified body that will save the world."99 Yes. Then a Christian sent me a picture of Christ on the cross, and just above, the risen Christ in his ascent heavenward – that's how they take it! It all happens on the heights. Yes, heavenward.” The Mother’s Agenda-July 29, 1967 “(Mother comes across the note she wrote on Christianity) and commented on July 29.) "Christianity deifies suffering to make it the instrument of the earth's salvation." You know, it came to me as a discovery.... The whole religion, instead of being seen like this(gesture from below), was seen like that (gesture above).... Here is what I mean: the ordinary idea of Christianity is that the son (to use their language), the "son of God" came to give his message (a message of love, unity, fraternity and charity) to the earth; and the earth, that is, the governing classes, which weren't ready, sacrificed him, and his "Father," the supreme Lord, let him be sacrificed in order that his sacrifice would have the power to save the world. That is how they see Christianity, it's the most comprehensive idea – the vast majority of Christians don't understand anything whatsoever, but I mean that among them there may be, there may perhaps be(among the cardinals, for instance, who have studied occultism and the deeper symbols of things) some who understand a little better anyway. But according to my vision (Mother points to her note on Christianity), what happened was that in the history of the evolution of the earth, when the human race,the human species, started questioning and rebelling against suffering, which was a necessity to emerge more consciously from inertia (it's very clear in animals, it has become very clear already: suffering was the means to make them emerge from inertia), but man, on the other hand, went beyond that stage andbegan rebelling against suffering, naturally also against the Power that permits and perhaps uses (perhaps uses, to his mind) this suffering as a means of domination. So that is the place of Christianity. There was already before it a pretty long earth history – we shouldn't forget that before Christianity, there was Hinduism, which accepted that everything, including destruction, suffering, death and all calamities, is part of the one Divine, the one God (it's the image of the Gita, the God who"swallows" the world and its creatures). There was that, here in India. There was Buddha, who on the other hand, was horrified by suffering in all its forms, decay in all its forms, and the impermanence ofall things, and in trying to find a remedy, concluded that the only true remedy is the disappearance of the creation.... Such was the terrestrial situation when Christianity came in. So there had been a whole period before it, and numbers of people beginning to rebel against suffering and trying to escape from it with such methods. Others deified it and thus bore it as an inescapable calamity. Then came the need to bring down on earth the concept of a deified, divine suffering, a divine suffering as the suprememeans to make the whole human consciousness emerge from Unconsciousness and Ignorance and lead it towards its realization of divine beatitude, but not – not by refusing to collaborate with life, but IN life itself: accepting suffering (the crucifixion) in life itself as a means of transformation in order to leadhuman beings and the entire creation to its divine Origin. That gives a place to all religions in the development from the Inconscient to the divine Consciousness. It isn't just a little remark noted down in passing: it's a vision. One can always present it as something conceived mentally, but it's not that; it's not that, but it was, if you like, a necessity in the development. And it puts things in their TRUE perspective. Islam was a return towards sensation, beauty, harmony in the form, and the legitimization of sensations and joy in beauty. From a higher viewpoint, it wasn't quite of a superior quality, but from a vital viewpoint, it was extremely powerful, and that's what gave them so much power to spread, to appropriate, seize, dominate. But what they did is very beautiful – all their art is magnificent, magnificent! It was a flowering of beauty Then there were others – it all comes one after another. And every religion came as a stage in the development and the relationship with the Divine, to lead the consciousness towards a oneness which is a totality and not a removal from a whole reality so as to obtain another. The need for totality, completeness, is what caused those religions to come like that, oneafter another. Seen in that light, it's very interesting. Instead of looking at it from below, there was all of a sudden an overall vision from the highest height of how it was all organized with such a clear consciousness, such a clear will, each thing coming just when it was necessary so nothing would be overlooked and everything might come out, emerge from that Unconsciousness, and grow increasingly conscious.... And so, in this immense history, the earth's history, Christianity finds its place – its legitimate place. That has a double advantage: for those who despise it its value is restored, and as for those who believe it's the only truth, they are made to see that it's only one element among others in the whole. There. That's why I found it interesting – because it was the result of a vision, and that vision came because I started concerning myself with religions (started again, to tell the truth, because I was very familiar with that subject in the past). And when I was asked questions on the Israelites and the Muslims, I looked and said, "Here is their place. Here is their place and their raison d'être." Then, oneday I said to myself, "Well, it's true indeed! Seen in that way, it's obvious: Christianity is like a rehabilitation of suffering as a means of development of the consciousness." And so Sri Aurobindo's sentence assumes its whole value. Christianity came because men were rebelling against grief and trying to escape from the world in order to escape from grief. Then, with the years going by and the unfolding, men took a liking to suffering! And because they love it (see how Sri Aurobindo's sentence becomes clear), "Christ still hangs on the cross in Jerusalem." It assumes its full significance.” The Mother’s Agenda-August 12, 1967 “You know, I had an experience of this sort quite a long time ago – ages ago, when I was still in France, in Paris. There was a fellow student in the studio (because I studied in a painting studio for a long time), she was a very good painter, we were close friends, and I started telling her about the Cosmic Review and Théon's teaching. She belonged to a Catholic family with archbishops, even cardinals, anyway it was ... And she was extremely interested and wholly convinced: she felt a liberation of the spirit and aspiration. Then, when I had Sri Aurobindo's teaching, I passed it on to her, and there she was really quite taken. But she often told me, "As long as I am awake, everything is fine, but in my sleep I'll suddenly wake up with a dreadful fright: but if after all the Catholic teaching is true, then I'll go to hell!" And so, a torture. And she would tell me, "When I am quite awake, I see how ridiculous it is. " But all those who were baptized and went for a time to confession are part of a whole, an inner, psychological entity, and it's VERY difficult to break free from it; they are bound to a whole – there is ... there is an invisible Church, and all those people are in its grip. To break free from it, one must be a vital hero. A true hero, you understand. Because it's very strong. I saw that, all religions have in that way kinds of congregations in the invisible; but among them all, the Christian is the strongest from a terrestrial standpoint. It's much stronger than that of the Buddhists, much stronger than that of the Chinese, much stronger than the ancient Hindu religions – it's the strongest. And naturally stronger than the more recent religions, too – the strongest. And when you are baptized, you are bound. If you don't go to mass and have never been to confession, with a little vital energy you can get out of it, but those who have gone to confession – especially confession – and when you take communion, when you are given Christ to eat (another frightful thing) ... That girl was a true artist and a great intelligence, so I had the example. When she was awake, she understood wonderfully; and she herself was furious, but she didn't have ... she didn't have thepower to remove the hold from her subconscient. She was far more intelligent than Mrs. Z, there's no comparison. She was a great artist.” The Mother’s Agenda-August 26, 1967 “We had a Frenchwoman here, she came from Dordogne and changed her name when she came here: she was called Nivedita. She was extremely enthusiastic, very devoted, but at the same time she had remained very Christian: she tried to keep the two going side by side. Here, naturally, that gave her inner difficulties, and one day, without really knowing why or how, she went to confession – and everything collapsed. She was in despair, collapsed. I told her, "It's better for you to go." And she went. She went back to France. As soon as she was there, she wrote other desperate letters, and then she died. So the nearer they draw, the more difficult the problem becomes. It's better to ... This lady has external work to do. I haven't been too much encouraging her becoming intimate here, because one day she'll be up against the big problem – you understand, symbolically it's limited to one person, but it's the big problem of Religion, as a dogma and absolute law, versus freedom, and ... not many can hold out.” The Mother’s Agenda-September-3, 1967 “(Still regarding Mrs. Z, the Catholic lady who hovers around the Ashram.) I have a nasty little story to tell you.... The other day, I forget when, F. met Mrs. Z, who told her (she too was in a concentration camp), "I would like " (word for word) "I would like Satprem to go back to the concentration camp to see if his reaction now would be different!" F. was so indignant that she couldn't help telling her, "But that is a monstrous desire to have!" There's my story: "I'd like him to go back to the concentration camp to see!" But the marvel is that I feel I could be sent anywhere, anything could happen to me, even the worst things, and ... nothing would budge! It wouldn't matter in the least, yes, that's right. And that's what upsets them! You understand, for them you can have that salvation only if you are Catholic. Anyway, the matter is now closed. But you know, it's not the end! I fought a battle with her. Oh, did she write again? A veritable battle. When? When I told her, "I can't do anything for you if you don't seek something else," she wrote me another letter in which she said, "But I do seek something else," and so forth. I didn't want to reply. Then I did a little drawing, a sort of picture that came to me: a big sun in the corner, mountain ranges like in the Himalayas, then at the bottom, a small mosque, a small church, a small pagoda, and a bird flying away towards the sun. And I sent her my drawing! (Mother laughs) And then? Then she came to see me. And there was a veritable battle; really, for an hour it was absolutely a battle with her. Because she kept pushing me, she wanted to know: "Why do you turn me down? Why do you shut your door? Why do you turn me down?. " Then I was driven to tell her everything: how she is imprisoned, how her religion is like a structure in which she is shut, how one can't do the yoga until one breaks out of it and so on – it all came out. Because I was really driven to it. I felt I was fighting a veritable battle, and two or three times I was very conscious of a sort of little thing going like this [gesture like the tongue of a snake], just a malevolent little vibration two or three times: "Ah," I thought, "this is it. "And at the same time, a kind of quite sincere distress in her, when she said, "I have been wanting to come to India for twenty years now, I have been waiting for this moment for twenty years now, so why do you close your door on me?" It's difficult to break free from that grip. Very difficult. And how did it end? Well, it ended up in nothing. I told her, "I am not closing my door on you, but I am putting you face to face with what it all means." I said, "The ABC of yoga is precisely to pull down all those constructions." But she told me, "Christ is the Supermind!" l said, "No, it's not like that!" (Mother laughs) ... It didn't leave any trace? I was a little worried because it really was a battle, then afterwards I did some good praying, and it passed off well. It must be after that that she told F. she'd like to see you in a concentration camp – it was out of spite! But I really spoke to her with the truth – not with violence, but with the truth that says, "Here is how it is,I can't help it." That's very good, it's the happiest thing that could happen to her. Sugaring the pill would have been of no help. We'll see. If the call is sincere, then we'll see. But I did feel a sincerity, Mother, because what responded was like a response to a sincere call in her. But at the same time two or three times I felt that little vibration and said to myself, "Oh, this is nasty." It's the fear of hell, mon petit! The amount of harm that conception has done in the world is frightening, frightening: the idea that if you commit a serious fault, it means hell for ALL ETERNITY, do you hear! It's horrible. It's a dreadful, monstrous notion. When you look at it as it is, outside all routine, when you look at it as it is, it's a monstrous notion – I don't know what demon invented it.... If you were told, "You'll have to spend a few years in hell to expiate," that would do – it's not charitable, not generous, but anyway it's acceptable; but that idea of"all eternity" an ETERNITY OF HELL – is something monstrous! It's a wholly diabolical idea. And that's what frightens them. Even when consciously they don't accept it, it's there in the subconscient. (silence) It is said ... (but I am not sure about this, because it was simply repeated to me), a Catholic panjandrum to whom I spoke my mind quite plainly, answered me, "In the College of Cardinals, they are taught the truth and told this is not true." I said, "God bless the cardinals, but their first duty should be to destroy this ... monstrous formation." The most terrible thing is that she believes she is free! Of course! She believes she is luminous, or enlightened. So I told her, "Of course, if you are inside a box and there is light in the box, you have the fullness of light in a box!" (Mother laughs) Oh, that's very good! I told her everything, there came a lot of things like that. In the end she was frozen. It was a real battle. You did good work. But you understand, the idea is, "Christ is the Supermind.... Christ is already risen from the dead, he already has a glorified body, he is already transformed. " (After a silence) No, he went back, he didn't stay. He doesn't have a glorified body, he went back. He went back to the higher regions, he doesn't have a glorified body.... He may be glorified up there, that's his business (laughing), but here He went back. Of course, Sri Aurobindo himself said Christ was an Avatar. An avatar in the line of Krishna, the line that represented yes, goodness, charity, love, harmony. He belongs to that line.” The Mother’s Agenda-September 13, 1967 “Only an observation, which is really very interesting: it's that everyone has said the same thing, all those who had the Experience have said the same thing ... but everyone in his own way, so it looks like something different. Yesterday it was so clear, and again early this morning, the whole morning: this way, that way, this one here, that one there (Mother shows different facets), the philosophers, founders of religions, sages of all countries – they have always said the same thing. For instance, Buddha's teaching and, say, the Christian teaching, seem to be so different, but it's always the same thing. Whichmeans there is ONE state (if you catch hold of it), ONE state in which you are conscious of the divineConsciousness (not "conscious of": "conscious through" or "conscious with," I don't know how to explain ... it's the divine Consciousness which is conscious, that is, the Consciousness in its essence), and there are no more problems there, no more complications, no more explanations, nothing anymore – everything is as clear as can be. So then, everyone has tried to explain that, and naturally it has become confused, incomplete, incorrect, with one explanation clashing with another – while everyone is talking about the same thing!” The Mother’s Agenda-September 20, 1967 “Have you heard of the Pope's conversion? The Pope's conversion! No! I was very happy because it showed me that our conversations hadn't been in vain. I was wondering if he was conscious; I don't know if he was conscious mentally, but in any case it's interesting, you can read(Mother holds out a newspaper cutting to Satprem). Vatican City, September 26 The Pope, in an article published here last night, has said his journey to India in 1964 was "the revelation of an unknown world." The Osservatore Romano published in an article excerpts from a forthcoming book of conversations with the Pope by a lifelong friend, the French philosopher and academician, Jean Guitton. "I saw, as is said in the Apocalypse, a limitless crowd, a multitude, an enormous welcome. In those thousands of faces I read, stronger than curiosity, a kind of indescribable sympathy," the Pope said. "India is a spiritual country. It has in its nature a sense of the 'Christian virtues'.... "Christian," he sees everything through his Christian word, but never mind. "If there is any country in which the Beatitudes of the Sermon of the Mount could ever become a reality for the mass of the country, that country is India," Pope Paul added.... Can you imagine! "What is nearer to the souls of Indians than poverty of spirit, sweetness, peace, mercy, and pureness of heart?" he asked. "While the leaders of the West are politicians, in the land of India they are mystics and sages.... Yes. "Life runs in contemplation. People speak in a low voice. Their movements are slow and liturgical. The country is born for the spirit," the Pope said. Still, it means he is receptive. And it explains the manner in which he received P. when he went there. P. [an Indian disciple], as you know, paid him a visit; he was taken there by an Italian who had come here (a very nice boy who showed him around Italy and took him to the Pope). The Pope gave him a private audience, and after talking, asking questions, replying (it was a whole conversation), he said to P. with a smile, "And now what will you give me?" (They spoke in French.) Then P. said, "I have only one thing, which I always keep with me and is infinitely precious to me, but I will give it to you," and he gave him Prayers and Meditations. And the Pope answered, "I am going to read them." So it all fits together. It's interesting.” The Mother’s Agenda- September 30, 1967 “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 “There are lots and lots of them, you know, a whole crop of new Christs, Kalkis,131 supermen, ooh! lots of them, but generally, communication is made somehow or other, at any rate their existence is known; well, among them, among all those with whom I have been in contact either invisibly or visibly, there isn't one who has ... (how should I put it?) less inconscient than there is in this body – but Iacknowledge there is plenty, oh!” The Mother’s Agenda-November 15, 1967 “And it’s like that especially, especially with the notion of a Divine who put on a body.... In fact,they found it quite natural that Christ should be crucified for their own salvation – I find it monstrous. I’ve always found it monstrous. But now, I see it’s quite spontaneous. Here in India, with the notion of guru, of Avatar, you may recognize him, admit him, but he is there exclusively to satisfy all demands – not because he has put on a human body, but because he is the representative of the supreme Power, and you accept the supreme Power, you pretend to obey it, you surrender to it, but with, at the back of your mind, "He is there only to satisfy my desires." The quality of desires depends on the individual: for some, it’s the most petty personal desires; for others it’s big desires for all humanity, or even for greater realizations, but anyhow it amounts to the same thing. That seems to be the condition for surrendering(!) To emerge from that, one must emerge from the human consciousness, that is, from the active, actingconsciousness. It’s so strong that if anyone dares say that the world and all creations exist for the Divine’s satisfaction, it immediately raises a violent protest and he is accused of ... they say, "But this Divine is a monster! A monster of egoism," without noticing that they are precisely like that.” The Mother’s Agenda-June 8, 1968 “That I don’t know. But what I know is that the action on human matter is far greater than before – the action. For instance, the possibility of taking a pain away, of changing a vibration – all that increases a lot. With results that are sometimes very interesting. The other day (I think it was yesterday), the memory suddenly came back to me (I know whythings come now: it’s always when someone calls or when there is a work to be done), and for somereason I remembered that story about Christ, an old saying: Christ was healing the sick and so on, even bringing a dead man back to life, when he was brought an idiot and asked to give himintelligence....Then, the story goes, Christ ran away! (Mother laughs) Later he was asked, "Why did yourun away?" – "It’s the only thing I can’t do!" ... But why did it come? (Because it just comes like that, all of a sudden.) So I looked, and then I said, "But no! Why did he run away? He just had to do this (Mother slightly rotates her hand, shaping something), and the child would have become intelligent." When I go off like that, within, I always seem to ... to be shaping vibrations. And when that memory came, it was so clear, I said, "But no! One just has to go like this ... (same gesture of the hand), and he will receive the light and become intelligent...." You understand, when I go within, it’s always towork on vibrations. And afterwards (the next day, or later in the day) I’ll learn that something has happened to someone, he called me and asked me that. It’s always a call. And it’s a response. But as the mind is very still, I don’t "know" in the mental form: it’s in a very ... very simple form, very objective (gesture of looking at a picture): all of a sudden came Christrunning away because he was brought an idiot – "But no!" And there was the movement of turningvibrations (same gesture as before), receiving the light, and he becomes intelligent – like that. In fact, it’s with things of this sort that I spend my time. I don’t note them down, because ... there would be too many of them to begin with. Someone ... (most of the time I know who it is, but sometimes I don’t) ... something has happened tohim, something has got twisted; so one works on it, one sets it straight again, puts the light, the good vibration back on it, and then ... later in the day, or the next day, I’ll receive a line, "I was in a lot of pain" or "I called you." Like that. But free from the whole mental notation – that doesn’t exist: very still. So there! (Mother laughs) So you’ll have a little more work.” The Mother’s Agenda-June 18, 1968 “I saw a photo of the Pope doing a full pranam [prostration] on the Mount of Olives, at a place where Christ stood …. But I told you that I met him twice: once before his nomination and once after. We spoke, and those conversations were really interesting. The second time, before leaving, he asked me, “What will you tell your disciples?” (I told you that.) Which shows he … I remember, I was struck by my own answer. I told him, “I will say that we were in communion in oursame love for the Supreme.”” The Mother’s Agenda-September 17, 1969 “Two or three days ago, I read an Aphorism of Sri Aurobindo’s (you might know it). I forget the words, but he says that Christ came to purify humanity but didn’t succeed, and he said he would come back, but this time, holding the sword of God … 169 – Christ came into the world to purify, not to fulfill. He himself foreknew the failure of his mission, and the necessity of his return with the sword of God into a world that had rejected him. I was asked what’s “the sword of God” (!) I said it was the irresistible Power.” The Mother’s Agenda-October 11, 1969 “But it seems Christ himself said he would come back “with God’s sword” – which means it’s no longer the same thing at all. As for me, I never believed: I had a lot of difficulty, it’s Sri Aurobindo who made me believe in the physical reality of Christ; I always thought it was some story people told- they took hold of just anybody and built a story around him. But Sri Aurobindo believed in it. He said it was an Avatar – a partial Avatar.” The Mother’s Agenda-October-25, 1969 “You know that I am in contact with a few Ethiopians (I think it’s the country that has remained the most Christian all over the earth). There’s a boy who’s a secretary in the embassy in Delhi (Ethiopia’s embassy), and he’s quite taken, quite, and then … (laughing) it was his birthday two days ago, and he came with a gift …. Something in wood (in ebony), big like this, with my photo on oneside, Sri Aurobindo’s photo on the other side, and in between … a silver cross. And on the cross, at the junction of the two branches, there was on one side my symbol, and on the other side, Sri Aurobindo’s symbol …. What’s in his head?! … Horrible! And naturally, as soon as I saw him, he put that on my knees …. It was big like this. As soon as I saw him, it instantly came (gesture of massive descent), like that, like an answer to the will to transform Christianity And it was so powerful, there was such a powerful vibration that I felt itwas BEING done …. 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 tobecome truly … the flower of transformation. But I didn’t tell him anything! And he himself doesn’t know, I mean, he never thought about it, it’s instinctively that he did that.” The Mother’s Agenda-December 31, 1969 “(Then Mother listens to a few extracts from Sri Aurobindo for the August Bulletin.) The conception of the Divine as an external omnipotent Power who has “created” the world and governs it like an absolute and arbitrary monarch – the Christian or Semitic conception – has never been mine;it contradicts too much my seeing and experience during thirty years of sadhana. It is against this conception that the atheistic objection is aimed, – for atheism in Europe has been a shallow and rather childish reaction against a shallow and childish exoteric religionism and its popular inadequate and crudely dogmatic notions. But when I speak of the Divine Will, I mean something different, – something that has descended here into an evolutionary world of Ignorance, standing at the back of things, pressing on the Darkness with its Light, leading things presently towards the best possible in the conditions of a world of Ignorance and leading iteventually towards a descent of a greater power of the Divine, which will be not an omnipotence held back and conditioned by the law of the world as it is, but in full action and therefore bringing the reign of light, peace, harmony, joy, love, beauty and Ananda, for these are the Divine Nature. The Divine Grace is there ready to act at every moment, but it manifests as one grows out of the Law of Ignorance into the Law of Light, and it is meant, not as an arbitrary caprice, however miraculous often its intervention, but as a help in that growth and a Light that leads and eventually delivers. If we take the facts of the world as they are and the facts of spiritual experience as a whole, neither of which can be denied or neglected, then I do not see what other Divine there can be. This Divine may lead us often through darkness, because the darkness is there in us and around us, but it is to the Light he is leading and not to anything else. Letters on Yoga, 22.174” The Mother’s Agenda-July 4, 1970 “This is my Christmas message: “The time has come for the rule of falsehood to end. In the Truth alone is salvation.” The Mother’s Agenda- December 22, 1971 “December 25, 1971 Good morning! It’s the festival of Light: Christmas is the festival of the return of the Light – it’s much older than Christianity! – when the days were beginning to grow longer (Mother laughs).” “December 27, 1972 (Champaklal hands Satprem the French and English texts of the Christmas message so Mother can put it in her own handwriting.) (Satprem.:) You’ve put: “We want to show to the world that man can become a true servitor of the Divine. Who will collaborate in all sincerity ?” (Reconcile ‘We reap the fruit of our forgotten deeds.’ of Savitri-378 with Lord Christ’s this saying, 'A tree is recognized by its own fruits.') “The ideal sadhaka should be able to say in the Biblical phrase, “My zeal for the Lord has eaten me up.”” Sri Aurobindo/CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga-58 “In other words, the Gita is not a book of practical ethics, but of the spiritual life. The modern mind is just now the European mind, such as it has become after having abandoned not only the philosophic idealism of the highest Graeco-Roman culture from which it started, but the Christian devotionalism of the Middle Ages; these it has replaced by or transmuted into a practical idealism and social, patriotic and philanthropic devotion. It has got rid of God or kept Him only for Sunday use and erected in His place man as its deity and society as its visible idol. At its best it is practical, ethical, social, pragmatic, altruistic, humanitarian. Now all these things are good, are especially needed at the present day, are part of the divine Will or they would not have become so dominant in humanity. Nor is there any reason why the divine man, the man who lives in the Brahmic consciousness, in the God-being should not be all of these things in his action; he will be, if they are the best ideal of the age, the Yugadharma, and there is no yet higher ideal to be established, no great radical change to be effected. For he is, as the Teacher points out to his disciple, the best who has to set the standard for others; and in fact Arjuna is called upon to live according to the highest ideals of his age and the prevailing culture, but with knowledge, with understanding of that which lay behind, and not as ordinary men, with a following of the merely outward law and rule.” CWSA-19/Essays on the Gita/p-31-32 “The other day (I think it was yesterday), the memory suddenly came back to me (I know whythings come now: it’s always when someone calls or when there is a work to be done), and for somereason I remembered that story about Christ, an old saying: Christ was healing the sick and so on, even bringing a dead man back to life, when he was brought an idiot and asked to give himintelligence....Then, the story goes, Christ ran away! (Mother laughs) Later he was asked, "Why did you run away?" – "It’s the only thing I can’t do!" ... When I go off like that, within, I always seem to ... to be shaping vibrations. And when that memory came, it was so clear, I said, "But no! One just has to go like this ... (same gesture of the hand), and he will receive the light and become intelligent...." You understand, when I go within, it’s always to work on vibrations. And afterwards (the next day, or later in the day) I’ll learn that something has happened to someone, he called me and asked me that. It’s always a call. And it’s a response.” The Mother “You know, mon petit, I said one day that in the history of earth, wherever there was a possibility for the Consciousness to manifest, I was there; this is a fact. It's like the story of Savitri: always there, always there, always there, in this one, that one – at certain times there were four emanations simultaneously! At the time of the Italian and French Renaissance. And again at the time of Christ,then too.... Oh, you know, I have remembered so many, many things! It would take volumes to tell it all.” The Mother/The Mother’s Agenda-27 June 1962, “He wrote this in a letter, I believe, and he spoke of this system of compensation – for example, those who take an illness on themselves in order to have the power to cure; and then there’s the symbolic story of Christ dying on the cross to set men free. And Sri Aurobindo said, ‘That’s fine for a certain age, but we must now go beyond that.’ As he told me (it’s even one of the first things he told me), ‘We are no longer at the time of Christ when, to be victorious, it was necessary to die.’ I have always remembered this. But things are PULLING backwards – phew, how they pull! ... ‘The Law, the Law, it’s a Law. Don’t you understand, it’s a LAW, you can’t change the Law.’ ‘But I CAME to change the Law.’ ‘Then pay the price.’” The Mother’s Agenda-November 12, 1960, "The Gita here lays a great stress on the thought and state of mind at the time of death, a stress which will with difficulty be understood if we do not recognise what may be called the self-creative power of the consciousness. What the thought, the inner regard, the faith, sraddha, settles itself upon with a complete and definite insistence, into that our inner being tends to change. This tendency becomes a decisive force when we go to those higher spiritual and self-evolved experiences which are less dependent on external things than is our ordinary psychology, enslaved as that is to outward Nature. There we can see ourselves steadily becoming that on which we keep our minds fixed and to which we constantly aspire. Therefore there any lapse of the thought, any infidelity of the memory means always a retardation of the change or some fall in its process and a going back towards what we were before, — at least so long as we have not substantially and irrevocably fixed our new becoming. When we have done that, when we have made it normal to our experience, the memory of it remains self-existently because that now is the natural form of our consciousness. In the critical moment of passing from the mortal plane of living, the importance of our then state of consciousness becomes evident. But it is not a death-bed remembrance at variance with or insufficiently prepared by the whole tenor of our life and our past subjectivity that can have this saving power. The thought of the Gita here is not on a par with the indulgences and facilities of popular religion; it has nothing in common with the crude fancies that make the absolution and last unction of the priest, an edifying “Christian” death after an unedifying profane life or the precaution or accident of a death in sacred Benares or holy Ganges a sufficient machinery of salvation. The divine subjective becoming on which the mind has to be fixed firmly in the moment of the physical death, yam smaran bhavam tyajati ante kalevaram, (The Gita-8.6) must have been one into which the soul was at each moment growing inwardly during the physical life, sada tad-bhava-bhavitah. (The Gita-8.6) “Therefore,” says the divine Teacher, “at all times remember me and fight; for if thy mind and thy understanding are always fixed on and given up to Me, mayi arpita-mano-buddhih, to Me thou shalt surely come. (The Gita-8.7) For it is by thinking always of him with a consciousness united with him in an undeviating Yoga of constant practice that one comes to the divine and supreme Purusha.” CWSA-19/Essays on the Gita/p-295-296 "No real peace can be till the heart of man deserves peace; the law of Vishnu cannot prevail till the debt to Rudra is paid. To turn aside then and preach to a still unevolved mankind the law of love and oneness? Teachers of the law of love and oneness there must be, for by that way must come the ultimate salvation. But not till the Time-Spirit in man is ready, can the inner and ultimate prevail over the outer and immediate reality. Christ and Buddha have come and gone, but it is Rudra who still holds the world in the hollow of his hand. And meanwhile the fierce forward labour of mankind tormented and oppressed by the Powers that are profiteers of egoistic force and their servants cries for the sword of the Hero of the struggle and the word of its prophet." CWSA-19/Essays on the Gita/p-386 “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, “In a considerable number of people, it is their body, the physical body, that obstinately resists...The difficulty is greater for Westerners than for Indians. It’s as though their substance were steeped in falsehood. It also happens with Indians, of course, but generally the falsehood is much more in the vital than in the physical – because after all, the physical has been utilized by bodies belonging to enlightened beings. The European substance seems steeped in rebellion; in the Indian substance this rebelliousness is subdued by an influence of surrender. The other day, someone was telling me about some Europeans with whom he corresponds, and I said, ‘But tell them to read, to learn, to follow The Synthesis of Yoga! – it leads you straight to the path.’ Whereupon he replied, ‘Oh, but they say it’s full of talk on surrender, surrender, always surrender ...’ and they want none of it.” The Mother’s Agenda/10th May-1958, “In the West the physical mind is too dominant, so that the psychic does not so easily get a chance — except of course in exceptional people.” CWSA-31/Letters on Yoga-IV/p-8, “Incidents of that sort have left me with a peculiar impression. The stories of the Inquisition had already given me a sufficient ... Now, of course, you've heard what I told you [the story of the Asura], and that's really my way of seeing the thing. But there was a time when I might have said, "No religion has done more evil in the world than this one." The Mother’s Agenda-03.07.1963, “Indeed, the vital in man’s nature is a despotic and exacting tyrant. Moreover, since it is the vital which holds power, energy, enthusiasm, effective dynamism, many have a feeling of timorous respect for it and always try to please it. But it is a master that nothing can satisfy and its demands are without limit. Two ideas which are very wide-spread, especially in the West, contribute towards making its domination more sovereign. One is that the chief aim of life is to be happy; the other that one is born with a certain character and that it is impossible to change it. The first idea is a childish deformation of a very profound truth: that all existence is based upon delight of being and without delight of being there would be no life. But this delight of being, which is a quality of the Divine and therefore unconditioned, must not be confused with the pursuit of pleasure in life, which depends largely upon circumstances. The conviction that one has the right to be happy leads, as a matter of course, to the will to “live one’s own life” at any cost. This attitude, by its obscure and aggressive egoism, leads to every kind of conflict and misery, disappointment and discouragement, and very often ends in catastrophe. In the world as it is now the goal of life is not to secure personal happiness, but to awaken the individual progressively to the Truth-consciousness. The second idea arises from the fact that a fundamental change of character demands an almost complete mastery over the subconscient and a very rigorous disciplining of whatever comes up from the inconscient, which, in ordinary natures, expresses itself as the effects of atavism and of the environment in which one was born. Only an almost abnormal growth of consciousness and the constant help of Grace can achieve this Herculean task. That is why this task has rarely been attempted and many famous teachers have declared it to be unrealisable and chimerical. Yet it is not unrealisable. The transformation of character has in fact been realised by means of a clear-sighted discipline and a perseverance so obstinate that nothing, not even the most persistent failures, can discourage it.” The Mother/TMCW/Vol-12/On Education/p-18, “The other day, speaking of Europe, you said that the "Old World is truly old...." Ah, look at this – yesterday someone read me a letter Sri Aurobindo wrote to Barin in April 1920, a few days before I returned from Japan. It was written in Bengali – tremendously interesting! He speaks of the state of the world, particularly India, and of how he envisaged a certain part of his action after completing his yoga. It's extremely interesting. And there's some very high praise for Europe. Sri Aurobindo says something like this: "You all think Europe is over and done with, but that's not true, it's not finished yet." In other words, its power is still alive. This was in 1920. But it was before the war.... It's very interesting. Yet you get the feeling that with the kind of sincerity Westerners have, they would progress very quickly once they understood. That's more or less what Sri Aurobindo was saying. Because they're sincere. Yes, they have a sincerity, on one level, which is not the same as spiritual sincerity. They have a material sincerity, a material HONESTY, and with that, once they understood, they would progress very quickly. But I think it will be primarily a question of individuals, not something general. Read this; it shows a slightly new side of Sri Aurobindo's thought. I mean, he took a sterner tone when addressing Indians, and he gave a fuller account of his experience of the West.” The Mother’s Agenda/ July 21, 1962, “The vital descent cannot prevent the supramental — still less can the possessed nations do it by their material power, since the supramental descent is primarily a spiritual fact which will bear its necessary outward consequences. What previous vital descents have done is to falsify the Light that came down as in the history of Christianity where it took possession of the teaching and distorted it and deprived it of any widespread fulfilment. But the supermind is by definition a Light that cannot be distorted if it acts in its own right and by its own presence. It is only when it holds itself back and allows inferior Powers of consciousness to use a diminished and already deflected Truth that the knowledge can be seized by the vital Forces and made to serve their own purpose.” CWSA-28/Letters on Yoga-I/p-297 “It is news to me that I have excluded Mahomedans from the Yoga. I have not done it any more than I have excluded Europeans or Christians. As for giving up one’s past, if that means giving up the outer forms of the old religions, it is done as much by the Hindus here as by the Mahomedans. The Hindus here — even those who were once orthodox Brahmins and have grown old in it, — give up all observance of caste, take food from Pariahs and are served by them, associate and eat with Mahomedans, Christians, Europeans, cease to practise temple worship or Sandhya (daily prayer and mantras), accept a non-Hindu from Europe as their spiritual director. These are things people who have Hinduism as their aim and object would not do — they do it because they are obliged here to look to a higher ideal in which these things have no value. What is kept of Hinduism is Vedanta and Yoga, in which Hinduism is one with Sufism of Islam and with the Christian mystics. But even here it is not Vedanta and Yoga in their traditional limits (their past), but widened and rid of many ideas that are peculiar to the Hindus. If I have used Sanskrit terms and figures, it is because I know them and do not know Persian and Arabic. I have not the slightest objection to anyone here drawing inspiration from Islamic sources if they agree with the Truth as Sufism agrees with it. On the other hand I have not the slightest objection to Hinduism being broken to pieces and disappearing from the face of the earth, if that is the Divine Will. I have no attachment to past forms; what is Truth will always remain; the Truth alone matters.” CWSA-28/Letters on Yoga-I/p-411-412 “The Mahabharata is a poem and not history, but it is clearly a poem founded on a great historical event, traditionally preserved in memory; some of the figures connected with it, Dhritarashtra, Parikshit, for instance, certainly existed and the story of the part played by Krishna as leader, warrior and statesman can be accepted as probable in itself and to all appearance founded on a tradition which can be given a historical value and has not the air of a myth or a sheer poetical invention. That is as much as can be positively said from the point of view of the theoretical reason as to the historical figure of the man Krishna; but in my view there is much more than that in it and I have always regarded the incarnation as a fact and accepted the historicity of Krishna as I accept the historicity of Christ.” CWSA-28/Letters on Yoga-I/p-483 “A Church is an organised religious community and religion, if anything in the world, ought to be subjective; for its very reason for existence — where it is not merely an ethical creed with a supernatural authority — is to find and realise the soul. Yet religious history has been almost entirely, except in the time of the founders and their immediate successors, an insistence on things objective, rites, ceremonies, authority, church governments, dogmas, forms of belief. Witness the whole external religious history of Europe, that strange sacrilegious tragi-comedy of discords, sanguinary disputations, “religious” wars, persecutions, State churches and all else that is the very negation of the spiritual life. It is only recently that men have begun seriously to consider what Christianity, Catholicism, Islam really mean and are in their soul, that is to say, in their very reality and essence.” CWSA-25/Human Cycle/p-38 "The divine manifestation of a Christ, Krishna, Buddha in external humanity has for its inner truth the same manifestation of the eternal Avatar within in our own inner humanity. That which has been done in the outer human life of earth may be repeated in the inner life of all human beings." (CWSA-19/Essays on the Gita/p-160) “The Mosaic law of religious, ethical and social righteousness is convicted of narrowness and imperfection and is now besides a convention; the law of Christ comes to replace it and claims at once to abrogate and to fulfil, to abrogate the imperfect form and fulfil in a deeper and broader light and power the spirit of the thing which it aimed at, the divine rule of living. And the human search does not stop there, but leaves these formulations too, goes back to some past truth it had rejected or breaks forward to some new truth and power, but is always in search of the same thing, the law of its perfection, its rule of right living, its complete, highest and essential self and nature.” CWSA-19/Essays on the Gita/p-478-479 “It is not sufficient to worship Krishna, Christ or Buddha without, if there is not the revealing & the formation of the Buddha, the Christ or Krishna in ourselves.” Sri Aurobindo/CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-66 “When I was told that the Divine was within – the teaching of the Gita, but in words understandable to a Westerner – that there was an inner Presence, that one carried the Divine within oneself, oh! ... What a revelation! In a few minutes, I suddenly understood all, all, all. Understood everything. It brought the contact instantly.” The Mother/The Mother’s Agenda//April 29, 1961 “After many births of preparation, a Jnana Yogi with a strong foundation of Karma and Bhakti Yoga, attains My Purushottama or Supramental state of Consciousness. He also realises the intermediate stair that all this existence is Divine, the Cosmic Consciousness, Vasudevah sarvamiti. Such great Soul or integral Yogi is very rare.” The Gita-7.19, “That is precisely the distortion in the Western attitude as opposed to the attitude of the Gita. It is extremely difficult for the Western mind to understand in a living and concrete manner that everything is the Divine.” The Mother/TMCW-10/On Thoughts and Aphorisms-101, “Mahomed would himself have rejected the idea of being an Avatara, so we have to regard him only as the prophet, the instrument, the Vibhuti. Christ realised himself as the Son who is onewith the Father — he must therefore be an am˙ s´a avata¯ ra, a partial incarnation.” CWSA-28/ Letters on Yoga-I/p-501 “It is difficult to say [why Christ healed people] — it looks from the Bible account as if he did it as a sign that he was one sent by the Divine with power.” Sri Aurobindo/ CWSA-28/ Letters on Yoga-I-579 “What previous vital descents have done is to falsify the Light that came down as in the history ofChristianity where it took possession of the teaching and distorted it and deprived it of any widespreadfulfilment. But the supermind is by definition a Light that cannot be distorted if it acts in its own rightand by its own presence. It is only when it holds itself back and allows inferior Powers of consciousness to use a diminished and already deflected Truth that the knowledge can be seized by the vital Forces and made to serve their own purpose.” Sri Aurobindo/CWSA-28/Letters on Yoga-I/p-297 “An incarnation is always through a human mother, though there have been one or two cases in which a virgin birth has been proclaimed (Christ, Buddha). The only other meaning — unless we suppose an unprecedented miracle — might be a descent such as sometimes happens, the Godhead manifesting in somebody who at birth was a Vibhuti, not at once the full incarnation.” CWSA-35/Letters on Himself and the Ashram/p-400 “It simply proves that the omnipotent unconditioned supramental force was not put out there —any more than it was when Christ was put on the cross or when after healing thousands he failed to heal in a certain district (I forget the name) because people had no faith (faith being one of the conditions imposed on his work) or when Krishna after fighting eighteen battles with Jarasandha failed to prevail against him and had to run away from Mathura.” CWSA-35/Letters on Himself and the Ashram/p-403-404 “I have said that the Avatar is one who comes to open the Way for humanity to a higher consciousness — if nobody can follow the Way, then either our conception of the thing, which is that of Christ and Krishna and Buddha also, is all wrong or the whole life and action of the Avatar is quite futile.” CWSA-35/Letters on Himself and the Ashram-420 “I was concerned with the possibility of people following the Path I had opened, as Christ, Krishna, Buddha, Chaitanya etc. opened theirs. You were declaring that no human being could follow and that my life was perfectly useless as an example — like the lives of the Avatars. Path, life, example all useless — even Power useless because all have been failures.” CWSA-35/Letters on Himself and the Ashram/p-426 “When I spoke of the outside world, I meant all outside, including the Hindus and Christians and everyone else, all who have not yet accepted the greater Light that is coming. If this Asram were here only to serve Hinduism I would not be in it and the Mother who was never a Hindu would not be in it.What is being done here is the preparation of a Truth which includes all other Truth but is limited to no single religion or creed, and this preparation has to be done apart and in silence until things areready. It is in that sense that I speak of the rest of the world and all its component parts as being theoutside world— not that there was nothing to be done or no connection to be made; but these things are to be done in their own proper time.” CWSA-35/Letters on Himself and the Ashram/p-699-700 “The sun in the Yoga is the symbol of the supermind and the supermind is the first power of the Supreme which one meets across the border where the experience of spiritualised mind ceases and the unmodified divine Consciousness begins the domain of the supreme nature, para prakriti. It is that Light of which the Vedic mystics got a glimpse and it is the opposite of the intervening darkness of the Christian mystics — for the supermind is all light and no darkness. To the mind the Supreme is avyakta¯ t param avyaktam, but if we follow the line leading to the supermind, it is an increasing affirmation rather than an increasing negation through which we move.” CWSA-35/Letters on Himself and the Ashram/p-84 “I knew very well Sister Nivedita (she was for many years a friend and a comrade in the political field) and met Sister Christine, — the two closest European disciples of Vivekananda. Both were Westerners to the core and had nothing at all of the Hindu outlook; although Sister Nivedita, an Irishwoman, had the power of penetrating by an intense sympathy into the ways of life of the people around her, her own nature remained non-Oriental to the end. Yet she found no difficulty in arriving at realisation on the lines of Vedanta.” CWSA-35/Letters on Himself and the Ashram/p-25 “I was a little surprised at first by this entire lack of understanding, shown still more in his cavil at the two Divines — for I had somehow got the impression that Angus was a Christian and therecognition of “two Divines” — the Divine Transcendent and the Divine Immanent — is, I have read, perfectly familiar to Christian ideas and to Christian experience. The words themselves in fact — transcendent and cosmic — are taken from the West. I do not know that there is anything exactly corresponding to them in the language of Indian spiritual thinking, although the experiences on which the distinction rests are quite familiar. On another side, Christianity insists not only on a double but a triple Divine. It even strikes me that this triple Godhead or Trinity is not very far off at bottom from my trinity of the individual, cosmic and transcendent Divine — as far at least as one can judge who has not himself followed the Christian discipline. Christ whether as the human Incarnation or the Christos in men or the Godhead proceeding from the Father, seems to me to be quite my individual Divine. The Father has very much the appearance of the One who overstands and is immanent in the cosmos. And although this is more obscure, yet if one can be guided by the indications in the Scripture, the Holy Ghost looks very much like a rather mysterious and inexpressible Transcendence and its descent very much like what I would call the descent of Light, Purity, Peace— that passeth all understanding — or Power of the supramental Spirit. In any case these Christian and Western ideas show surely that my affirmation of a double or a triple Divine is not anything new and ought not to be found startling or upsetting and I do not see why it should be treated as (in itself)obscure and unintelligible. Again, are these or similar distinctions very positively made in the Christian, Sufi or other teachings mere theoretical abstractions, scholastic distinctions, theological cobwebs, or meta-physical puzzles? I had always supposed that they corresponded to very living, very dynamic, almost — for the paths to which they relate — indispensable experiences. No doubt, for those who follow other ways or no way at all or for those who have not yet had the illuminating and vivifying experience, they may seem at first a little difficult or unseizable. But that is true of most spiritual truth— and not of spiritual truth alone. There are many very highly intelligent and cultured people to whom a scientific explanation of even so patent and common a fact as electricity and electric light (this is a reminiscence of an article by Y. Y. in the New Statesman and Nation) seems equally difficult to seize by the mind or to fix either in the memory or the intelligence. And yet the distinction between positive and negative electricity, both necessary for the existence of the light, — like that of the passive and active Brahman (another scholastic distinction?) both necessary for the existence of the universe, — cannot be dismissed for that reason as something academic or scholastic, but is a very pertinent statement of things quite dynamic and real. No doubt the unscientific man does not and perhaps need not trouble about these things and can be content to enjoy the electric light (when he is allowed to do so by the grace of the Pondicherry Municipality), without enquiring into the play of the forces behind it: but for the seeker after scientific truth or for the practical electrician it is a different matter. Now these distinctions in the spiritual field are a parallel case; they seem theoretical or abstract only so long as experience has not made them concrete, but once experienced they become living stuff of the consciousness and, after a certain stage, even the basis of action and growth in the spiritual life.” CWSA-35/Letters on Himself and the Ashram/p-88-90 “The Mother’s Vibhutis would normally be feminine personalities most of whom would be dominated by one of the four personalities of the Mother. The others you mention would be personalities and powers of the Ishwara, but in them also, as in all, the Mother’s force would act. I do not quite catch the question about the transformation of the Vibhutis. All creation and transformation is the work of the Mother.If you mean the divine personalities of the Mother — the answer is yes. It may even be said that each Vibhuti draws his energies from the Four, from one of them predominantly in most cases, as Napoleon from Mahakali, Rama from Mahalakshmi, Augustus Caesar from Mahasaraswati.” CWSA-35/Letters on Himself and the Ashram/p-113 “(Q) It seems to me that the number of people in the world accepting our Yoga of transformation would not be as large as those who accepted Buddhism, Vedanta or Christianity. (Answer) Nothing depends on the numbers. The numbers of Buddhism and Christianity were so great because the majority professed it as a creed without its making the least difference to their external life. If the new consciousness were satisfied with that, it could also and much more easily command homage and acceptance by the whole earth. It is because it is a greater consciousness, the Truth-consciousness, that it will insist on a real change.” CWSA-35/Letters on Himself and the Ashram/p-310 “In the Essays on the Gita Sri Aurobindo mentions the names of three Avatars, and Christ is one of them. An Avatar is an emanation of the Supreme Lord who assumes a human body on earth. I heard Sri Aurobindo himself say that Christ was an emanation of the Lord’s aspect of love.” The Mother The Mother’s Centenary Works (second edition)/Vol-10/p-61 In Savitri, Sri Aurobindo hints at Lord Christ as Avatar : “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;” Savitri-445, (Gethsemane: A garden where Jesus was betrayed. Calvary: Hill top on which Christ was crucified.) “He [Ramakrishna ] never wrote an autobiography. What he said was in conversation with his disciples and others. He was certainly quite as much an Avatar as Christ or Chaitanya. ” Sri Aurobindo CWSA-28/Letters on Yoga-I/p-501 "Sri Aurobindo himself said Christ was an Avatar. An avatar in the line of Krishn a, the line that represented yes, goodness, charity, love, harmony. He belongs to that line.” The Mother The Mother’s Agenda-September 13, 1967

Auroprem's Savitri Study Editor's Note I offer this work, ‘Savitri understanding of Auroprem’ at the Lotus Feet of The Mother and Sri Aurobindo for Their Divine Manifestation, our Divine transformation and for Their sole satisfaction only. We have accepted Savitri as a book of pure Spiritual experience where knowledge on this terrestrial objective World, the Supraterrestrial world linking the Terrestrial with Supracosmic and Supracosmic Source are extensively explored. In this paper, an effort has been made to open towards the Lord’s limitless vision and higher Words from above and it may not be considered as the final verdict on the unfathomable Mysteries but as an initial preliminary approach of our building relation and contact with the Supreme. Here also many of the emotional feelings of Auroprem are taken into account because the Divine takes care of our Personal and Impersonal needs and He suffers through our limitations to lead us toward His Absolute state. I offer this paper again at Their Lotus Feet, to transform this initial approach as an occasion and field of constant renovation and restatement and with each revision we are able to overcome some errors related to our understanding of the book. These errors were observed while identifying the planes of Consciousness from which each line of Savitri has descended. I also issue this declaration that like Auroprem , I too am a beginner and learner in Savitri’s eternal unfolding of Truth and all our visions, observations, understandings and comments require change with our new revelation, realisation, elevation, sublimation and reversal of Consciousness. This manifestation is necessary for the purpose of learning and practice of sadhana and not meant for giving knowledge to others. We have taken this Savitri study as part of our Sadhana (1) to illumine those parts which are having direct Contact with the Divine and this Spiritual endeavour is subordinated by (2) intellectual action of partly understanding the mysteries and truths and hierarchies of Consciousness it has explored. In order to understand each line of Savitri , we have gathered together and taken the task of collecting the complementary lines from the same book and The Mother and Sri Aurobindo’s other writings published in the Centenary Edition and The Mother’s Agenda. We have narrated our understanding on them based on the limitation of our Spiritual experience. This exercise continued through decades and now we are going through its third revision. During each revision, we discover our error and limitation and particularly we have amended our stand related with planes of Consciousness from which each line of Savitri has descended. This exercise we understand as a means of tracing a path of own sadhana and a means of transcending our existing limitations through the movement of Consciousness. We have identified ten planes of Consciousness. They are in the following ascending order: 1: Inconscient Self and Inconscient Sheath 2: Subconscient Self and Subconscient Sheath 3: True Physical Being and Subtle Physical Sheath 4: True Vital Being and Subtle Vital Sheath 5: True Mental Being and Subtle Mental Sheath 6: Psychic Being and Psychic Sheath 7: Spiritual Being and Spiritual Sheath 8: Universal Being and Universal Sheath 9: Supramental Being and Supramental Sheath 10: Bliss Self and Bliss Sheath Our approach towards written truth is guided by The Mother And Sri Aurobindo’s following directives: 1: “Only those Scriptures, religions, philosophies which can be thus constantly renewed, relived, their stuff of permanent truth constantly reshaped and developed in the inner thought and spiritual experience of a developing humanity, continue to be of living importance to mankind. The rest remain as monuments of the past, but have no actual force or vital impulse for the future....The traditions of the past are very great in their own place, in the past, but I do not see why we should merely repeat them and not go farther. In the spiritual development of the consciousness upon earth the great past ought to be followed by a greater future…” Sri Aurobindo CWSA-19/Essays on the Gita/p-5 CWSA-29/Letters on Yoga-II/p-480 2: “…all truth and practice too strictly formulated becomes old and loses much, if not all, of its virtue; it must be constantly renovated by fresh streams of spirit revivifying the dead and dying vehicle and changing it, if it is to acquire a new life.” “For the sadhaka of the integral Yoga it is necessary to remember that no written Shastra, however great its authority or however large its spirit, can be more than a partial expression of the eternal Knowledge. He will use, but never bind himself even by the greatest Scripture. Where the Scripture is profound, wide, catholic, it may exercise upon him an influence for the highest good and of incalculable importance. It may be associated in his experience with his awakening to crowning verities and his realisation of the highest experiences.” Sri Aurobindo CWSA-23 The Synthesis of Yoga/p-5 CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-55 3: “In a sense, therefore, each man in this path has his own method of Yoga. Yet are there certain broad lines of working common to all which enable us to construct not indeed a routine system, but yet some kind of Shastra or scientific method of the synthetic Yoga.” Sri Aurobindo CWSA-23/THE SYNTHESIS OF YOGA/p-46-47 4: “So also one may say that the perfection of the integral Yoga will come when each man is able to follow his own path of Yoga , pursuing the development of his own nature in its upsurging towards that which transcends the nature. For freedom is the final law and the last consummation.” Sri Aurobindo CWSA-23/THE SYNTHESIS OF YOGA/p-57 5: “The ways have been built, the capacity to follow them has been developed, the goal or last height of the creation is manifest; all that is left is for each soul to reach individually the right stage and turn of its development, enter into the spiritual ways and pass by its own chosen path out of this inferior existence. But we have supposed that there is a farther intention, — not only a revelation of the Spirit, but a radical and integral transformation of Nature.” Sri Aurobindo CWSA-22/THE LIFE DIVINE/p-922-923 6: “This depends a great deal on the degree of the sadhak’s development, you see. If he is developed and conscious enough to be in direct contact with the spiritual Force which is working behind the words, then the word is only an excuse. But if for him it must pass through his mental understanding in order to have its effect, then the word takes on a much greater importance. It depends on the degree of development… If one is capable of receiving directly, then one opens a book for instance, finds a sentence and has an illumination; because it was just the word one was waiting for in order to put himself into contact with the Force he needed to take the next step…Otherwise one must take a book, study it, read it sentence by sentence, word by word, and then reflect and then understand it and then assimilate it and then, later, very slowly, after the assimilation and understanding, it begins to have an effect on the character and one makes some progress…In one case it is a direct contact, you see, and just one sentence, one word... one reads a word, reads a sentence, and has an illumination. And then one receives all the Force that one needs. The other is the path of the learned man, the scholar, who is an intellectual being and needs to learn, reflect, assimilate, reason about all he has learnt, in order to make progress. It is long, it is laborious.” The Mother TMCW-7/Questions and Answers-1955/p-341-342, 7: “The importance of Savitri is immense. Its subject is universal. Its revelation is prophetic. The time spent in its atmosphere is not wasted. Take all the time necessary to see this exhibition. It will be a happy compensation for the feverish haste men put now in all they do.” The Mother TMCW-13/Words of the Mother-I/p-26 10 February 1967 8: “Every time I read Savitri , I feel as if I am reading it for the first time, really. It’s not that I understand differently, it’s that its completely new: I never read it before! It’s odd. Its at least the fourth time I read it. And truly there’s everything in it. All the things I’ve discovered lately were there. And I hadn’t seen it. It’s odd. The first time I read it was a revelation; it hung together perfectly well from beginning to end, and I felt I had understood (I did understand something). The second time I read it, I said to myself, “But this isn’t the same thing as what I read!...” It hung together, it made up a whole – and I understood something else. Then, recently when I read, at every passage I said to myself, “How new this is! And how the things I have found since are there!” Today again, that’s how it is, as if I read it for the first time! And it puts me into contact with the things I have just discovered. It’s a miraculous book! (The Mother laughs) We’ll continue in the same way.” The Mother The Mother’s Agenda-6th June-1970 9: “I am not doing it (Savitri translation) to show it to people or to have anyone read it, but to remain in Savitri's atmosphere, for I love that atmosphere. It will give me an hour of concentration, and I'll see if by chance. I have no gift for poetry, but I'll see if it comes! (It surely won't come from a mentality developed in this present existence there's no poetic gift!) So it's interesting, I'll see if anything comes. I am going to give it a try. I know that light. I am immediately plunged into it each time I read Savitri. It is a very, very beautiful light… So now I don't mind finishing The Synthesis (of Yoga). I was a little bothered because I have no other books by Sri Aurobindo to translate that can help me in my sadhana: there was only The Synthesis . As I said, it always came right on time, just when it was needed for a particular experience… All his other books that could help me are already translated. And with Savitri, the idea isn't to make a translation, but to SEE. To try something. To give me the daily experience of that contact. I had some magnificent experiences when I read it the first time (two years ago, I believe). Wonderful, wonderful experiences! And since then, each time I read those lines, the same thing happens – not the same experience, but I come in contact with the same realm.” The Mother The Mother’s Agenda-18.09.1962 10: “He (Sri Aurobindo ) has made the work easy for us. "SAVITRI" is his whole Yoga of transformation, and this yoga now comes for the first time to the earth consciousness. I think that man is not yet ready to receive it. It is too high and too vast for him. He cannot understand it, grasp it for it is not by the mind that one can understand "SAVITRI ". It needs spiritual experiences to understand and assimilate it. The more one advances on the path of Yoga the more one assimilates.” The Mother The Mother’s Talk to Mona Sarkar/ page-5-6 11: “(Then the Mother takes up the translation of “Savitri” and stops abruptly, as if she were following something with her eyes:) …As big as this, a sun, a sun scintillating with Sri Aurobindo’s light, when I write, between me and the notebook, and it moves about with the pen! It’s this big (a big orange), it’s Sri Aurobindo’s light, blue, that special blue, silver blue, scintillating, and it moves about every time I write in this notebook! (laughing) That’s why I have difficulty seeing: it moves about with the pen!” The Mother The Mother’s Agenda/Vol-6/p-290 “(The Mother copies out in her thick white notebook a few lines from her translation of “Savitri.” ) … Near my pen, there is a small disk of Sri Aurobindo’s light, which sparkles and sparkles…. I see it more than my handwriting. It’s no bigger then this (two inches) and it shines, it shines brightly-blue light, of the silvery blue that was Sri Aurobindo’s blue. It shines and shines, and it moves along with my fingers. And when I speak, when I say things that “come,” there are two disks (I don’t know why). Not one, but two, and they are bigger (about four inches), one above the other. When I tell of an experience, for instance, or answer a question, there are two of them, slightly bigger. And when I concentrate on someone while calling the Lord then, generally, near the shoulder (gesture between the person’s head and shoulder), there is a great golden light, like that, which sparkles and sparkles, shines, and shines, very brightly, all the while. And when the light goes, the concentration goes. But just now, it was assuming, it was quite small like this, moving along with my pen. Now it’s finished, gone! (Mother laughs)” The Mother The Mother’s Agenda/Vol-7/p-20 12: “And for Sri Aurobindo’s writings (not all), it is the same; there are certain things I had truly understood, in the sense that they were already understood far more deeply and truly than even an enlightened mentality understands them—they were already felt and lived—and now, they take on a completely different meaning. I read some of those sentences or ideas that are expressed in few words, three or four words, in which he does not say things fully: he simply seems to let them fall like drops of water; when I read them at the time (sometimes not long ago; sometimes only two or three years ago), I had an experience which are far deeper or vaster than that of intelligence, but now...a spark of Light suddenly appears in them, and I say, “Oh, but I had not seen that!” And it’s the whole understanding or CONTACT with things that I had never had before. It happened to me again just yesterday evening. And I said to myself, “But then...then there are in that certain things...we still have a long, long, long way to go to truly understand them.” Because that spark of Light is something very, very pure— very intense and very pure — and it contains an absolute. And since it contains that (I have not always felt it; I have felt other things, I have felt great light, I have felt a great power, I have felt something that already explained everything, but this is something else, it is something which is beyond), so I concluded (laughing), “Well, we still have a long way to go before we can understand Sri Aurobindo! ”” The Mother The Mother’s Agenda-5/p-197-98, The complementary line related with the Mother’s above Spiritual experience: “As when before the eye that wakes in sleep Is opened the sombre binding of a book, Illumined letterings are seen which kept A golden blaze of thought inscribed within, A marvellous form responded to her gaze Whose sweetness justified life’s blindest pain; All Nature’s struggle was its easy price, The universe and its agony seemed worth while.” Savitri-679 This ‘Auroprem’s Savitri Study’ is still very far from the above-mentioned vision. Still, it aspires for a brief touch of all the multiple planes of Spiritual experiences. It has made an initial effort to live in Their untiring Divine influence, Divine company and Divine atmosphere which can substitute the tiring transitory human influence, human company and fragile human love. Savitri gives us this message that all aspiring man can ascend from mere man to the consciousness of ascending integral Godhead and this journey towards imperishable Light and lost lucent immensity, which can begin with the faint wealth of ecstasy and prayer, even when we lie embedded in ordinary earthly consciousness and fail to look into our Souls and culminates life that reposes in the Law of exceeding ecstasy. It has transcended the four kinds of exclusive Spiritual experiences followed by four-fold exclusive Ananda of traditional schools of Yoga and declares firmly that a joy becomes imperfect if it is not shared by all. (“Imperfect is the joy not shared by all.” Savitri-686, “Her light, her bliss he asked for earth and men.” Savitri-315) It has identified the power of human love and effort as vain to ‘break earth’s seal of ignorance and death’ (Savitri-315) and the all powerful Divine Love as ‘sealed book’ for developing Souls or the beginners of integral Yoga (“The doors of light are sealed to common mind” Savitri-689 and "To these high-peaked dominions sealed to our search,” Savitri-46 ) and does not rule out the transformation of human love into Divine Love through consecration and activation of higher instrumentation of the Spirit. (Our human "love has grown greater by that mighty touch” Savitri-719, "Our love is the heavenly seal of the Supreme." Savitri-633) The Power of Love has opened the door of swift Spiritual Evolution but has not yet intensified to conquer Death. Savitri drives Souls of strong to uncover that shadow-less Love to which Death and Fate will submit and is capable of bridging the gulf between the surface-physical life as we know it and the Supramental Ananda that will manifest. Before the manifestation of the Divine Love of Mahalakshmi, the Divine Power of Mahakali and the Divine Truth of Maheswari must be activated in the prepared human vessel. This swift Spiritual evolution of Mahakali can be activated by the reconciliation of Karma Yoga, representing Mahasaraswat i and Jnana Yoga , representing the Maheswari aspect of the Divine Mother. The Gita hints that by reconciliation of Karma and Jnana Yoga , entire purification of Nature, atma suddhaye (The Gita-5.11) is possible and a constant union with the Divine, nitya yukta , (The Gita-6.10, 7.17, 8.14, 9.14, 12.2) is practicable in the long run by transformation of lower Nature. This alone paves the passage clear for single-minded devotion, ekabhakti (The Gita-7.17) of Bhakti Yoga and the manifestation of the highest Divine Love of Sachchidananda Consciousness is practicable. The Permanent descent of Supreme Love from Sachchidananda Consciousness is the culmination of Savitri’s teaching and in the Mother’s experience, “Ultimately, nothing but omnipotence could convert the world, convince the world. The world isn't ready to experience supreme Love. Supreme Love eliminates all problems, even the problem of creation: there are no more problems, I know it since that experience [of April 13, 1962]. But the world isn't ready yet, it may take a few thousand years. Although it is beginning to be ready for the manifestation of supreme Power (which seems to indicate that this will manifest first). And this supreme Power would result from a CONSTANT identification…But this "constancy" isn't yet established: one is identified and then one isn't, is and then isn't, so things get delayed indefinitely. You wind up doing exactly what you tell others not to do – one foot here and one foot there! It just won't do.” (The Mother’s Agenda-04.07.1962) The Mother stresses that constant Divine union is linked to the difficult transformation of Nature; without this transformation, one can experience intermittent Divine union. The Mother stresses the constant penetration of the Divine Force into the material world, which is possible by building a passage in the intermediate planes of Consciousness. “To bring the Divine Love and Beauty and Ananda into the world is, indeed, the whole crown and essence of our Yoga. But it has always seemed to me impossible unless there comes as its support and foundation and guard the Divine Truth — what I call the Supramental — and its Divine Power. Otherwise, Love itself blinded by the confusions of this present consciousness may stumble in its human receptacles and, even otherwise may find itself unrecognised, rejected or rapidly degenerating and lost in the frailty of man’s inferior nature. But when it comes in the Divine Truth and Power, Divine Love descends first as something transcendent and universal and out of that transcendence and universality it applies itself to persons according to the Divine Truth and Will, creating a vaster, greater, purer personal love than any the human mind or heart can now imagine. It is when one has felt this descent that one can be really an instrument for the birth and action of the Divine Love in the world.” (CWSA-29/Letters on Yoga-II/p-333) This personal Divine Love witnesses its acme when, after return from Death, Satyavan said to Savitri , "I have turned away from the celestials’ joy And heaven’s insufficient without thee." (Savitri-717) Before arriving at this ‘vaster, greater, purer personal' Supramental Love, one can experience the intermediate Psychic Love which is ‘Much sweeter seemed than any rapture known’ (Savitri-603) and its ‘momentary and escaping thrill’ (Savitri-603) cannot be recompensed by ‘Earth or all-conquering heaven.’ (Savitri-603) And also one can experience intermediate Spiritual love, which is ‘The Bliss that none can ever hope to taste.’ (Savitri-548) To recapitulate, this Auroprem’s Savitri study has emerged as a cradle of our hard Spiritual endeavour. We offer this study and practice to the Divine Mother and the Lord and pray Them to grant this temporary ladder without as a Soul-saving cradle of the long beginning of the Spiritual journey and help us to build a permanent scaffold within. With its help, the gulf between all the ten planes can be bridged and the highest Sachchidananda Consciousness can flow freely and abundantly into the Subconscient and Inconscient planes. Lastly, I offer this incomplete and unending exercise of ‘Auroprem’s Savitri Study’ at Their Lotus Feet with the conviction, "that true understanding comes later, after having tried to put it into practice." (The Mother's Centenary Works/Vol-12/On Education/p-204) Our motive for extensive study and practice of Their Teachings is to discover and trace out new Overhead Truth abundantly. OM TAT SAT At T heir Feet, S.A. Maa Krishna The Mother “....I am waiting—I am millions of years old and I am waiting (to complete the Divine task).” The Mother The Mother’s Agenda-6/p-347, “Since the beginning of the earth, wherever and whenever there was the possibility of manifesting a ray of the Consciousness, I was there.” The Mother The Mother’s Centenary Works/Vol-13/p-37, 1 / Book 1, Canto 1 - The Symbol Dawn Summary or A Brief Restatement: This Book-1, Canto-1 has much Spiritual importance as the content of the whole book is compressed in this single Canto. The Canto begins with the message from the beginning of this earth which is also ‘the hour before the Gods awake’ (Savitri-1) and ends with the message of the future earth when Satyavan will conquer physical death and this is also identified as the hour of 'a greater dawn.' (Savitri-724) The time spent from the beginning of creation to the end of creation, which is known as All Time, and the life spent through the subtle links of the union from the beginning of creation to the end of creation, known here as All Life; Savitri gathered and accumulated her Spiritual energy through all life and all Time which is symbolized here as ‘Twelve swift-winged months’ (Savitri-431) and ‘this day returning Satyavan must die.’ (Savitri-431) This accumulation of fourfold Soul-force and fourfold Spiritual Force is given utmost importance in the Yoga of Self-perfection, as hinted in Sri Aurobindo's principal Teaching, The Synthesis of Yoga . The whole of Savitri is written from a plane of Cosmic and Truth Consciousness ("The calm delight that weds one soul to all," Savitri-6) where 'All grew a consecration and a rite' (Savitri-4) and all the ten subtle planes meet each other, linking earth and heaven. So this book gives us a lesson to learn 'the adventure of consciousness' (Savitri-2) and removes the gulf created between ten Selves and ten sheaths and the persistent slow dynamic Divine energy 'Persuaded the inert black quietude' (Savitri-3) to transform Subconscient and Inconscient Sheaths. This Canto gives the foreknowledge of the advent of 'a marvellous birth' (Savitri-5) of the feminine Avatar, which is 'A Form from far beatitudes' (Savitri-4) of the Sachchidananda plane. Her Presence and Power are 'Too perfect to be held by death-bound hearts.' (Savitri-5) Her immortal work is 'to confront death on her road.' (Savitri-7) Even in the hour of grim meeting with death and fear, 'No cry broke from her lips, no call for aid;...Calm was her face and courage kept her mute.' (Savitri-8 ) 'Her spirit opened to the Spirit in all...The universal Mother's love was hers.' (Savitri-8) All the descriptions in this book are in symbolic language meant for undergoing Spiritual experiences. If we confine these symbols to literal and earthly meaning, it will be a Spiritual blunder that may culminate in 'the oblivion that succeeds the' (Savitri-3) Spiritual fall. The soul-saving non-escapist truth revealed in Savitri (It recognises life initially as a field of manifestation in which there is a progressive evolution of the soul and the nature in Matter and finally the complete revelation of Sachchidananda in life.) is disturbing to the ordinary mind, liberated Souls, later Vedantists , Illusionists and Nirvanists . Hence, the Spiritual Message of Savitri is for strong and pure Souls who are destined to reconcile the Spirit and Matter of ancient Vedantic doctrine. OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this chapter: “Immobile in herself, she gathered force. (Savitri utilised time and space exclusively for the accumulation of Spiritual energy.) This was the day when Satyavan must die.” Savitri-10 2 / Book 1, Canto 2 - The Issue Summary or A Brief Restatement: This Canto makes us aware of 'An absolute supernatural darkness' (Savitri-11) that visits the Soul of man while he moves toward God. This evil fate or doom is the child of the past negative energies and the accumulated Soul Force through sadhana, can travel back in time, and illumine the past obscurities and events. Thus, through each Divine intervention, the destiny is rewritten. Savitri is here the symbol of Spirit's Timeless dynamic Power, Paraprakriti, who 'Can lift the yoke imposed by birth in Time.' (Savitri-12) The issue is also, to exhaust 'An old account of suffering' (Savitri-13) and to arrest the wheels of earth’s "Doom this greatness rose.” (Savitri-19) Heaven protected Savitri’s virginity through her pure and dense subtle physical sheath which acted as a 'tranquil shield.' (Savitri-16) “To wrestle with the Shadow she had come” (Savitri-17) “Was her soul's issue thrown with Destiny's dice.” (Savitri-17) Soul and Nature are the dice players. Nature always meets life with Doom. To win the game in all life is the Soul’s issue which 'with her nude spirit measure the Infinite’s night.' (Savitri-13) In this play Soul has to accumulate extreme Spiritual force in the form of 'self's bare reality' (Savitri-14) or 'the superman casts its seed' (Savitri-19) to become mightier than all the material forces of the world and wrestles with them to compel its own transfiguration. This Canto also hints that Savitri had attained universalised Consciousness or 'The great World-Mother now in her arose.' (Savitri-21) This empowers her to open 'the door denied and closed' (Savitri-21) of dark Subconscient and Inconscient sheath and dislodges the past which acts as a block in her immortal journey. This activation of dynamic cosmic Consciousness 'reversed fate's cold dead turn' (Savitri-21) and bursts the bound nature of three Gunas of limited exclusive concentration and opens the door of triple time. Our task in sadhana is to make Death God's throne unsafe (Savitri-18) by undergoing Subconscient and Inconscient Transformation and to change this prison-house of the material world into the opulent kingdom, rajyam samruddham . (The Gita-11.33) OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this chapter: "Her will must cancel her body’s destiny. For only the unborn spirit’s timeless power Can lift the yoke imposed by birth in Time." Savitri-12 "The fixity of the cosmic sequences Fastened with hidden inevitable links She must disrupt, dislodge by her soul’s force Her past, a block on the Immortal’s road, Make a rased ground and shape anew her fate." Savitri-12 “Whether to bear with Ignorance and death Or hew the ways of Immortality, To win or lose the godlike game for man , Was her soul's issue thrown with Destiny's dice. But not to submit and suffer was she born; To lead, to deliver was her glorious part.” Savitri-17 “If once it (earth) met the intense original Flame, An answering touch might shatter all measures made And earth sink down with the weight of the Infinite.” Savitri-18 3 / Book 1, Canto 3 - The Yoga Of The Soul's Release A Brief Restatement: Now this Book-1, Canto-3 is the most important Canto for the beginners of integral Yoga. Here it hints how through King Aswapati’s movement of Consciousness, ten energy centres or ten Selves opened and their corresponding action in the respective ten Sheaths, here known as ‘all Nature.’ The opening of ten Selves and Their influence on ten sheaths: " A heavenlier function with a finer mode Lit with its grace man’s outward earthliness; The soul’s experience of its deeper sheaths No more slept drugged by Matter’s dominance." Savitri-27 Inconscient Self: "As a sculptor chisels a deity out of stone He slowly chipped off the dark envelope, Line of defence of Nature’s ignorance, The illusion and mystery of the Inconscient In whose black pall the Eternal (in the form of Inconscient Self) wraps his head That he may act unknown in cosmic Time.” (the discovery of Inconscient Self) Savitri-36 Subconscient Self: "A treasure was found of a supernal Day. In the deep subconscient glowed her jewel-lamp; Lifted, it showed the riches of the Cave Where, by the miser traffickers of sense Unused, guarded beneath Night’s dragon paws, In folds of velvet darkness they sleep Whose priceless value could have saved the world.” (the discovery of Subconscient Self) Savitri-42 True Physical Self: " Even his body’s subtle self within Could raise the earthly parts towards higher things And feel on it the breath of heavenlier air." Savitri-43 True Vital Self: " A deeper interpretation greatened Truth, A grand reversal of the Night and Day; All the world’s values changed heightening life’s aim ; A wiser word, a larger thought came in Than what the slow labour of human mind can bring, A secret sense awoke that could perceive A Presence and a Greatness everywhere." Savitri-42 True Mental Self: “Apart he lived in his mind’s solitude, A demigod shaping the lives of men: One soul’s ambition lifted up the race; A Power worked, but none knew whence it came." Savitri-44 Psychic Self: "His soul breaks out to join the Oversoul, His life is oceaned by that superlife." Savitri-24 Spiritual Self: " A beam of the Eternal smites his heart, His thought stretches into infinitude; All in him turns to spirit vastnesses." Savitri-23-24 Universal Self: " He has drunk from the breasts of the Mother of the worlds; A topless Supernature fills his frame: She adopts his spirit’s everlasting ground As the security of her changing world And shapes the figure of her unborn mights." Savitri-24 Supramental Self: “Inspired by silence and the closed eyes' sight (Supramental action of King Aswapati) His force could work with a new luminous art On the crude material from which all is made And the refusal of Inertia's mass And the grey front of the world's Ignorance And nescient Matter and the huge error of life." Savitri-36 “Hardly for a moment glimpsed viewless to Mind, (Brief Supramental experience.) As if a torch held by a power of God, The radiant world of the everlasting Truth Glimmered like a faint star bordering the night Above the golden Overmind’s shimmering ridge.” Savitri-41 Bliss Self: "A glory and a rapture and a charm, The All-Blissful sat unknown within the heart; Earth’s pains were the ransom of its prisoned delight. A glad communion tinged the passing hours; The days were travellers on a destined road, The nights companions of his musing spirit." Savitri-43 This movement of Consciousness is complex in Nature and for our understanding purpose, we have simplified it. This is made on the basis of our study and understanding of ‘The Synthesis of Yoga’ book. First, by practising any of the triple Yoga, the Spiritual being opens and by the pressure of static Spirit or ascent of the Spirit, the universal Self, Supramental Self and Bliss Self open. By the pressure of dynamic Spirit, the Psychic being, and triple Selves of true Physical, true Vital and true Mental being open. By the pressure of the Supramental Self, the Subconscient and Inconscient Selves open. Thus the movement of consciousness undulates between the Inconscient and Bliss plane. Through these movements, the ten Sheaths are purified, transformed, enlarged and perfected. The Gita hints movement of Consciousness from Kshara (Psychic) Purusha to Akshara (Spiritual) Purusha or from waking trance to non-waking trance which substitutes the movements of consciousness between three gunas. Then after a long movement between the Psychic and Spiritual plane, one is considered fit to open the Supramental Self or Purshottama . This triple movement of Consciousness hinted in the Gita is extensively developed in integral Yoga as movement between ten Selves and their ten Sheaths. Now in other Cantos, we will experience King Aswapati’s extensive movement in different planes of Consciousness. For a higher Spiritual life, this Canto insists on calling down more and more silence, peace and calmness and to maintain equality in all circumstances and in all happenings. By maintaining these conditions, Consciousness can best experience its vertical movement by replacing the earlier circular and arrested movements of three gunas . OM TAT SAT The Important Secret of this chapter: (Discovery of Spiritual being and Universal Being) “Each action left the footprints of a god,” Savitri-23 “A spirit that is a flame of God abides, A fiery portion of the Wonderful, Artist of his own beauty and delight, Immortal in our mortal poverty.” Savitri-23 “As so he grew into his larger self,” Savitri-26 (Cosmic Self) “He neared the still consciousness sustaining all.” Savitri-32 “He comes unseen into our darker parts And, curtained by the darkness, does his work, A subtle and all-knowing guest and guide, Till they too feel the need and will to change. All here must learn to obey a higher law, Our body’s cells must hold the Immortal’s flame." Savitri-35 "At last was won a firm spiritual poise, A constant lodging in the Eternal's realm, A safety in the Silence and the Ray, A settlement in the Immutable. “ Savitri-36 (King Aswapati’s realisation of Spiritual Being, Akshara Purusha ) 4 / Book 1, Canto 4 - The Secret Knowledge A Brief Restatement: Here the Secret Knowledge is divided into five parts. First part: This Canto hints that when we are unconscious and feel ourselves stagnant, there are parts of being that grow towards the Divine during that period. There is much hope here for the beginners of Yoga which is identified as the first secret of Sadhana . “Even when we fail to look into our souls Or lie embedded in earthly consciousness, Still have we parts that grow towards the light, Yet are there luminous tracts and heavens serene And Eldorados of splendour and ecstasy And temples to the godhead none can see.” Savitri-46-47 When we live in darkness and our tamasic mind is the only lamp in that obscure field, there too, the Truth-Light enters like a thief and its charm and sweetness open many closed doors of our life. About this mystery we must be aware and open: "When darkness deepens strangling the earth’s breast And man’s corporeal mind is the only lamp, As a thief’s in the night shall be the covert tread Of one who steps unseen into his house. A Voice ill-heard shall speak, the soul obey, A Power into mind’s inner chamber steal, A charm and sweetness open life’s closed doors And beauty conquer the resisting world, The Truth-Light capture Nature by surprise, A stealth of God compel the heart to bliss And earth grow unexpectedly divine." Savitri-55 Its complementary lines are found in other Canto: (Savitri said after her Psychic being is Supramentalised.) “If the chamber’s door is even a little ajar, What then can hinder God from stealing in Or who forbid his kiss on the sleeping soul?” Savitri-649 (Divine said) “Even the many shall some answer make And bear the splendour of the Divine’s rush And his (Divine’s) impetuous (hasty) knock at unseen doors.” Savitri-709 When we live alone with ourselves, leaving our cherished guests outside, that is the condition of meeting the Divine and through the movement of Divine Consciousness, the gulfs between different subtle worlds are bridged. "In moments when the inner lamps are lit And the life’s cherished guests are left outside, Our spirit sits alone and speaks to its gulfs." Savitri-47 This first part of Secret Knowledge suggests that all men knowingly or unknowingly, consciously or unconsciously receive the Divine's touch but a few of them are capable of catching and holding the Divine flame and can lead a greater and higher Spiritual life. All can enter Supramental’s huge store for a very brief period with new creations, new inventions and new opulence at their disposal but none can stay in that world permanently. Only a few, who have a strong subtle and causal body can enter the Supramental world for a longer period and can descend into the Subconscient and Inconscient night for a longer period and experience conscious transformation. "A fire has come and touched men’s hearts and gone; A few have caught flame and risen to greater life." Savitri-7 "Only they knew what Mind could take and build Out of the secret Supermind’s huge store." Savitri-187 “There man can visit but there he cannot live.” Savitri-659 Second part: This Canto hints that for those who are aware of the above mystery, the Divine Chooses a few of them as His instrument and by the touch of His infinite Grace and Force, their frontal Nature is predominated by Silence, Stillness, Calm and Peace. "In the unfolding process of the Self Sometimes the inexpressible Mystery Elects a human vessel of descent. A breath comes down from a supernal air, A Presence is born, a guiding Light awakes, A stillness falls upon the instruments: Fixed, motionless like a marble monument, Stone-calm, the body is a pedestal Supporting a figure of eternal Peace.” Savitri-47 Third Part: Awareness of the Guardians of the Supramental world or World-Creators who oversee (1) Fate, (2) Chance, and (3) Divine Work through Divine Will. If we do this Yoga, then these invisible Guardians from the Supramental world will come down to help us, help in our ascent of the Soul, and give protection to our Sadhana life, they will help to change our destiny, transform chance into decreed Spiritual life and will expedite the Divine work, Divine Purification, transformation, and perfection. “A greater Personality sometimes Possesses us which yet we know is ours:” Savitri-47 “He (man) is ignorant of the meaning of his life, He is ignorant of his high and splendid fate. Only the Immortals on their deathless heights Dwelling beyond the walls of Time and Space, Masters of living, free from the bonds of Thought, Who are overseers of Fate and Chance and Will And experts of the theorem of world-need, Can see the Idea, the Might that change Time’s course, Come maned with light from undiscovered worlds, Hear, while the world toils on with its deep blind heart, The galloping hooves of the unforeseen event, Bearing the superhuman Rider, near And, impassive to earth’s din and startled cry, Return to the silence of the hills of God; As lightning leaps, as thunder sweeps, they pass And leave their mark on the trampled breast of Life.” Savitri-53-54 “Immaculate in self-knowledge and self-power, Calm they (Immortals) repose on the eternal Will. Only his (Divine Will) law they count and him obey; They have no goal to reach, no aim to serve. Implacable in their timeless purity, All barter or bribe of worship they refuse; Unmoved by cry of revolt and ignorant prayer They reckon not our virtue and our sin; They bend not to the voices that implore, They hold no traffic with error and its reign; They are guardians of the silence of the Truth, They are keepers of the immutable decree. A deep surrender is their source of might, A still identity their way to know, Motionless is their action like a sleep.” Savitri-57 Fourth part: The relation between the Creator and creation and the Creator’s blind love and care for the creation without seeing any of her defects, limitations and faults. This is also Prakriti Yajna, a Vedic Sacrifice, more powerful than Purusha Yajna, a Vedantic sacrifice. Prakriti Yajna is a very important sadhana for developed Souls. How the Creator is taking care of creation, and how He has made Himself a slave of her are most beautifully and most profoundly described by Sri Aurobindo , very rare in earth’s Spiritual history. This is identified as the fourth secret of Sadhana which culminates in discovering the relation of dual Avatara in our heart centre. We can practice this surrender literally as described in this Canto and will benefit most from this exercise. “As one too great for him he (Divine) worships her (Creation); He (Divine) adores her (Creation) as his regent of desire...” Savitri-62 “This whole wide world is only he and she.” Savitri-63 Fifth part: A seeker of truth is a world Adventurer and Voyager of multiple unknown oceans representing ten subtle bodies or sheaths and a Cosmologist exploring the obscure geography of three firm lands of surface life, mind and body. A Sadhaka must be a Kshatriya Soul force, having the courage 'to affront the far-off perilous main' (Savitri-70) and to fight outer and inner endless war and ready to bear inner and outer wounds that are slow to heal till he traces a path to the Supramental world with a new or transformed body and mind. Till this discovery, he carries Divine Mother's sealed orders and sails 'on Inconscient's fathomless sea.' (Savitri-71) In Ashram activity, most of the inmates are Shudra Soul force, they give service and hold Ashram living by practice of obedience but they recoil from any great unknown adventure. So the presence of a few more Kshatriya Soul Force is felt and with their help, the adventure of Consciousness can be expedited. "He is the adventurer and cosmologist Of a magic earth’s obscure geography." Savitri-69 “This is the sailor on the flow of Time, This is World-Matter’s slow discoverer, Who, launched into this small corporeal birth, Has learned his craft in tiny bays of self, But dares at last unplumbed infinitudes, A voyager upon eternity’s seas. In his world-adventure’s crude initial start Behold him ignorant of his godhead’s force, Timid initiate of its vast design. An expert captain of a fragile craft, A trafficker in small impermanent wares, At first he hugs the shore and shuns the breadths, Dares not to affront the far-off perilous main.” Savitri-69-70 OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this chapter: “The Spirit's bare and absolute potencies (Last perfection of integral Yoga.) Burn in the solitude of the thoughts of God.” Savitri-57 “With the Truth-Light strike earth's massive roots of trance, (Supramental light will strike the Inconscient sheath and penetrate into it.) Wake a dumb self in the inconscient depths (dumb self is the Inconscient Self) And raise a lost Power from its python sleep (lost Power is the Inconscient Self.) That the eyes of the Timeless might look out from Time And the world manifest the unveiled Divine.” Savitri-72-73 5/ Book 1, Canto 5 - The Yoga Of The Spirit's Freedom and Greatness A Brief Restatement : Here, the King’s adventure into Spiritual planes has been revealed and they are divided into seven parts. First part: The transition from ordinary life to Supramental life where ‘all (the knowledge of three times and Spiritual history of earth.) is for ever known’ (Savitri-74) and ‘all that the Gods have learned is there self known...And the secret code of the history of the world.’ (Savitri-74) The King Aswapati was able to build in Ignorance the steps of Light, saw the unshaped thought in soulless form, knew Matter pregnant with Spiritual sense, Mind dared the study of the Unknowable; Life was the gestation of the Golden Child, in the Void 'he saw throned the Omniscience supreme.' (Savitri-76) Second part: He entered the experience of Vedantic ascent to ‘unseen spiritual heights’ (Savitri-76) without any descending link and solution to the problem of the earth nature. The King was like 'The infant soul (Dvija) in its small nursery school' and his body is 'ilumined with the indwelling God.' (Savitri-76) The greatness of the eternal Spirit appeared but it could not transform Matter. This height of the Spirit repels the lowness of the earthly state and hurriedly glimpsed the imperfection of heavenly things. From cradle to grave he lives with little mental hope, faint rays of happiness, thrills of flesh, Love's broken reflexes of unity, wounded happiness, mutilated ecstasy and forfeited heavenly bliss. He realised partially the Psychic Being, above the limitation of Nature and Fate and realised partially the Spiritual being as 'the Knower beyond Time.' (Savitri-78) Third part: Then he experienced Vedantic ascent like a burning cone of fire and descent of Consciousness, making the cosmic murmur fall still and bear the silence of the Infinite. With the opening of King's Spiritual being, 'he lived immune from earthly hopes' and 'The Silence was his sole companion left.' (Savitri-79) A call he received from intangible height. His Spiritual being was open towards universal light and 'A golden influx flowed through heart and brain;' and A Divine force and current from eternal Seas of Bliss came down into his heart, brain and into his mortal limbs; made him aware of his dynamic occult Omnipotent Source and turned to his immense Spiritual Fate. He listens to the Spiritual being as a bodyless guide and travels back in time, living 'in the hush before the world was born.' (Savitri-80) Fourth part: King Aswapati's this particular experience is often compared with the Mother's experience of Divine Love in (April-13) 1962 and Supramental descent in (29th February) 1956. His being towered into pathless height to meet bare, pure and ruthless Divine Love. A strong Descent of Might, Flame, Beauty, and violent Ecstasy leaped down and enveloped him by penetrating into nerve, heart and brain with its stupendous limbs. By the touch of Divine Love, earth Nature’s obsolete laws were overpowered and the scripts of fixed destiny were abolished. (King's experience of Divine Love:) “A strong Descent leaped down. A Might, a Flame, A Beauty half-visible with deathless eyes, A violent Ecstasy, a Sweetness dire, Enveloped him with its stupendous limbs And penetrated nerve and heart and brain That thrilled and fainted with the epiphany:” (Bliss Self-experience.) Savitri-81 “By a Power more ruthless than Love, happier than Heaven, Taken sovereignly into eternal arms, Haled and coerced by a stark absolute bliss, In a whirlwind circuit of delight and force Hurried into unimaginable depths, Upborne into immeasurable heights, It was torn out from its mortality And underwent a new and bourneless change.” Savitri-81 (The Mother's experience of 13 April, 1962) "Everything was Personal, nothing was individual. This was going on and on and on and on.... The certitude that what is to be done is DONE. All the results of the Falsehood had disappeared: Death was an illusion, Sickness was an illusion, Ignorance was an illusion – something that had no reality, no existence.... Only Love, and Love, and Love, and Love – immense, formidable, stupendous, carrying everything." The Mother's Agenda-April-13, 1962 (King's experience of Supramental descent) "The great hammer-beats of a pent-up world-heart Burst open the narrow dams that keep us safe Against the forces of the universe. The soul and cosmos faced as equal powers. A boundless being in a measureless Time Invaded Nature with the infinite; He saw unpathed, unwalled, his titan scope." Savitri-83 The Mother's experience of Supramental descent on 29th February, 1956: "This evening the Divine Presence, concrete and material, was there present amongst you. I had a form of living gold, bigger than the universe, and I was facing a huge and massive golden door which separated the world from the Divine... As I looked at the door, I knew and willed, in a single movement of consciousness, that THE TIME HAS COME’, and lifting with both hands a mighty golden hammer I struck one blow, one single blow on the door and the door was shattered to pieces... Then the supramental Light and Force and Consciousness rushed down upon earth in an uninterrupted flow." The Mother's Agenda/February 29, 1956 " Even when I had that experience [the ‘first supramental manifestation’ of February 29, 1956], when the Lord said, ‘The time has come,’ well, it was not a complete descent; it was the descent of the Consciousness, the Light, and a part, an aspect of the Power. It was immediately absorbed and swallowed up by the world of Inconscience, and from that moment on it began to work in the atmosphere. But it was not THE thing that comes and gets permanently established; when that happens, we won’t need to speak of it – it will be obvious!... Although the experience of ‘56 was one more forward step, it’s not.... It’s not final." The Mother's Agenda/November 5, 1961 Fifth part: King Aswapati’s experience of Vedic sacrific e (occupied a large section of this Canto, signifying its importance for a developed Soul) resulted first the descent of Divine Mother Force projected here as almighty Occultist, who plunged from graded Law of Timeless Eternity into the Time. Then up a golden ladder carrying the Soul from birth to death, the beauty of the Matter’s shapes, life’s adventure and delight and glory of the multitudinous mind, he climbed back from Time into undying Timeless Self, tying with diamond threads the Spirit’s extremes. Here in this Vedic sacrifice or Prakriti Yajna , the higher Divine Consciousness dropped to lower consciousness and then the lower consciousness soared to higher Consciousness. "In this drop from consciousness to consciousness... In this soar from consciousness to consciousness" Savitri-89 (Example of Vedic sacrifice.) Sixth part: Then, during these double movements of consciousness, a last high world of Bliss sheath was seen where all the other nine worlds meet. In this summit Bliss world there was no Night and Sleep and the light of the Trinity supreme that of Existence, Consciousness and Bliss was visible. All that we seek here on earth are discovered there and freed the finite into boundlessness and rose into its own eternity. " A last high world was seen where all worlds meet; In its summit gleam where Night is not nor Sleep, The light began of the Trinity supreme. All there discovered what it seeks for here." Savitri-89 Seventh part: By the pressure of this high plane, the bottom Inconscient Sheath discovered its heart, the Divine All in the form of Inconscient Self. Thus all the ideas and feelings of Ignorance clutched to the body of the Truth. 'A grand solution ,' (Savitri-90) due this discovery of the Inconscient Self, closed the long impasse; the music and perfect rhythm were born in Matter’s silences and a reconciling wisdom was found which lifted the striving undertone of mind, the confused refrain of human hopes, inarticulate murmur of our lives, under ground of pain, soul’s faint scattered utterances, disjointed mutterings in sleep into sweet and happy Divine Call. " A grand solution closed the long impasse In which the heights of mortal effort end. A reconciling Wisdom looked on life; It took the striving undertones of mind And took the confused refrain of human hopes And made of them a sweet and happy call;" Savitri-90 Lastly, this Canto asks a Sadhaka to become the Voyager and Adventurer in Consciousness and to discover another Time and Space other than the experience of the divisible time and divisible space of the surface mind. And also it hints about Sadhaka's enjoyment of the Lord's double protection by opening towards 'dual eternity' (Savitri-82) of vast invasion of Divine Force above the head and below the feet and this exercise ultimately vanishes the enormous role of the dark Forces. (Savitri-82) " A voyager upon uncharted routes Fronting the viewless danger of the Unknown, Adventuring across enormous realms, He broke into another Space and Time." Savitri-91 OM TAT SAT 6/ Book 2, Canto 1 - The World Stair A Brief Restatement: This Book-2, Canto-1, hints King’s initial wandering (final established wandering observed in Book-2, Canto-14) in universalized (infinity Around) and Transcendent (Unknowable above) Consciousness whose movements stand as a precondition of exploring multiple planes of consciousness and of pursuing the Yoga of the Earth. During the movement of consciousness in these Cosmic and Transcendent planes, he could realise 'oneness of all things' and Space as 'a vast experiment of Soul.' Thus: "All could be seen that shuns the mortal eye, All could be known the mind has never grasped; All could be done no mortal will can dare. A limitless movement filled a limitless peace." Savitri-95 The need of impersonalized and universalized consciousness in our daily life ensure these six attributes: “(1) It releases his knowledge from the narrowness of personal mind, (2) his will from the clutch of personal desire, (3) his heart from the bondage of petty mutable emotions, (4) his life from its petty personal groove, (5) his soul from ego, and (6) it allows them to embrace calm, equality, wideness, universality, infinity.” (The Synthesis of Yoga/p-127) Thus, in this universal plane: "His universal Power at work display In plots of pain and dramas of delight The wonder and beauty of her will to be. All, even pain, was the soul’s pleasure here; Here all experience was a single plan, The thousandfold expression of the One." Savitri-95-96 This universalized consciousness drags King beyond the limitation of mortal eye, mental knowledge and personal will and he experiences limitless peace, the descent of immortal timeless Word, extreme purity, sovereign sweetness, violent overhead poetry, the terrible adventure of delight, unseen perfection, Truth’s secrecies, opulent beauty, dynamic Superconscient light, voiceless stillness, intangible aims, immortality’s call, calm and luminous intimacy within, many toned unities, many meeting worlds, ordered plan, unfathomed loneliness, mute and single strength, formless Stillness, white immobile Ray, eternal Silences and bare summit of created things. This Canto makes us aware of our objective of housing the Illimitable in the time-made body and to live ‘all Ocean’ symbolising the multiple worlds in 'a drop of water' symbolising our finite Self. Here again, the importance of the Psychic Being, Jivatma is recognised as the means of the largest Supramental action. The activation of Supramental energy in our external earthly life ensures three things. They are the inherent order of all things, great harmony and oneness with Self, World and Divine. Thus, in this journey of World Stair, Traveller in Time, Voyager of all oceans and adventurer of Consciousness, the King’s high-pitched attempt is extended to guarded powers of multiple worlds, deep beatitudes of multiple heavens and he called down to earth and men eternal Silences, formless Stillness and nameless Light. King Aswapati greatly inspires us to transform ‘this surface life’ to ‘inner all life’ extending over many births and bodies and to transform this material birth into 'deep adventure' (Savitri-99) and individual activity to world action. He makes us aware that the dynamic Spirit 'is within, below, without, above.' (Savitri-98) Or Spirit is within us as Psychic being, true physical Being, true vital Being and true mental Being, below the feet as Subconscient Self and Inconscient Self, without as Cosmic Self and above the head as Spiritual, Supramental and Bliss Self. OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this chapter: "Our life is a holocaust of the Supreme. The great World-Mother by her sacrifice Has made her soul the body of our state; Accepting sorrow and unconsciousness Divinity’s lapse from its own splendours wove The many-patterned ground of all we are." Savitri-99 "A miracle of the Absolute was born; Infinity put on a finite soul, All ocean lived within a wandering drop A time-made body housed the Illimitable. To live this Mystery out our souls came here.” Savitri-101 7/ Book 2, Canto 2 - The Kingdom Of Subtle Matter A Brief restatement: This Book-2, Canto-2, represents a subtle physical world. It is an important Spiritual Science, hinted at in the Upanishad as dream Self, sukhma sharira . This world is very close to the material world, the meeting place of the Superconscient, Subconscient and universal world. This subtle physical has an important role in Supramental transformation action in which 'high and low worlds' (Savitri-105) are made one. All the happening and new manifestations in the material world have their source and previous formation in this subtle matter. A purified and universalized subtle matter can act as a field of interpenetration of Superconscient and Subconscient energies and hence is the preparatory field of all new manifestations. A preliminary attempt is made to enter this vast, affirmative, plastic, immaterial kingdom and to become aware of this Annamaya Purusha , the Soul in the physical (“And Matter’s depths be illumined with a soul” (Savitri-268)) and Annamaya Kosha or the subtle physical sheath (The gross weighs less, the subtle counts for more;” (Savitri-186)) which are identified as an important base of unfolding of the mystery of the existence. The vision of this Canto is divided into four parts: First Part: The first part defines that subtle physical is our eternal substance extending over 'all life,' which is Spirit's first transparent robe. It does not live by the flesh and greatly supports the gross physical substance. This is a world of lovelier form where all things are beautiful, faultless and true. Its subtle eye is a door to celestial sense, subtle ear is sweet music, subtle touch is full of charm and transfiguring hue and the subtle heart draws a deeper breath of power. The Mighty breath of the Divine is intercepted and slowly inrushes as bright dews drip through a subtle physical sheath. This Canto proposes that the true physical being or annamaya Purusha can be utilised as a meeting ground of Spirit and Matter and it can also be uplifted as a meeting ground of the highest Supramental plane and the lowest Inconscient plane for transformation action. The task of subtle physical is to transform common material things and by its influence 'even earth's mud grows rich and warm with the skies' (Savitri-107) and 'It guards deathless' (Savitri-106) flames in the perishing body. Out of the Spiritual fall of subtle Matter, that plunges lost in the inconscient base, the denser Matter is born. Second Part: In this part, gross Matter is identified as Spiritual fall of the subtle Matter. This fallen world is the 'immortal godhead's perishable parts' (Savitri-107) in which the Soul is nurtured and must evolve the mind, life and body's giant energies. This brute half-conscious body becomes a means of evolution of Divine life and the mind must recover the lost Wisdom and this bound Spirit, annamaya Purusha, will one day emerge as Nature's King. Third Part: Through a subtle physical sheath, a fragment of the Eternal is caught for heaven's design. Here 'the response to Truth is swift and sure' (Savitri-111) and 'Achieve perfection by the magic throb.' (Savitri-112) All we attempt through Soul activation in this imperfect world cannot go in vain. our Spirit must travel back to illumine the past obscurities and Spirit must travel forward to call down Timeless and Spaceless energies. Thus all imperfections are seized by their absolutely perfect state and Matter is able to hold permanently Divine's Presence or 'To fix the eternal’s touch in time-made things.' (Savitri-108) Thus, with subtle physical assistance, a brilliant passage is made 'in the gross walls of nerve and brain,'(Savitri-108) for the descent of infallible Flame and thus, we could 'hope for greater life.' (Savitri-108) If we can climb above our surface life then 'A line of Transcendent meets on our road' (Savitri-110) which brings us godlike acts and descents inevitable words and 'thoughts that never die.' (Savitri-110) Fourth Part: This subtle physical world is identified as 'the House of Days' and 'material Paradise.' It exists without fear, grief, pain, defeat, fault, or failure and is 'Exempt from the ordeal and the test.' (Savitri-113) This subtle material world 'had no wings for wide and dangerous flight,' 'no peril of sky or of abyss,' 'no vistas and no mighty dreams, No yearning for her lost infinitudes.' (Savitri-115) This Canto proposes that in order to build a Spiritual passage, the subtle physical is to be made pure, transparent and dense and must develop the constant aspiration to possess the Highest plane. OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this chapter: “To fix the eternal's touch in time-made things, This is the law of all perfection here.” Savitri-108 “Our souls forget to the Highest to aspire.” Savitri-113 “Intruder from the formless Infinite Daring to break into the Inconscient's reign, The spirit's leap towards body touches ground.” Savitri-105 “A Being woke and lived in the meaningless void, (Here Being is the Inconscient Self.) A world-wide Nescience strove towards life and thought, A Consciousness plucked out from mindless sleep.” Savitri-107 “A Splendour presses or a Power breaks through, Earth's great dull barrier is removed awhile, The inconscient seal is lifted from our eyes And we grow vessels of creative might.” Savitri-108 8/ Book 2, Canto 3 - The Glory And Fall Of Life A Brief Restatement: In this Canto, the King ascends to the subtle vital plane from the subtle matter’s plane. From here he could understand the dichotomy between this subtle vital as it is reflected in our plane (in a fallen state) compared to its original beauty (higher Purer Vital world). The Lord describes the beauty and grandeur of this (True) heavenly plane and contrasts it with its lower (fallen) vibration in our earth. He outlines how Life answered the desperate call of the Soul/Beings trapped in inert matter and longed for deliverance into other forms. The Life descended to our earth plane (from above) to remake earth in Her glorious image, swiftly stopped and maimed in her flow by a dark being of inconscience. Since then the vital on our plane (the subtle vital) thinks back to the glory of her original state but she is unable to reclaim it. This Savitri, Book-2, Canto-3, gives a vivid account of the glory (and also fall) of life or the action of Para-prakriti or higher Nature on life or vital plane in five parts . First part: This accounts for King's entry into a 'wide obscure disputed fields' (Savitri-116) of untransformed subtle vital life where all was doubt, unsatisfied, unsure, toilsome, unsolved problems and 'uncertain of the ground he trod.' (Savitri-116) Here 'every change prolonged the same unease,' 'in the new saw the face of old,' and 'the fierce lust that brings a dead fatigue.' (Savitri-118) The King further confirms that the existing life is born from a pure and bright Timeless and endless Bliss state of consciousness. During this fall 'A lost world rapture lingers in her eyes' and 'Beauty and happiness are her native right.' (Savitri-118) Second part: Despite the sudden disclosure of grief, fear and insecurity, King saw a happier state and kingdom of griefless life. This pure subtle vital plane is a new celestial vault, an archipelago of laughter and fire. This subtle vital plane is free from life's suffering, struggle, and grief, not affected by anger, gloom and hate and this visioned land is ever blissful in its timeless state. They live sure of their immortal gladness and content with their own beauty. One can enter this subtle world through meditation, dreams and trance. Here he will meet rapturous landscapes, figures of the perfect kingdom and behind them leave a shining memories trail. This subtle vital plane seems unreal but more real than the gross life, happier than earthly joy and truer than things true. this gives the experience of eternal moments, calm heavens of imperishable Light, and an illumined continent of violent peace and griefless countries. Third part: The King was able to bridge the gulf that divides the subtle vital world from the gross vital world which is felt indispensable for purification, transformation, perfection and Divinisation of surface vital plane. So the visions of the wonder-world became a reality with pure loveliness and bliss and life was fulfilled with the touch of supreme Delight. The King was able to invert the Spirit's apex Supramental consciousness towards life through an intermediate subtle vital plane and by this action, he controlled life's restless seas and obeyed a governing Wisdom. He felt the Presence of this inscrutable Supermind but could not know its origin. Life became the slave of World-self, thus she was able to canalise the seas of omnipotence. In this part, we see that King was able to bridge the gulf between the Cosmic world and the subtle vital world. In this cosmic Consciousness King experienced triple time as a ceaseless moving picture and met the whole world as the chaos of personality. Fourth part: In this part, King met his universalised subtle vital action and felt a deep need 'To take all beings into his saviour arms,' (Savitri-123) and 'To force on them the happiness they refuse' (Savitri-123) and of transforming earth life through his experience: 'Heaven’s joys might have been earth’s if earth were pure.' (Savitri-123) He felt the need of Divinised Sense and Heart which was natural Delight's bright extreme. His life's closed doors were opened to things Supreme. The King met the guardians of Supravital and subtle vital worlds as 'Immortal figures.' (Savitri-123) We also get the hint of nude god-children who are perfect instruments to Divinise life and the vital transformation and 'They steeped existence in their youth of soul.' (Savitri-127 ) Fifth part: In this part, the King standing on the border of the Supramental world, received the call of Bliss world and saw that world but could not bridge the gulf between them. Before the Divine Mother or 'gracious great-winged Angel' possesses life, 'A dark ambiguous Presence questioned all.' (Savitri-130 ) This dark Power abolishes the action of the mighty true Vital being and the boon of Psychic happiness. Thus life meets doom and Spiritual fall by the influence of work born out of the activation of three gunas . From this Canto, we learn the lesson of how Para-Prakriti, or a hierarchy of dynamic Consciousness can act stumblingly and steadily on life and experience both rise and fall or glory and fall of life. This Canto asks to develop the highest dynamic Consciousness which can meet the inert Inconscient’s law. We can refer the Mother’s following important observation related with Her vital Being: “But you see, you see all the way I have come...And I was born with a consciously prepared body—Sri Aurobindo was aware of that, he said it immediately the first time he saw me: I was born free. That is, from the spiritual standpoint: without any desire. Without any desire and attachment. And mon petit, if there is the slightest desire and the slightest attachment, it is IMPOSSIBLE to do this work. A vital like a warrior, with an absolute self-control (the vital of this present incarnation was sexless—a warrior), an absolutely calm and imperturbable warrior—no desires, no attachments...Since my earliest childhood, I have done things which, to human consciousness, are “monstrous;” my mother went so far as to tell me that I was a real “monster,” because I had neither attachments nor desires. If I was asked, “Would you like to do this?” I answered, “I don’t care.” If people were nasty to me, or if people died or went away, it left me absolutely calm—and so: “You are a monster, you have no feelings.” And with that preparation... It is eighty-six years since I came here, mon petit! For thirty years I worked with Sri Aurobindo consciously, without letup, night and day ... We shouldn’t be in a hurry.” The Mother’s Agenda/28.03.1964 OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this chapter: “Inverting the spirit’s apex towards life, She (The Mother Nature) spends the plastic liberties of the One To cast in acts the dreams of her caprice, His wisdom’s call steadies her careless feet, He props her dance upon a rigid base, His timeless still immutability Must standardise her creation’s miracle.” Savitri-121 “At her will the inscrutable Supermind leans down To guide her force that feels but cannot know, Its breath of power controls her restless seas (of the vital world.) And life obeys the governing Idea” Savitri-121 “She has canalised the seas of omnipotence;” Savitri-121(the descent of Divine force on large scale) “And still her doors are barred to things supreme” Savitri-123 “And high dependencies of her virgin sun,” Savitri-124 “The grand Illuminate seized her gleaming limbs And filled them with the passion of his ray Till all her body was its transparent house And all her soul a counterpart of his soul.” Savitri-125 “This world of bliss he (King Aswapati) saw and felt its call, But found no way to enter into its joy; Across the conscious gulf there was no bridge” Savitri-128 9/ Book 2, Canto 4 - The Kingdoms Of The Little Life A Brief Restatement: This Book 2 Canto-4 gives the message that after exhaustion of multiple material enjoyments of life, Spiritual life begins and we have to understand that “Physical life exhausts itself by too much giving and ruins itself by too much devouring..." (The Life Divine-216) We also get the hint that after the opening of the Spiritual being, "His gates to the world were swept with seas of light. ” (Savitri-236) and thus a higher life begins. "Insatiate seeker, he has all to learn: He has exhausted now life’s surface acts, His being’s hidden realms remain to explore. He becomes a mind, he becomes a spirit and self; In his fragile tenement he grows Nature’s lord. In him Matter wakes from its long obscure trance, In him earth feels the Godhead drawing near." Savitri-133 This Canto speaks of triple creation, where the first creation is subconscious evolution, the second creation is the evolution of lower/little life and the third creation (not the last) is identified as ‘body’s early (evolution of) mind.’ (Savitri-146) The First Creation: Subconscious evolution is a faint and dim beginning of a crude child soul crying 'for toys of bliss.' (Savitri-136) In this stage 'a random shapeless energy drove towards form and took each whisp-fire for a guiding sun.' In this preliminary evolution of man, sense-pleasure and sense- pangs are caught and are found to be lost soon and their desire-driven will bring 'poor and sad results.' Life becomes an outcome of 'meaningless suffering and grey unease.' The King experienced in this Nature's twilit room, that Matter and Spirit 'embrace and strive and each know each' (Savitri-141) as eternal playmates. 'In Nature he saw the mighty Spirit concealed' and 'Watched the weak birth of a tremendous Force.' (Savitri-141) " It (All Nature) turns in us to finite loves and lusts, The will to conquer and have, to seize and keep, To enlarge life’s room and scope and pleasure’s range, To battle and overcome and make one’s own, The hope to mix one’s joy with others’ joy, A yearning to possess and be possessed, T o enjoy and be enjoyed, to feel, to live." Savitri-139-140 The Second Creation: In this kingdom, the dwarf animal self arose and the experiment began of a solitary brute in a human body without any life-plan. This is a life exclusively for outward purposes, for the satisfaction of body's want and responds to outward touches without an aim. The body is unaware of annamaya Purusha within, mind is exclusively preoccupied with the objective world and thoughts are open to sense instincts of animal desire and 'To enjoy and to survive was all their care.' (Savitri-143) Not in this life, but in all life this dim being must learn by failure and grow in light and force 'And rise to his higher destiny at last.' (Savitri-146) "It captured not the spirit in the form, It entered not the heart of what it saw; It looked not for the power behind the act, It studied not the hidden motive in things Nor strove to find the meaning of it all." Savitri-143 The Third Creation: This small thinking man (of third creation) has no upward gaze, no inward look, no loftier aim, no deeper cause to live, satisfied awhile with 'dwarf lusts and brief desires,' (Savitri-149) interested to utilize truth and power only for outward use. His life is limited like animal’s feeding-space and he opposes all adventures of the Unseen and Soul’s journey through unknown infinity. "It knew not the Immortal in its house; It had no greater deeper cause to live. In limits only it was powerful; Acute to capture truth for outward use, Its knowledge was the body’s instrument; Absorbed in the little works of its prison-house It turned around the same unchanging points In the same circle of interest and desire, But thought itself the master of its jail." Savitri-149-150 In Savitri, the slow evolution starts from the Subconscient plane from the beginning of the creation and when the earth will be ready for Divine life then the ‘last salvation’ is experienced which is identified as the total transformation of the earth’s Subconscient and Inconscient plane. In Savitri, the first Spiritual experience of the evolving man is identified as the discovery of Soul either Psychic or Spiritual Being and the last Siddhi of an integral Yogi is ‘Truth supreme.’ This is the transformation of universal Inconscient and there will be no longer any Ignorance, suffering, falsehood and death. This Yoga will continue through all life and all Time before which this present life is a very small fragment. This Canto also hints King’s opening of six or seven chakras known as Kundalini from below the feet as 'The first writhings of the cosmic serpent Force.' (Savitri-138) The Mother said, “The tantrics recognize seven chakras , I believe. Theon said he knew of more, specifically two below the body and three above (the head). That is my experience as well – I know of twelve chakras . And really, the contact with the Divine Consciousness is there (The Mother motions above the head), not here (at the top of the head). One must surge up above.” These twelve centres define the twelve Selves, twelve Sheaths or twelve subtle bodies to which one can consciously visit in a trance. In integral Yoga, the gulf created between lower life and the Supramental life is bridged by discovering the Subconscient Self and Inconscient Self as 'sleeping memories' that are 'Oblivious of their flame of happy truth.' (Savitri-139) "Impure, degraded though her motions are, Always a heaven-truth broods in life’s deeps; In her obscurest members burns that fire." Savitri-139 (fire of Subconscient Self) This Canto foresees the coming of ‘some tremendous dawn of God’ (Savitri-137} where King saw the purpose of Divine Work in Time and also in the aimlessness of lower life a Divine work, magic will and Divine transformation was worked out. This Canto proposes to work out the 'adventure of the Unseen And the soul's tread through unknown infinities.' (Savitri-148) OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this chapter: "In the enigma of the darkened Vasts, In the passion and self-loss of the Infinite When all was plunged in the negating Void, Non-Being’s night could never have been saved If Being had not plunged into the dark Carrying with it its triple mystic cross. Invoking in world-time the timeless truth, Bliss changed to sorrow, knowledge made ignorant, God’s force turned into a child’s helplessness Can bring down heaven by their sacrifice." Savitri-140-141 “A difficult evolution from below Called a masked intervention from above Else this great, blind inconscient universe Could never have disclosed its hidden mind, Or even in blinkers worked in beast and man The Intelligence that devised the cosmic scheme.” (Supramental Intelligence) Savitri-146-147 10/ Book 2, Canto 5 - The Godheads Of The Little Life A Brief Restatement: First part: (page 151 to 154) This Book-2, Canto-5 gives us input regarding the lower vital beings/little deities (or tamasic and rajasic beings) that dominate largely our untransformed life and are the cause of all lust, anger, massacre, suicide, disorder, disease, accident, division, and disharmony in men These vital beings are identified as elfin, imps, goblin, faery and genni . They are 'Ignorant and dangerous wills but armed with power, Half-animal, half-god their mood, their shape.' (Savitri-152) They take shelter in our twilight untransformed nature and 'Wherever love and light and largeness lack.' (Savitri-153) In the event of disease of most difficult kind also is an attack of these dark world and they can be removed by occult means or Yogic power/Subconscient purification and transformation without the aid of any medicine. “The Mother used to say that when Sri Aurobindo cured some body, one often saw a subtle hand come with a current of blue force and seize, as it were, the vibration of illness or disorder between its fingertips.” (The Mother's Agenda/24th February-1962) "Its seed of joy they curse with sorrow’s fruit, Put out with error’s breath its scanty lights And turn its surface truths to falsehood’s ends, Its small emotions spur, its passions drive To the abyss or through the bog and mire: Or else with a goad of hard dry lusts they prick, While jogs on devious ways that nowhere lead Life’s cart finding no issue from ignorance. To sport with good and evil is their law; Luring to failure and meaningless success, All models they corrupt, all measures cheat, Make knowledge a poison, virtue a pattern dull And lead the endless cycles of desire Through semblances of sad or happy chance To an inescapable fatality." Savitri-152 In the evolution of Nature, they also like Asuras , demons, and Pisachas , wait for the hour of Divine transformation or 'Till they have learned their secret in their source, In the light of the Timeless and its spaceless home.' (Savitri-153) They make our evolution slow which binds life and invites doom. When our Soul attains freedom from lower life, then our Soul force travels back in time of this birth and past births and illumines the obscurities of nether untransformed life. "A slowly changing order binds our will. This is our doom until our souls are free. A mighty Hand then rolls mind’s firmaments back, Infinity takes up the finite’s acts And Nature steps into the eternal Light. Then only ends this dream of nether life." Savitri-154 The Second Part: (Page 154 to 160) This Canto also hints about the human love of sattwic mind which can give brief ‘Joy that forgot mortality for a while’ (Savitri-159) and its brief blaze can crumble vital passion into ashes. It can manifest beauty only for an hour and afterward feels tired. Divine Love can uplift the limitations of fragile human love and can lead man toward uninterrupted joy and immortality. "A fragile human love that could not last, Ego’s moth-wings to lift the seraph soul, Appeared, a surface glamour of brief date Extinguished by a scanty breath of Time; Joy that forgot mortality for a while Came, a rare visitor who left betimes, And made all things seem beautiful for an hour, Hopes that soon fade to drab realities And passions that crumble to ashes while they blaze Kindled the common earth with their brief flame." Savitri-159 The third Part: (Page 160 to 163) A perfect and integral Divine instrument is at once receiver of overhead Wisdom and Light of Integral Jnana Yoga , his own personal will is tuned and identified with the Divine Will of Integral Karma Yoga and his heart becomes the centre of the overflow of Divine Love, Delight and Beauty of Integral Bhakti Yoga . “Our instruments have not that greater light, Our will tunes not with the eternal Will, Our heart’s sight is too blind and passionate.” Savitri-161 The Fourth Part: (Page 163 to 167) This Canto hints that without vital transformation, the King can hold the Divine Presence for a brief period. If the tamasic, rajasic and sattwic mind are not purified sufficiently, then one experiences Divine Will, Divine Wisdom and Divine Ecstasy of Karma, Jnana and Bhakti Yoga briefly. A Bliss that sleeps in the Inconscient and Subconscient Self do not open to give the experience of Oceans of Bliss. "A new life dawns, he looks out from vistas wide; The Spirit’s breath moves him but soon retires: His strength was not made to hold that puissant guest. All dulls down to convention and routine Or a fierce excitement brings him vivid joys:" Savitri-165 “His knowledge dwells in the house of Ignorance; His force nears not even once the Omnipotent, Rare are his visits of heavenly ecstasy. The bliss which sleeps in things and tries to wake, Breaks out in him in a small joy of life:” Savitri-165 The Fifth Part: (Page 167 to 172) This Canto hints the transformation of lower Nature by 'Calling the powers of a bright hemisphere' through Vedantic Sacrifice and thus sheding the discredit of inferior life. A path is traced in the inner world which 'Make the abysm a road for Heaven's descent.' (Savitri-172) "There is a deeper seeing from within And, when we have left these small purlieus of mind, A greater vision meets us on the heights In the luminous wideness of the spirit’s gaze. At last there wakes in us a witness Soul That looks at truths unseen and scans the Unknown; Then all assumes a new and marvellous face: The world quivers with a God-light at its core, In Time’s deep heart high purposes move and live, Life’s borders crumble and join infinity." Savitri-168 "An Infant nursed on Nature’s covert breast, An Infant playing in the magic woods, Fluting to rapture by the spirit’s streams, Awaits the hour when we shall turn to his call." Savitri-169 In this study, we will explore the mysteries of demon gods, flickering ghosts of lower vital plane that largely dominate earthly existence who prefer to live in 'The vague Inconscient’s dark and measureless cave.' (Savitri-172) The King trod the soil of vital plane 'that failed beneath his feet' and 'His only sunlight was his spirit’s flame.' (Savitri-172) Our Psychic being is surrounded by ten layers of desire Souls of which this vital plane is one of them. So, in order to uncover the Psychic being one has to go beyond the lures of (1) the world of titans and asuras imitating the Divine, (2) the world of lower nature of forbidden sense enjoyment, (3) the world of vital mind surrounding the vital self, (4) the world of the physical mind surrounding the annamaya Purusha , (5) the world of schoolman mind, (6) the world of fixed mind, (7) the world of outer mind, (8) the mother of seven Sorrows, (9) the mother of (limited) Might and (10) the mother of (limited) Light respectively. About them, we are aware while concentrating on Savitri’s Yoga. “Even if there is much darkness — and this world is full of it and the physical nature of man also — yet a ray of the true Light can prevail eventually against a tenfold darkness . Believe that and cleave to (hold on to) it always.” (CWSA-29/Letters on Yoga-II/p-102) To recapitulate, this Canto proposes a ‘mighty Hand’ that helps us to travel back in time to the past of this life and past births for illumination of Subconscient darkness and Divine transformation and also hints the action of ‘golden Messengers’ (Savitri-170) who are responsible for the carrying out the cellular transformation. This also hints (in successive Cantos) at our patient waiting for the ‘golden Hand that never came’ (Savitri-199) and locking up our protected life in Savitri’s ‘golden hands’ (Savitri-723). OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this chapter: “The magic was chiselled of a conscious form; Its tranced vibrations rhythmed a quick response, And luminous stirrings prompted brain and nerve, Awoke in Matter spirit’s identity And in a body lit the miracle Of the heart’s love and the soul’s witness gaze.” Savitri-157-58 “Our seekings are short-lived experiments Made by a wordless and inscrutable Power Testing its issues from inconscient Night To meet its luminous self of Truth and Bliss.” Savitri-168 “In our body’s cells there sits a hidden Power (true physical Being) That sees the unseen and plans eternity, Our smallest parts have room for deepest needs; There too the golden Messengers (Supramental beings) can come:” Savitri-169-70 “Each part in us desires its absolute.” Savitri-170 “And when that greater Self comes sea-like down To fill this image of our transience, All shall be captured by delight, transformed: In waves of undreamed ecstasy shall roll Our mind and life and sense and laugh in a light Other than this hard limited human day, The body’s tissues thrill apotheosised, Its cells sustain bright metamorphosis.” Savitri-171 11/ Book 2, Canto 6 - The Kingdoms And Godheads Of The Greater Life A Brief Restatement: This Book-2, Canto-6 gives us input regarding the action of higher vital beings, the action of higher Nature of Para-prakriti which can give us the Divine’s touch and not His embrace; in this plane twilight is not entirely abolished, hence its door is open to both Gods and Beings of higher planes and hostile agencies of Subconscient world; the greatness of this world is to seek Soul saving Truth tirelessly and create and manifest new forms. For him (King) this higher ‘Life was a search but finding (of the Absolute) never came.’ (Savitri-174) The First Part: (From Page 173 to175) This Canto gives a hint to learn the lesson to open towards the Divine’s constant touch or 'a touch of sure delight in unsure things' (Savitri-173) In this higher plane, life was a search but finding of the Supreme Truth never came. " The souls came there that vainly strive for birth, And spirits entrapped might wander through all time, Yet never find the truth by which they live. All ran like hopes that hunt a lurking chance; Nothing was solid, nothing felt complete: All was unsafe, miraculous and half-true. It seemed a realm of lives that had no base." Savitri-175 The Second Part: (From Page 175 to176) 'Some hue of the Absolute could fall on life,' (Savitri-176) or as Satyavan spoke to Savitri in the early period of his Sadhana, ‘I lived in the ray but faced not the sun.’ (Savitri-407) This Divine brief touch will help in the long run to open towards Divine's embrace or Supramental Sunlight. " In an outbreak of the might of secret Spirit, In Life and Matter’s answer of delight, Some face of deathless beauty could be caught That gave immortality to a moment’s joy, Some word that could incarnate highest Truth Leaped out from a chance tension of the soul, Some hue of the Absolute could fall on life, Some glory of knowledge and intuitive sight, Some passion of the rapturous heart of Love." Savitri-175-176 The Third Part: (From Page 176 to179) It speaks primarily of self-concentration through endless unfolding of Truth, utilizes subjective time as an endless pilgrimage and secondarily of self-expansion of working out timeless mysteries in Time and utilizes objective space for Divine creation and manifestation. " For by the form the Formless is brought close And all perfection fringes the Absolute. A child of heaven who never saw his home, Its impetus meets the eternal at a point: It can only near and touch, it cannot hold; It can only strain towards some bright extreme: Its greatness is to seek and to create." Savitri-179 The Fourth Part: (From Page 179 to181) We have to be aware of the Divine action of Paraprakriti in the midst of darkness. This Divine Shakti works even when we are most unconscious and feel our development deeply arrested. This Power working amid darkness is also identified as 'crucified God.' "Even nescient, null, her sleep creates a world. When most unseen, most mightily she works; Housed in the atom, buried in the clod, Her quick creative passion cannot cease. Inconscience is her long gigantic pause, Her cosmic swoon is a stupendous phase: Time-born, she hides her immortality; In death, her bed, she waits the hour to rise. Even with the Light denied that sent her forth And the hope dead she needed for her task, Even when her brightest stars are quenched in Night, Nourished by hardship and calamity And with pain for her body’s handmaid, masseuse, nurse, Her tortured invisible spirit continues still To toil though in darkness, to create though with pangs; She carries crucified God upon her breast." Savitri-179-180 The Fifth Part: (From Page 181 to183) The Divine Mother draws world-shunning and heaven-seeking liberated souls earthward to fill in their Nature and Soul with the equal Divine Presence. This Canto defines Jivatma's constant union with Para-prakriti and if their bond is strong then time cannot separate them. This union is further extended as the constant union of Paramatma with Paraprkriti in the heart centre. " Her eternal Lover is her action’s cause; For him she leaped forth from the unseen Vasts To move here in a stark unconscious world. Its acts are her commerce with her hidden Guest, His moods she takes for her heart’s passionate moulds; In beauty she treasures the sunlight of his smile." Savitri-181 "Although she is ever in him and he in her, As if unaware of the eternal tie, Her will is to shut God into her works And keep him as her cherished prisoner That never they may part again in Time." Savitri-181-182 In that higher plane, from every thought and feeling an action is born and every action is a symbol and means of descent of higher Divine Power and this universe is built by this descended truth and myth. ‘But what she needed most (of conscious emergence of full Sachchidananda in its own creation) she cannot build.’ (Savitri-183) From the truth of this intermediate world Religion and Modern Science and other creative forces of Mother Nature are born. "There every thought and feeling is an act, And every act a symbol and a sign, And every symbol hides a living power. A universe she builds from truths and myths, But what she needed most she cannot build; All shown is a figure or copy of the Truth, But the Real veils from her its mystic face. All else she finds, there lacks eternity; All is sought out, but missed the Infinite." Savitri-183 The Sixth Part: (From Page 183 to184) In this part, we find invisible beings of higher planes assist a Sadhaka in pursuing his Spiritual quest. They whisper to the ear and bring a flash of affirmative sunlight to the eye. "The beings of that world of greater life , Tenants of a larger air and freer space, Live not by the body or in outward things: A deeper living was their seat of self. In that intense domain of intimacy Objects dwell as companions of the soul; The body’s actions are a minor script, The surface rendering of a life within." Savitri-183 “In all who have risen to a greater Life , A voice of unborn things whispers to the ear, To their eyes visited by some high sunlight Aspiration shows the image of a crown: To work out a seed that she has thrown within, To achieve her power in them her creatures live.” Savitri-183-184 The Seventh Part: (From Page 184 to188) This part gives the message that with the opening of our Soul, destiny is rewritten and ordinary destiny is changed to Spiritual destiny. " As if thought-out eternal characters, Entire, not pulled as we by contrary tides, They follow the unseen leader in the heart, Their lives obey the inner nature’s law. There is kept grandeur’s store, the hero’s mould; The soul is the watchful builder of its fate; None is a spirit indifferent and inert; They choose their side, they see the god they adore." Savitri-184 The Eighth Part: (From Page 188 to191 ) This part reveals the King's unfolding of Spiritual Love and Wisdom. " In her covert lanes, bordering her chance field-paths And by her singing rivulets and calm lakes He found the glow of her golden fruits of bliss And the beauty of her flowers of dream and muse. As if a miracle of heart’s change by joy He watched in the alchemist radiance of her suns The crimson outburst of one secular flower On the tree-of-sacrifice of spiritual love." Savitri-190 "A comrade of Silence on her austere heights Accepted by her mighty loneliness, He stood with her on meditating peaks Where life and being are a sacrament Offered to the Reality beyond, And saw her loose into infinity Her hooded eagles of significance, Messengers of Thought to the Unknowable." Savitri-190-191 The Ninth Part: (From Page 191 to195) We find here the Para-prakriti's influence of Love, Beauty and Delight on individual Jivatma . " In her mazes of approach and of retreat To every side she draws him and repels, But drawn too near escapes from his embrace; All ways she leads him but no way is sure. Allured by the many-toned marvel of her chant, Attracted by the witchcraft of her moods And moved by her casual touch to joy and grief, He loses himself in her but wins her not. A fugitive paradise smiles at him from her eyes: He dreams of her beauty made for ever his, He dreams of his mastery her limbs shall bear, He dreams of the magic of her breasts of bliss." Savitri-193 The Tenth Part: (From Page 195 to 201) In this part, the King claimed 'a panacea for all Time’s ills' (Savitri-198) through the reconciliation of the highest Sachchidananda consciousness with the lowest Abyss. " A fire to call eternity into Time, Make body’s joy as vivid as the soul’s, Earth she would lift to neighbourhood with heaven, Labours life to equate with the Supreme And reconcile the Eternal and the Abyss." Savitri-196 This Canto proposes that the only business or 'heart's business' (Savitri-181) of a Sadhak is to call down Paramatma (Supreme Self) and Paraprakriti (Supreme Mother) to heart centre 'And keep him close to her breast in her world-cloak' (Savitri-181) ceaselessly. This will avoid the risk of escape from her arms and 'turn to his formless peace' (Savitri-181) of param Dham . King Aswapati's this Supramental union is also confirmed symbolically in Savitri's Yoga as 'Unwilling to loose his (Paramatma) body from her (Paraprakriti) breast.' (Savitri-471) OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this chapter: “ “Our life’s repose is in the Infinite; It cannot end, its end is Life supreme. ” Savitri-197 “A sun of transfiguration still can shine And Night can bare its core of mystic light; (the experience of opening of Inconscient and Subconscient Self.) The self-cancelling, self-afflicting paradox Into a self-luminous mystery might change, The imbroglio into a joyful miracle. Then God could be visible here, here take a shape; (Supramental state.) Disclosed would be the spirit’s identity; Life would reveal her true immortal face.” Savitri-200-201 (Cellular transformation.) 12/ Book 2, Canto 7 - The Descent Into Night A Brief Restatement: This Descent into Night and 'falsity's endless net' (Savitri-210) of Book-2, Canto-7, is forbidden in traditional Spirituality and King Aswapati entered this prohibited dark world with the hope of finding ‘wide world failure’s cause (Savitri-202)’ and ‘panacea for all Time’s ill;' (Savitri-198) for key of world problem is hidden in the Inconscient night or 'For the key is hid and by the Inconscient kept.' (Savitri-68) The First Part: (From Page 202 to 205) Life has turned into Death in the Inconscient and Immortality in the Superconscient. Or ' A Death figuring as the dark seed of life, Seemed to engender and to slay the world.' (Savitri-202) In Integral Yoga this negation of Death is transformed into affirmation of Immortality. The other two negations of life are desire or hunger and incapacity and which is transformed into satisfied delight and Omnipotence. " He saw the fount of the world’s lasting pain And the mouth of the black pit of Ignorance; The evil guarded at the roots of life Raised up its head and looked into his eyes." Savitri-202 " All glory of life was dimmed, tarnished with doubt; All beauty ended in an aging face; All power was dubbed a tyranny cursed by God And Truth a fiction needed by the mind: The chase of joy was now a tired hunt; All knowledge was left a questioning Ignorance." Savitri-205 The Second Part: (From Page 205 to 206) In this Night King Aswapati met threatening energies and dark goddesses whose very gaze invited calamity. " A peril haunted now the common air; The world grew full of menacing Energies , And wherever turned for help or hope his eyes, In field and house, in street and camp and mart He met the prowl and stealthy come and go Of armed disquieting bodied Influences. A march of goddess figures dark and nude Alarmed the air with grandiose unease; Appalling footsteps drew invisibly near, Shapes that were threats invaded the dream-light, And ominous beings passed him on the road Whose very gaze was a calamity:" Savitri-205 The Third Part: (From Page 206 to 208) King's experience of the dark world is that ‘There all could enter, ' wandering like a lost soul' (Savitri-211) 'but none stay for long.' (Savitri-206) Similarly, all can enter 'Supermind’s huge store' (Savitri-187) for a very brief period with new creations, new inventions and new opulence at their disposal but none can stay in that world permanently. Only a few, who have a strong subtle and causal body can enter the Supramental world for a longer period and can descend into the Subconscient and Inconscient night for a longer period and experience conscious transformation. " A tract he reached unbuilt and owned by none: There all could enter but none stay for long. It was a no man’s land of evil air, A crowded neighbourhood without one home, A borderland between the world and hell." Savitri-206 “A Power that laughed at the mischiefs of the world, An irony that joined the world’s contraries And flung them into each other’s arms to strive, Put a sardonic rictus on God’s face.” Savitri-207 “Falsehood came laughing with the eyes of truth; Each friend might turn an enemy or spy, The hand one clasped ensleeved a dagger’s stab And an embrace could be Doom’s iron cage.” Savitri-207-8 The Fourth Part: (From Page 208 to 211) Those developing Souls who enter this night unconsciously experience Spiritual fall and forfeit their ‘lonely chance' (Savitri-210) in this birth and their beauty of life ends with an ‘aging face.' (Savitri-205) " He saw a city of ancient Ignorance Founded upon a soil that knew not Light. There each in his own darkness walked alone: Only they agreed to differ in Evil’s paths, To live in their own way for their own selves Or to enforce a common lie and wrong; There Ego was lord upon his peacock seat And Falsehood sat by him, his mate and queen: The world turned to them as Heaven to Truth and God." Savitri-208-209 "Inconscient traders in bundles of contraries, They did what in others they would persecute; When their eyes looked upon their fellow’s vice, An indignation flamed, a virtuous wrath; Oblivious of their own deep-hid offence, Moblike they stoned a neighbour caught in sin ." Savitri-209 The Fifth Part: (From Page 211 to 214) This part describes King's entry into the darkest plane of Inconscient sheath. " A greater darkness waited, a worse reign, If worse can be where all is evil’s extreme; Yet to the cloaked the uncloaked is naked worst. There God and Truth and the supernal Light Had never been or else had power no more." Savitri-211 The Sixth Part: (From Page 214 to 216) King Aswapati met the proletariats of his kingdom who were high in their thought and speech but harboured animal lower Nature and like insects crawling among other ephemeral insects. Modern society is described as 'Shudra society of labour' (Essays on the Gita-523) and its disproportionate increase in the present time is a real threat to the survival of the human race. "In street and house, in councils and in courts Beings he met who looked like living men And climbed in speech upon high wings of thought But harboured all that is subhuman, vile And lower than the lowest reptile’s crawl." Savitri-215 The Seventh Part: (From Page 216 to 219) In integral Yoga, a conscious descent into Night is possible after the opening of the Supramental Being. This Canto gives the message that without the purification of Subconscient Night, mental, vital and physical transformation cannot be complete. This Canto-7 also gives the message that before conquering Death from without, one must conquer it from within. Spirit’s bare and absolute Power can alone meet, purify and transform the naked night of Hell. King Aswapati had experience of death without dying: “A formless void oppressed his struggling brain, A darkness grim and cold benumbed his flesh, A whispered grey suggestion chilled his heart; Haled by a serpent-force from its warm home And dragged to extinction in bleak vacancy Life clung to its seat with cords of gasping breath; Lapped was his body by a tenebrous tongue.” Savitri-218 “A dense and nameless Nothing conscious, mute, Which seemed alive but without body or mind, Lusted all beings to annihilate That it might be for ever nude and sole.” Savitri-217 This Canto proposes that Sadhaks become 'Heroes and soldiers of the army of Light' (Savitri-211) and walk safely and securely in this dangerous dark world only by keeping 'God in their hearts.' (Savitri-211) This Canto also proposes that for Subconscient transformation ceaseless Japa is indispensable. “Here must the traveller of the upward Way— For daring Hell’s kingdoms winds the heavenly route— Pause or pass slowly through that perilous space, A prayer upon his lips and the great Name . “ Savitri-210 OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this chapter: “To the blank horror a calm Light replied: Immutable, undying and unborn, Mighty and mute the Godhead in him woke And faced the pain and danger of the world. (The Supramental Godhead can face the pain and danger of the world.) He mastered the tides of Nature with a look: He met with his bare spirit naked Hell.” Savitri-219 13/ Book 2, Canto 8 - The World Of Falsehood, The Mother Of Evil And The Sons Of Darkness A Brief Restatement: In Book-2, Canto-8, King Aswapati challanged 'the darkness with his luminous soul' (Savitri-227) and .dared to adventure into the dark ocean of Subconscient and Inconscient plane with Supramental energy at his disposal. The First Part: (From Page 220 to 222) This Canto gives some new message on the dark nether world. It has identified the Mother of Evil as the guardian of that world and represented Death as her foster son. Those who strive for immortality on earth must confront this dark antagonist Force. "There in the heart of vain phenomenon, In an enormous action’s writhen core He saw a Shape illimitable and vague Sitting on Death who swallows all things born. A chill fixed face with dire and motionless eyes, Her (Mother of Evil) dreadful trident in her shadowy hand Outstretched, she pierced all creatures with one fate." Savitri-222 The Second Part: (From Page 222 to 225) This Canto also hints about twice born Soul known as Divine Child (Savitri-224). He needs a congenial atmosphere in which he can survive and flower and 'he needs yet four things before he can succeed, (1) the Sruti or recorded revelation, (2) the Sacred Teacher, (3) the practice of Yoga and (4) the Grace of God.” (CWSA-18/Kena and other Upanishads/p-169) Unfortunately ‘world’s Spiritual Shrines’ (Savitri-226) are largely occupied by dark 'terrible agencies.' ‘Assuming names divine they guide and rule’ (Savitri-226) and they cunningly slay the Soul of the Divine children in the cradle. Savitri book proposes that when a Dvija is born, then either the Divine deputes for him a living Teacher/Spiritual fosterer (like King Aswapati , the Guru and father of Savitri ) or he has to find him out in a distant land. (like the discovery of Satyavan in the deep forest) "Alarmed for her rule and full of fear and rage She prowls around each light that gleams through the dark Casting its ray from the spirit’s lonely tent, Hoping to enter with fierce stealthy tread And in the cradle slay the divine Child." Savitri-224 This Canto gives the secret of outer Death. Before outer death, when the growth of the Soul is arrested, his Psychic being decides to leave the body. After this Psychic escape, the aura or the golden nimbus around the body withdraws. A dark shadow is replaced. And finally, after a brief time passed, the subtle body and subtle mind leave the body. " A silence falls upon the spirit’s heights, From the veiled sanctuary the God retires, Empty and cold is the chamber of the Bride; The golden Nimbus now is seen no more, No longer burns the white spiritual ray And hushed for ever is the secret Voice. Then by the Angel of the Vigil Tower A name is struck from the recording book; A flame that sang in Heaven sinks quenched and mute; In ruin ends the epic of a soul. This is the tragedy of the inner death When forfeited is the divine element And only a mind and body live to die." Savitri-225 The Third Part: (From Page 225 to 227) Those who want to lead a Spiritual life or want to become the instrument of Truth, their name is recorded in the Subconscient and inconscient world. The giant sons of darkness sit and plan to make the life of instruments of truth or god’s radiant children, miserable. Those who cannot bear their (dark forces) long torture and wounds are not fit for higher Spiritual life and cannot make the earth a playfield of heaven. "Armoured, protected by their lethal masks, As in a studio of creative Death The giant sons of Darkness sit and plan The drama of the earth, their tragic stage. All who would raise the fallen world must come Under the dangerous arches of their power; For even the radiant children of the gods To darken their privilege is and dreadful right. None can reach heaven who has not passed through hell." Savitri-226-227 The Fourth Part: (From Page 227 to 232) So world problems can be resolved by opening towards 'superconscient Fire', and invert its dynamic energy to enter into dark Subconscient and Inconscient world. Thus, Subconscient and Inconscient Selves are discovered and by their Force and Light, cells of the body are exulted, the dark antagonist Forces are slain and 'Healed were all things that Time’s torn heart had made.' (Savitri-232) Thus, ‘sorrow could live no more in Nature’s breast.’ (Savitri-232) The previous Canto makes a Sadhak aware that 'The world turned to them (falsehoods) as Heaven to Truth and God' (Savitri-209) and suggests in this Canto that for the transformation of Subconscient and Inconscient Sheaths, ceaseless Japa of Divine's name is indispensable. "Arousing consciousness in things inert, He imposed upon dark atom and dumb mass The diamond script of the Imperishable, Inscribed on the dim heart of fallen things A paean-song of the free Infinite And the Name , foundation of eternity, And traced on the awake exultant cells In the ideographs of the Ineffable The lyric of the love that waits through Time And the mystic volume of the Book of Bliss And the message of the superconscient Fire." Savitri-232 The Canto makes a Sadhak aware that 'hell as a short cut to heaven’s gates' (Savitri-231) and further hints that like King Aswapati he has to confront with dark forces and bear 'the fierce inner wounds that are slow to heal.' (Savitri-230) OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this chapter: “She groped in his deeps for an invisible Law, Fumbled in the dim subconscient for his mind (that had fallen) (tamas, rajas and sattwa are three negative inconscient mental energy.) And strove to find a way for spirit to be. “(Search for discovery of Subconscient Self.) Savitri-222, “Yet in her formidable instinctive mind She feels the One grow in the heart of Time And sees the Immortal shine through the human mould.” Savitri-224 “Into the abysmal secrecy he came Where darkness peers from her mattress, grey and nude, And stood on the last locked subconscient’s floor Where Being slept unconscious of its thoughts (Subconscient Self) And built the world not knowing what it built.” Savitri-231 14/ Book 2, Canto 9 - The Paradise Of The Life Gods A Brief Restatement: This Canto begins with the message of King Aswapati's movement of Consciousness between the Psychic and Spiritual planes. “A lustre of some rapturous Infinite, It held in the splendour of its golden laugh Regions of the heart’s happiness set free, (Psychic) Intoxicated with the wine of God, (Spiritual) Immersed in light, perpetually divine.” Savitri-233 In this Book-2, Canto-9, King Aswapati, entered a higher world in cosmic Consciousness, ('As one who sees in the World-Magician’s glass.' (Savitri-234) 'Around him shone a great felicitous Day' (Savitri-233)) known as Overmind. The Canto indicates that one can enter this higher cosmic Consciousness either through the Psychic being (And make the heart wide as infinity (Savitri-235)) or through the Spiritual Being (And lay on the breast of universal love (Savitri-233)) or through the movement of both the Selves. (A touch supreme surprised his hurrying heart.(Savitri-237)) "In sudden moments of revealing flame, In passionate responses half-unveiled He reached the rim of ecstasies unknown; A touch supreme surprised his hurrying heart, The clasp was remembered of the Wonderful, And hints leaped down of white beatitudes." Savitri-236-237 This Overmental world is free from fear, grief, shocks of fate, adverse circumstances, free from our body’s poor health ‘inviting death,’ (Savitri-233) and free ‘from our danger-zone of stumbling Will.’ (Savitri-233) There pain transformed into potent joy, no presence of lower Nature to terminate endless charm, desire and personal will transformed into omnipotent flame, pleasure had the stature of God, dream walked in the highway of stars, and sweet common action, thought and feeling turned into miracle. The mental foreknowledge transformed into the ecstatic truth of triple time, trikaladristi. King’s anguish of the Soul, long strife in the subconscient night and wounded limbs suffered during the war with Inconscient dark forces were healed quickly and recompensed with calm and peace, Spiritual ease, celestial rest and sorrowless hours in this higher plane. "And, lapped in a magic flood of sorrowless hours, Healed were his warrior nature’s wounded limbs In the encircling arms of Energies That brooked no stain and feared not their own bliss." Savitri-235 Finally, King entered a Supramental world where he met the forms that divinise the sight, heard the music that can immortalise the mind, received Wisdom that newly makes the universe, harboured power that can reconcile Spirit with Matter, the cells of the body experienced nectar-cup of the Absolute and extreme delight that could shatter mortal cells. Thus, Immortality captured Time and Space and carried forward the rhythm of all life. "It shrank no more from the supreme demand Of an untired capacity for bliss, A might that could explore its own infinite And beauty and passion and the depths’ reply Nor feared the swoon of glad identity (Samadhi experience) Where spirit and flesh in inner ecstasy join Annulling the quarrel between self and shape." Savitri-236 “A giant drop of the Bliss unknowable Overwhelmed his limbs and round his soul became A fiery ocean of felicity; He foundered drowned in sweet and burning vasts: The dire delight that could shatter mortal flesh, (The experience of cellular transformation.) The rapture that the gods sustain he bore.” Savitri-237 OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this chapter: “A scale of sense that climbed with fiery feet To heights of unimagined happiness, Recast his being’s aura in joy-glow, His body glimmered like a skiey shell; His gates to the world were swept with seas of light. ” Savitri-236 15/ Book 2, Canto 10 - The Kingdoms and Godheads of the Little Mind A Brief Restatement: In this Book-2, Canto-10, King Aswapati, entered the triple world of ‘little mind tied to little things,’ known as physical mind or tamasic mind, vital mind or rajasic mind, and intellect or sattwic mind. What is pigmy Tamasic (Physical) Mind? The normal waking state is dominated by the physical mind, which is the assured base, close to earthly nature, first status of slow ascent and lowest sub-plane of intellect, the starting point of the movement of that apparent material world. It contradicts and opposes the vital mind by inertia, indolence and dullness and intellect by narrowness, precarious thought, ignorance and obscurity. “At its low extremity held difficult sway A mind that hardly saw and slowly found; Its nature to our earthly nature close And kin to our precarious mortal thought That looks from soil to sky and sky to soil But knows not the below nor the beyond, [Physical mind is not aware of the truth of the existence in Subconscient and Superconscient planes.] It only sensed itself and outward things.” Savitri-239 “The slow process of a material mind Which serves the body it should rule and use And needs to lean upon an erring sense, Was born in that luminous obscurity.” Savitri-240 "A twilight sage whose shadow seems to him self,” Savitri-240 “One sees it (physical mind) circling faithful to its task, Tireless in an assigned tradition’s round; In decayed and crumbling offices of Time It keeps close guard in front of custom’s wall, Or in an ancient Night’s dim environs It dozes on a little courtyard’s stones And barks at every unfamiliar light As at a foe who would break up its home, A watch-dog of the spirit’s sense-railed house Against intruders from the Invisible, Nourished on scraps of life and Matter’s bones In its kennel of objective certitude.” Savitri-246 What is the muddy and deceptive Rajasic (Vital) Mind? The man’s vital mind is an instrument of desire, the troubled seed of things, which hunts after unrealised possibilities, burns all hearts with ambiguous fire, enlarges always passion and craving, creates dissatisfaction, an unrest, a seeking for something more than what life seems able to give it, a constant demand for more and always more, a quest for new worlds to conquer, an incessant drive towards an exceeding of the bounds of circumstance and a self-exceeding. It is not satisfied with physical and objective enjoyment only but seeks to a subjective, imaginative, a purely emotive satisfaction, enjoyment and pleasure, which are dependent on external things, external sense contacts and concerned with the practical, the immediately realizable and possible events, the habitual, the common and average. “Thence sprang the burning vision of Desire . A thousand shapes it wore, took numberless names: A need of multitude and uncertainty Pricks it for ever to pursue the One On countless roads across the vasts of Time Through circuits of unending difference. It burns all breasts with an ambiguous fire.” Savitri-247 "Ardent to find, incapable to retain, A brilliant instability was its mark, To err its inborn trend, its native cue." Savitri-248 What is the purposeful and laborious Sattwic Mind (Intellect)? Mind is essentially the faculty of Supermind, which measures and limits and fixes a particular centre for cosmic movement and action and only very indirectly and partially illumined and it can look upward and receive the Supramental communication and passes it on to the other lower members. And since man is a mental being, so thought is at least his most constant, normal, immediate and effective means for enlightening his Ignorance. “In her high works of pure intelligence, In her withdrawal from the senses’ trap, There comes no breaking of the walls of mind, There leaps no rending flash of absolute power, There dawns no light of heavenly certitude.” Savitri-251 “In this small mould of infant mind and sense Desire is a child-heart’s cry crying for bliss, Our reason only a toys’ artificer, A rule-maker in a strange stumbling game. But she her dwarf aides knew whose confident sight A bounded prospect took for the far goal.” Savitri-257 “Reason cannot tear off that glimmering mask, Her efforts only make it glimmer more; In packets she ties up the Indivisible; Finding her hands too small to hold vast Truth She breaks up knowledge into alien parts Or peers through cloud-rack for a vanished sun:” Savitri-257 To liberate life and Nature from their narrow, false and divisible consciousness is a difficult task of an integral Yogi or supramental man. Sri Aurobindo observed them as three dwarfs, bound in a golden chain. The Gita recommends them as three asuras and defines amply the Nature of these three Gunas . The Gita proposes new static methods for developing Souls and Sri Aurobindo proposes dynamic Supramental method to go beyond their influence. And in fact, both methods are to be combined to eradicate their influence. The Gita’s method: “Sattwa must be transcended as well as rajas and tamas ; the golden chain must be broken no less than the leaden fetters and the bond-ornaments of a mixed alloy. The Gita prescribes to this end a new method of self-discipline . It is to stand back in oneself from the action of the modes and observe this unsteady flux as the Witness seated above the surge of the forces of Nature. He watches but is impartial and indifferent, aloof from them on their own level and in his native posture high above them. As they rise and fall in their waves, the Witness looks, and observes, but neither accepts nor for the moment interferes with their course. First, there must be the freedom of the impersonal Witness; afterward there can be the control of the Master, the Ishwara. ” CWSA/21/The Synthesis of Yoga-238 Integral Yoga's method: “The Supermind had descended long ago—very long ago—into the mind and even into the vital: it was working in the physical also but indirectly through those intermediaries. The question was about the direct action of the Supermind in the physical. Sri Aurobindo said it could be possible only if the physical mind received the supramental light: the physical mind was the instrument for direct action upon the most material. This physical mind receiving the supramental light Sri Aurobindo called the Mind of Light… As soon as Sri Aurobindo withdrew from his body, what he has called the Mind of Light got realised in me.” The Mother/29 June 1953/The Mother’s Centenary Works/13/62-63, The Synthesis of Yoga book proposes that not only we will go beyond the Gunas but also reconcile the higher nature of Para-prakriti with the lower nature of three gunas of Apara-prakriti and higher nature can penetrate the lower Nature in order to transform the lower nature. “When we break out from ego and physical mind into the infinity of the spirit, we still see the world and others as the mind has accustomed us to see them, as names and forms; only in our new experience of the direct and superior reality of spirit, they lose that direct objective reality and that indirect subjective reality of their own which they had to the mind. They seem to be quite the opposite of the truer reality we now experience; our mentality, stilled and indifferent, no longer strives to know and make real to itself those intermediate terms which exist in them as in us and the knowledge of which has for its utility to bridge over the gulf between the spiritual self and the objective phenomena of the world.” (CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga-442) “But it is also possible to make this silence of the mind and ability to suspend the habits of the lower nature a first step towards the discovery of a superior formulation, a higher grade of the status and energy of our being and pass by an ascent and transformation into the supramental power of the spirit. And this may even, though with more difficulty, be done without resorting to the complete state of quietude of the normal mind by a persistent and progressive transformation of all the mental into their greater corresponding supramental powers and activities.” (CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga-758-759) The Synthesis of Yoga book proposes another method in addition to the Gita’s method by which one can go beyond three gunas . “There is nothing to be done with this fickle, restless, violent and disturbing factor but to get rid of it (physical mind) whether (1) by detaching it and then reducing it to stillness or (2) by giving a concentration and singleness to the thought by which it will of itself reject this alien and confusing element." (CWSA/23/The Synthesis of Yoga-314) “Tamas in the spiritual being becomes a divine calm, which is not an inertia and incapacity of action, but a perfect power, sakti, holding in itself all its capacity and capable of controlling and subjecting to the law of calm even the most stupendous and enormous activity: rajas becomes a self-effecting initiating sheer Will of the spirit, which is not desire, endeavour, striving passion, but the same perfect power of being, sakti , capable of an infinite, imperturbable and blissful action. Sattwa becomes not the modified mental light, prakasa , but the self-existent light of the divine being, jyotih ., which is the soul of the perfect power of being and illumines in their unity the divine quietude and the divine will of action.” (CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga-689) “This process (of Spiritual transformation) may be rapid or tardy according to the amount of obscurity and resistance still left in the nature, but it goes on unfalteringly so long as it is not complete. As a final result the whole conscious being is made perfectly apt for spiritual experience of every kind, turned towards spiritual truth of thought, feeling, sense, action, tuned to the right responses, delivered from the darkness and stubbornness of the tamasic inertia, the turbidities and turbulences and impurities of the rajasic passion and restless unharmonised kinetism, the enlightened rigidities and sattwic limitations or poised balancements of constructed equilibrium which are the character of the Ignorance.” (CWSA-22/The Life Divine-941,) The Gita confirms that Intellect has the capacity to enter partial union with the Divine, buddhi grahyam atindriyam. Savitri book confirms that this partial Divine union will not be able to discern truth from falsehood which is again a partial truth. The two characters in Savitri, Death and Savitri’s birth mother were having the partial realisation of the Divine but both were advocates of Soul-slaying Truth. In this Canto we can carefully note this line, mind “Denied the (Soul saving) Truth that transient (Soul slaying) truths might live.” (Savitri-244) Again this Soul-slaying truth will not be able to remove the ‘twilight thought’ from tamasic, rajasic and sattwic mind which seems to be one of the affirmative conditions in confronting Death . However, the study of the whole Nature of the tamasic mind, rajasic mind and sattwic mind is very crucial to begin traditional Yoga and continuing the integral Yoga. In order to pursue the sadhana , Arjuna wanted to know from the Lord, the vivid description of the whole nature of three gunas . In this Canto, we observe three solutions of Psychic transformation, Psychic and Spiritual transformation and Supramental transformation of the triple mind. They are: Psychic Transformation: We will have to remember that Divine wisdom does not visit man as a guest from outside but it is slowly accumulated from within through the blows of life. Similarly, Divine Love does not visit as a guest from outside but it evolves from within from the disgust of precarious human relation and human love. Both Love and Wisdom are necessary for the fulfillment of life. "For knowledge comes not to us as a guest Called into our chamber from the outer world; A friend and inmate of our secret self, It hid behind our minds and fell asleep And slowly wakes beneath the blows of life; The mighty daemon lies unshaped within, To evoke, to give it form is Nature’s task." Savitri-244 “A greater Mind may see a greater Truth, Or we may find when all the rest has failed Hid in ourselves the key of perfect change.” Savitri-256 Psychic and Spiritual Transformation: " Above in a high breathless stratosphere, Overshadowing the dwarfish trinity, Lived, aspirants to a limitless Beyond, Captives of Space, walled by the limiting heavens, In the unceasing circuit of the hours Yearning for the straight paths of eternity, And from their high station looked down on this world Two sun-gaze Daemons witnessing all that is. " Savitri-258 Supramental Transformation: " A fire shall come out of the infinitudes, A greater Gnosis shall regard the world Crossing out of some far omniscience On lustrous seas from the still rapt Alone To illumine the deep heart of self and things. ” Savitri-258 OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this chapter: “Accustomed to a blue infinity, (Overmental infinity or preliminary Supramental) It (Overmind) planed in sunlit sky and starlit air; It saw afar the unreached Immortal’s home And heard afar the voices of the Gods.” Savitri-258 “Iconoclast and shatterer of Time’s forts, Overleaping limit and exceeding norm, It (Supramental) lit the thoughts that glow through the centuries And moved to acts of superhuman force.” Savitri-259 16/ Book 2, Canto 11 - The Kingdoms And Godheads Of The Greater Mind A Brief Restatement: This Canto appears to be the continuation of previous Canto, where the King standing on the Overmental Cosmic Consciousness ' saw afar the unreached Immortal’s home And heard afar the voices of the Gods.' (Savitri-258) The King enters the triple planes of Cosmic Consciousness through 'meditation's mounting edge of trance' (Savitri-264) and from a long distance 'he saw the joining' of lower and higher hemispheres. Here the Higher, Illumined and Intuitive minds are universalised and meet the godheads of those Superconscient worlds, who are respectively 'mighty wardens,' 'subtle archangel race' and 'sovereign Kings of Thought.' The universalised Higher and universalised Illumined Minds get their source from the universal Intuitive plane which in turn is sourced from the fourth plane of 'bright Gods' (Savitri-274) of Overmind. The key difference between these higher triple planes and our (lower) mind is that in these former planes, one does not grope around in the darkness and twilight planes or infer conclusions from various pieces of data. These triple planes allow for direct form, visions and flashes of the Truth to be reflected more clearly and truly and therefore less subject to the floundering seen in the triple lower mortal mind. But even these higher planes do not capture the whole Truth, only some fragments of it. In these triple realms, there is harmony, truth and courage. The triple realms are: (1) 'small beginning of immense ascent;' (Savitri-264) (2) 'a light of liberating knowledge;' (Savitri-268) (3) 'wide summit of triple stair' (Savitri-271) respectively. Let us meet the Godheads or emanations of these triple planes with their ascending capacity: Godheads of Universalised Higher Mind: " The mighty wardens of the ascending stair Who intercede with the all-creating Word, There waited for the pilgrim heaven-bound soul; Holding the thousand keys of the Beyond They proffered their knowledge to the climbing mind And filled the life with Thought’s immensities." Savitri-265 "Iridescent, bodying the invisible, The guardians of the Eternal’s bright degrees Fronted the Sun in radiant phalanxes. Afar they seemed a symbol imagery, Illumined originals of the shadowy script In which our sight transcribes the ideal Ray, Or icons figuring a mystic Truth, But, nearer, Gods and living Presences." Savitri-265 "In front of the ascending epiphany World-Time’s enjoyers, favourites of World-Bliss, The Masters of things actual, lords of the hours, Playmates of youthful Nature and child God, Creators of Matter by hid stress of Mind Whose subtle thoughts support unconscious Life And guide the fantasy of brute events, Stood there, a race of young keen-visioned gods , King-children born on Wisdom’s early plane, Taught in her school world-making’s mystic play." Savitri-266 Godheads of Universalised Illumined Mind: "Above stood ranked a subtle archangel race With larger lids and looks that searched the unseen. A light of liberating knowledge shone Across the gulfs of silence in their eyes; They lived in the mind and knew truth from within; A sight withdrawn in the concentrated heart Could pierce behind the screen of Time’s results And the rigid cast and shape of visible things." Savitri-268 Godheads of Universalised Intuitive Mind: "August and few the sovereign Kings of Thought Have made of Space their wide all-seeing gaze Surveying the enormous work of Time: A breadth of all-containing Consciousness Supported Being in a still embrace. Intercessors with a luminous Unseen, They capt in the long passage to the world The imperatives of the creator Self Obeyed by unknowing earth, by conscious heaven; Their thoughts are partners in its vast control." Savitri-271 Overmind and the bright Godheads: Here we find the universalised consciousness where the relation of Jivatma with Paraprakriti is established and it is described in the following symbolic language. Through the descent of D ivine Mother's touch, the mortal head is illumined and a golden nimbus becomes visible surrounding the head. "Or as a lover clasps his one beloved, Godhead of his life’s worship and desire, Icon of his heart’s sole idolatry, She now is his and must live for him alone: She has invaded him with her sudden bliss,... Incarnating her beauty in his clasp She gave for a brief kiss her immortal lips And drew to her bosom one glorified mortal head : She made earth her home, for whom heaven was too small. In a human breast her occult presence lived; He carved from his own self his figure of her: She shaped her body to a mind’s embrace." Savitri-274-275 Paraprakriti is here the Divine Mother and the 'The whole world lives in a lonely ray of her sun.' (Savitri-276) If a Sadhak will 'Dare to surrender to her absolute' (Savitri-276) then a new Manifestation will take place. Even he adores her to possess her Divinity, 'But she remains herself and infinite' (Savitri-276) or 'A distance severed her from those most close.' (Savitri-366) This Canto projects a Sadhak as 'citizens of that mother State' (Savitri-262) or Spiritual fosterer and his Soul as 'Immaculate in white virginity.' (Savitri-274) In order to adventure into 'Matter's night' he must have Kshetriya Soul force in his frontal nature. “Its (Spirit’s) wings can dare to cross the Infinite.” Savitri-260 "Our spirits break free from their environment; The future brings its face of miracle near, Its godhead looks at us with present eyes; Acts deemed impossible grow natural; We feel the hero’s immortality; The courage and the strength death cannot touch Awake in limbs that are mortal, hearts that fail; We move by the rapid impulse of a will That scorns the tardy trudge of mortal time." Savitri-262 “Ourselves are citizens of that mother State Adventurers, we have colonised Matter’s night.” Savitri-262 “These (God-born strength) dared to grasp with their thought Truth’s absolute;” Savitri-272 “Dare to surrender to her absolute.” Savitri-276 “At each moment willed or adventure of the soul,” Savitri-266 “It (Supermind) casts on our world its great crowned influences, Its speed that outstrips the ambling of the hours, Its force that strides invincibly through Time, Its mights that bridge the gulf twixt man and God, Its (Supermind) lights that combat Ignorance and Death.” Savitri-261 In addition to Kshetriya Soul Force, Spiritual life prohibits earthly enjoyments and rest and proposes ceaseless action by uniting with the Divine and ceaseless descent of Divine Wisdom and Love. The ultimate vision is to call down the Supreme Lord and His magic Will in its entirety that can break down all established laws, all the limitations of mortal life instantly; search for that fire of Love which can bring dead back to life; that Power which can cancel the things once done; that supreme Consciousness which can arrest the advance of time and slipping moments (“No silent peak is found where Time can rest.” Savitri-197) and that Bliss which can persuade the past perfect hours to live again with greater intensity or 'A new charm brings back the old extreme delight.' (Savitri-275) Adventure into Supramental consciousness promises endless new discoveries in the material world, endless opulence, beauty and harmony in the surrounding world. It also promises to put pressure on common man or on humanity to reveal their Soul. This Canto also gives the message that the Sadhak must also have the highest Brahmin Soul force in his frontal Nature which is a ceaseless rejection of falsehood and ceaseless acceptance of overhead Truth. This Canto hints at the establishment of Soul-saving Truth which alone can replace the Soul-slaying truth of three gunas . “The Spirit’s truths take form as living Gods” Savitri-261 “Of a truth that sees in an unerring light” Savitri-261 “A memory steals in from lost heavens of Truth,” Savitri-263 “In our unknown depths sleeps their reserve of truth,” Savitri-263 “Answers Truth’s call as to a parent’s voice” Savitri-264 “A happiness it brings of whispered truth;” Savitri-264 “The flame-bright hierarchs of the divine Truth” Savitri-265 “Or icons figuring a mystic Truth,” Savitri-265 “They lived in the mind and knew truth from within” Savitri-268 “And theoricians of unknowable truths,” Savitri-268 “Truths they could find and hold but not the one (Supreme) Truth” Savitri-271 “A Truth-gaze shapes its beings and events;” Savitri-271 “Even Nature’s ignorance is Truth’s instrument;” Savitri-272 “Mystic, ineffable is the spirit’s truth,” Savitri-272 “This greater Truth is foreign to our thoughts;” Savitri-272 “And hoped to conquer Truth’s supernal base.” Savitri-273 “In transparent systems bodied termless truths,” Savitri-273 “This they have planned, to snare the feet of Truth” Savitri-274 “But thought nor word can seize eternal Truth: The whole world lives in a lonely ray of her sun Truth smiled upon the gracious golden game” Savitri-275 “A king of truth upon his separate throne.” Savitri-275 “For Truth is wider, greater than her forms.” Savitri-276 This Canto also makes us aware of our limitations and makes us accountable towards Divine life: “We see not what small figure of her (Para-prakriti) we hold; We feel not her inspiring boundlessness, We share not her immortal liberty. Thus is it even with the seer and sage For still the human limits the divine:” Savitri-276 “To account for the Actual’s unaccountable sum,” Savitri-269 “Its values weighed by the accountant Mind,” Savitri-270 This Canto deals only with higher planes of Consciousness and gives importance to live a life in extreme happiness and joy. Thus ' Joy dares to grow upon forbidden soil.' (Savitri-630). This is also a condition to meet and confront with world’s Ignorance, Falsehood, Suffering and Death. "A happiness it brings of whispered truth; There runs in its flow honeying the bosom of Space A laughter from the immortal heart of Bliss, And the unfathomed Joy of timelessness, The sound of Wisdom’s murmur in the Unknown And the breath of an unseen Infinity." Savitri-264 OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this chapter: “A gold supernal sun of timeless Truth Poured down the mystery of the eternal Ray Through a silence quivering with the word of Light On an endless ocean of discovery.” Savitri-264 “Of throbbing new discovery without end.” Savitri-275 “The All-containing was contained in form, Oneness was carved into units measurable, The limitless built into a cosmic sum: Unending Space was beaten into a curve, Indivisible Time into small minutes cut, The infinitesimal massed to keep secure The mystery of the Formless cast into form.” Savitri-266-67 “A breadth of all-containing Consciousness Supported Being in a still embrace…. A great all-ruling Consciousness is there…” Savitri-271 “The secret power in the inconscient depths, Compelling the blinded Godhead to emerge,” Savitri-272 (Discovery of Inconscient Self.) 17/ Book 2, Canto 12 - The Heavens Of Ideal A Brief Restatement: This Book-2, Canto-12, gives the account of King Aswapati’s Psychic being’s ascent to Spiritual and Supramental height, hence this ascent is identified as Purusha yajna or Vedantic sacrifice. "It left known summits for the unknown peaks:" Savitri-277 "Its worlds are steps of an ascending Force:" Savitri-280 "Only the Eternal’s strength in us can dare To attempt the immense adventure of that climb And the sacrifice of all we cherish here." Savitri-280 Here we find an account of the movement of Consciousness in higher planes of Consciousness, particularly in between Psychic and Spiritual plane. "Each stage of the soul’s remote ascent was built Into a constant heaven felt always here." Savitri-277 This Canto also gives hint of opening of Chakras of King Aswapati from above the head moving downward as Divine Shakti . The traditional Yoga gives importance of opening of Chakras or energy centres from below and asks the physical presence of Guru in order to avoid the possibility of Spiritual fall. The opening of Chakras as proposed in integral Yoga is safe and need not depend on the Physical presence of Guru . The descending Shakti will purify mind, vital and body and finally descend to Subconscient and Inconscient plane for purification and transformation. “Our hidden centres of celestial force Open like flowers to a heavenly atmosphere; Mind pauses thrilled with the supernal Ray, And even this transient body then can feel Ideal love and flawless happiness And laughter of the heart’s sweetness and delight Freed from the rude and tragic hold of Time, And beauty and the rhythmic feet of the hours.” Savitri-278 "A million lotuses swaying on one stem, World after coloured and ecstatic world Climbs towards some far unseen epiphany." Savitri-279 So the Yoga which begins with the movement of Consciousness between Psychic and Spiritual plane, replacing or superseding the earlier status of movement of consciousness between three gunas , will culminate with the movement of Consciousness between Inconscient and Supramental plane. “Above the spirit cased in mortal sense Are superconscious realms of heavenly peace, Below, the Inconscient’s sullen dim abyss, Between, behind our life, the deathless Rose.” Savitri-277-278 Thus, King Aswapati prepared his body for cellular transformation. This is identified as the intermediate siddhi beyond Supramental of integral Yoga. “A fiery stillness wakes the slumbering cells , A passion of the flesh becoming spirit, And marvellously is fulfilled at last The miracle for which our life was made.” Savitri-278 We also observe in this Canto the reconciliation of Divine Will, Divine Knowledge and Divine Love through the movement of Consciousness. They become one and further ‘Aspired to reach the Being’s absolute.’(Savitri-279). This sense of Oneness with all existence is a movement towards Cosmic and Supramental Consciousness and the King met in those planes ‘radiant children of Eternity’ (Savitri-282) who can assist a Sadhaka to establish himself in that plane. This Canto also confirms a Sadhak that Spiritual fall can be avoided if Karma Yoga is reconciled with Jnana Yoga . "Happy the worlds that have not felt our fall , Where Will is one with Truth and Good with Power ; Impoverished not by earth-mind’s indigence, They keep God’s natural breath of mightiness, His bare spontaneous swift intensities; There is his great transparent mirror, Self, And there his sovereign autarchy of bliss In which immortal natures have their part, Heirs and cosharers of divinity." Savitri-281 "There is the secrecy of the House of Flame, The blaze of godlike thought and golden bliss, The rapt idealism of heavenly sense; There are the wonderful voices, the sun-laugh, A gurgling eddy in rivers of God’s joy, And the mysteried vineyards of the gold moon-wine, All the fire and sweetness of which hardly here A brilliant shadow visits mortal life." Savitri-279 OM TAT SAT The Important Secret of this chapter: “It longed for the Light that knows not death and birth. Each stage of the soul’s remote ascent was built Into a constant heaven felt always here.” Savitri-277 “A fiery stillness wakes the slumbering cells, A passion of the flesh becoming spirit, And marvellously is fulfilled at last The miracle for which our life was made. A flame in a white voiceless cupola Is seen and faces of immortal light, The radiant limbs that know not birth and death, The breasts that suckle the first-born of the Sun, The wings that crowd thought’s ardent silences, The eyes that look into spiritual Space.” Savitri-278 The More Important Secret of this chapter: “There is the secrecy of the House of Flame (Agni), (Psychic being) The blaze of godlike thought and golden bliss, The rapt idealism of heavenly sense; There are the wonderful voices, the sun-laugh, A gurgling eddy in rivers of God’s joy, And the mysteried vineyards of the gold moon-wine, All the fire and sweetness of which hardly here A brilliant shadow visits mortal life.” Savitri-279 The Most Important Secret of this chapter: "Yet were there regions where these absolutes met And made a circle of bliss with married hands; Light stood embraced by light, fire wedded fire, But none in the other would his body lose To find his soul in the world’s single Soul, A multiplied rapture of infinity." Savitri-281-282 18/ Book 2, Canto 13 - In The Self Of Mind A Brief Restatement: The Book-2, Canto-13 concentrates on King Aswapati’s full opening of intermediate static Spiritual Being and its relation with dynamic Psychic Being below and dynamic Supramental Being above. It also hints that the most important Psychic being of integral Yoga is partly fulfilled by union with Spiritual Being and fully satisfied with the union with Supramental Being. "Then suddenly a luminous finger fell On all things seen or touched or heard or felt And showed his mind that nothing could be known; That must be reached from which all knowledge comes." Savitri-284 While a Static Spiritual being is indifferent to world problems, its intervention in life reduces desire, personal will, ego, attachment, dualities and action of three gunas. This Canto does not concentrate on the dynamic Spiritual being which is also known as Cosmic Consciousness and its action is more described in the next Canto, Book 2, Canto-14. The Nature of Spiritual Being is ‘Mighty calm,’ ‘immobile calm,’ ‘wordless peace,’ ‘deep peace,’ indifferent to victory and defeat, ‘vast quietism,’ 'creator Mind,' ‘a wide and witness Self,’ 'a shadow' of Supramental light, ‘a pale front of the Unknowable’ Supermind, ‘blank and still.’ Spiritual being can trace a passage of brief Supramental touch, which gives input to explore more on the subject. They are described as That, sceptic Ray, Superconscient Sun, convicting beam, nameless Force, mighty Mother, white passion of God-ecstasy, boundless heart of Love, and ‘A greater Spirit.’ "Our sweet and mighty Mother was not there Who gathers to her bosom her children’s lives, Her clasp that takes the world into her arms In the fathomless rapture of the Infinite, The Bliss that is creation’s splendid grain Or the white passion of God-ecstasy That laughs in the blaze of the boundless heart of Love. A greater Spirit than the Self of Mind (the greater Spirit is Supermind.) Must answer to the questioning of his soul." Savitri-286-287 This Canto also proposes to become immortal by constantly renewing the mortality though the Spiritual Being is unable to confront Death in the inconscient plane. "Two firmaments of darkness and of light Opposed their limits to the spirit’s walk; It moved veiled in from Self’s infinity In a world of beings and momentary events Where all must die to live and live to die. Immortal by renewed mortality," Savitri-287-288 Finally, the Canto proposes that if one will remain in the world he will have to live in the prison of ego, and if he will activate the Spiritual being it will find a passage to extinction and escape from this world. "To be was a prison, extinction the escape." (Savitri-288) So, we have to go beyond the Spiritual Mind in order to discover the dynamic Spirit and a comprehensive solution to the world's problems. OM TAT SAT The Important Secret of this chapter: “Where Silence listened to the cosmic Voice, But answered nothing to a million calls; The soul’s endless question met with no response.” Savitri-283 “Silence (of Spiritual Being), the mystic birthplace of the soul (Psychic Being).” Savitri-287 (A psychic being’s silence is a suffusion from a Spiritual being.) “The Silence knew itself and thought took form:” Savitri-284 “There (state of equality) he could stay, the Self, the Silence won: His soul had peace, it knew the cosmic Whole.” Savitri-284 (cosmic consciousness) 19/ Book 2, Canto 14 - The World-Soul A Brief Restatement: This Book-2, Canto-14 represents King Aswapati’s Spiritual experience of cosmic Self which is the same as the dynamic state of the Spiritual being, all this existence is Brahman of the Gita (Vasudevah Sarvamiti) (The Gita-7.19) , Para Prakriti or the Divine Mother of Tantra . This dynamic Spiritual being also has the capacity to travel in all the ten planes of Consciousness or multiple subtle bodies for purification, transformation and perfection. Or "The spirit wandering from state to state" (Savitri-294) This is also identified as the preliminary stair of the Supermind where the World, Self and Divine are reconciled. This is also the state of Consciousness, which is the outcome of Jivatma’s Divine union with the Para-Prakriti , who holds together this whole universe, jagat dharayete (The Gita-7.5). "Above them all she stands supporting all, The sole omnipotent Goddess ever-veiled Of whom the world is the inscrutable mask; The ages are the footfalls of her tread, Their happenings the figure of her thoughts, And all creation is her endless act. His spirit was made a vessel of her force; Mute in the fathomless passion of his will He outstretched to her his folded hands of prayer." Savitri-295 In all the previous Cantos, King Aswapati had the experience of Cosmic Consciousness, but in this Canto his cosmic Self is Supramentalised and the Divine revealed himself in his personal form. The King's Consciousness continues to move between the universal and transcendent Self. "An incense floated in the quivering air, A mystic happiness trembled in the breast As if the invisible Beloved had come Assuming the sudden loveliness of a face And close glad hands could seize his fugitive feet And the world change with the beauty of a smile." Savitri-290 In Cosmic Consciousness, Matter and Spirit are reconciled and all negations of material life is Divinised by the universal Spirit’s touch. They are: “One who could love without return for love (Divine Love), Meeting and turning to the best the worst, It healed the bitter cruelties of earth, Transforming all experience to delight; Intervening in the sorrowful paths of birth It rocked the cradle of the cosmic Child And stilled all weeping with its hand of joy; It led things evil towards their secret good, It turned racked falsehood into happy truth; Its power was to reveal divinity.” Savitri-291 This Canto proposes a Sadhak on how to enter relation with other Souls by activation of the cosmic Self. Here, the subtle touch of one soul with another soul is given much importance by extension and universalisation of subtle body and a touch of gross 'bodies were needed not' (Savitri-292) to establish this Divine Love. "Life was not there, but an impassioned force, Finer than fineness, deeper than the deeps, Felt as a subtle and spiritual power, A quivering out from soul to answering soul, A mystic movement, a close influence, A free and happy and intense approach Of being to being with no screen or check, Without which life and love could never have been. Body was not there, for bodies were needed not, The soul itself was its own deathless form And met at once the touch of other souls Close, blissful, concrete, wonderfully true." Savitri-292 This Cosmic Self is the home and training ground of dead Souls through internatal trance and one enters the right relation with the world, fellow brothers, dead kith and kin and material things through direct contact with this higher consciousness. "In trance they (dead Souls) gathered back their bygone selves, In a background memory’s foreseeing muse Prophetic of new personality Arranged the map of their coming destiny’s course: Heirs of their past, their future’s discoverers, Electors of their own self-chosen lot, They waited for the adventure of new life." Savitri-293 "The (dead) spirit wandering from state to state Finds here (Cosmic Self) the silence of its starting-point In the formless force and the still fixity And brooding passion of the world of Soul... Ever they (Dead Souls) change and changing ever grow, And passing through a fruitful stage of death And after long reconstituting sleep Resume their place in the process of the Gods Until their work in cosmic Time is done." Savitri-294 In this cosmic Consciousness, the King Aswapati was able to have direct personal contact with the supreme Lord and supreme Mother and Their dual relation, which uplifted the King’s consciousness to the status of Avatara . "His soul passed on, a single conscious power, Towards the end which ever begins again, Approaching through a stillness dumb and calm To the source of all things human and divine. There he beheld in their mighty union’s poise The figure of the deathless Two-in-One, A single being in two bodies clasped, A diarchy of two united souls, Seated absorbed in deep creative joy; Their trance of bliss sustained the mobile world." Savitri-295 OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this chapter: “A flame that cancels death in mortal things.” Savitri-291 “Behind them in a morning dusk One stood (the Divine Mother – as the Transcendent Shakti) Who brought them forth from the Unknowable (the Supreme). Ever disguised she awaits the seeking spirit; Watcher on the supreme unreachable peaks, Guide of the traveller of the unseen paths, She guards the austere approach to the Alone.” Savitri-295 20/ Book 2, Canto 15 - The Kingdoms Of The Greater Knowledge A Brief Restatement: Book-2, Canto-15 gives the message of the Supramental plane, which becomes active after one is established in the movement of Consciousness between the Universal and the Transcendent Self which succeeds the movements of Consciousness between the waking trance of the Psychic and non-waking trance of the Spiritual plane. "He scanned the secrets of the Overmind, He bore the rapture of the Oversoul. A borderer of the empire of the Sun, Attuned to the supernal harmonies, He linked creation to the Eternal’s sphere." Savitri-302 A concentration on this Canto can give brief Supramental touch, brief Supramental silence, brief Supramental hope, and brief Supramental Peace. That will help to trace a unique path of our own. “A thousand roads leaped into Eternity... The Known released him (King ) from its limiting chain; He knocked at the doors of the Unknowable.’ (Savitri-298) This Canto hints that due to this Supramental influence; some Permanent changes were observed in King’s physical appearance. They are identified as: “A light was round him (King ) wide and absolute,” (Savitri-297) This change is also observed in Satyavan’s pursuit of Yoga in book-7. They are: “Above the cherished head of Satyavan She saw not now Fate’s dark and lethal orb; A golden circle round a mystic sun Disclosed to her new-born predicting sight” Savitri-533 During King's Psychic and Spiritual opening, he became a twice-born Soul and the first Psychic and second Spiritual reversal of Consciousness was experienced. So a Dvija can hold the Divine's Presence for a brief period and we mark King's this particular brief Spiritual experience and brief Supramental experience in the previous Book-2, Canto-5 and Book-1, Canto-3: “A new life dawns, he looks out from vistas wide; The Spirit’s breath moves him but soon retires: His strength was not made to hold that puissant guest.” Savitri-165 “Hardly for a moment glimpsed viewless to Mind, (Brief Supramental experience.) As if a torch held by a power of God, The radiant world of the everlasting Truth Glimmered like a faint star bordering the night Above the golden Overmind’s shimmering ridge.” Savitri-41 The King experienced another new birth and establishment in a third reversal of Consciousness during this Supramental opening: "In the kingdom of the Spirit’s power and light, As if one who arrived out of infinity’s womb He came new-born, infant and limitless And grew in the wisdom of the timeless Child; He was a vast that soon became a Sun." Savitri-301 In this context, we can note The Mother's following experience: " When we begin living the spiritual life, a reversal of consciousness takes place which for us is the proof that we have entered the spiritual life; well, yet another occurs when we enter the supramental world...And probably each time a new world opens up, there will again be a new reversal. This is why even our spiritual life, which is such a total reversal compared to ordinary life, seems something still so ... so totally different when compared to this supramental consciousness that the values are almost opposite....I can explain the phenomenon like this: successive reversals such that an EVER NEW richness of creation will take place from stage to stage, making whatever came before seem so poor in comparison. What to us seems supremely rich compared to our ordinary life, appears so poor compared to this new reversal of consciousness. Such was my experience." The Mother's Agenda-15.11.1958 We also observe in this Canto, the nature of Supramental action which complements earlier representations of Psychic and Spiritual action: “The greatness and wonder of its boundless works,” Savitri-298 “The glorious dream of their universal acts;” Savitri-298 “Its inexhaustible acts in a timeless Time,” Savitri-298 “And all creation is an act of light.” Savitri-298 “In that high realm where no untruth can come, Where all are different and all is one, In the Impersonal’s ocean without shore The Person in the World-Spirit anchored rode; It thrilled with the mighty marchings of World-Force, Its acts were the comrades of God’s infinite peace .” Savitri-301 “His finite parts approached their absolutes, His actions framed the movements of the Gods, His will took up the reins of cosmic Force.” Savitri-302 The above Supramental action also calls down the Supramental Wisdom and Supramental Love: “Here came the thought that passes beyond Thought, Here the still Voice which our listening cannot hear, The Knowledge by which the knower is the known, The Love in which beloved and lover are one.” Savitri-297-98 Supramental action makes a Sadhaka King, Leader and Captain of the team; Supramental wisdom makes him Scout guarding Truth’s ‘diamond purity’ (Savitri-297) and Pioneer of new Consciousness by tracing a new path; Supramental Love makes his life exceedingly joyful laughter and boundless self-giving. OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this chapter: “A consciousness lay still, devoid of forms, Free, wordless, uncoerced by sign or rule, For ever content with only being and bliss; A sheer existence lived in its own peace On the single spirit’s bare and infinite ground.” Savitri-297 “A state in which all ceased and all began.” Savitri-297 (a state of Supramental Consciousness) “Out of the neutral silence of his soul He passed to its fields of puissance and of calm And saw the Powers that stand above the world, (the various Emanations of the Divine Mother) Traversed the realms of the supreme Idea And sought the summit of created things And the almighty source of cosmic change.” Savitri-298 “On peaks where Silence listens with still heart To the rhythmic metres of the rolling worlds, He served the sessions of the triple Fire.” Savitri-299, 21/ Book 3, Canto 1 - The Pursuit Of The Unknowable A Brief Restatement: In Book-3, Canto-1, King entered a state of consciousness beyond Supramental and this absolute static state of the Divine we may call as Bliss Self, Supreme Self, Turiya state, ' Uncreating, uncreated and unborn, The One by whom all live, who lives by none.' (Savitri-309) Its dynamic state is not revealed here. The King was able to enter this absolute plane after bridging the gulf between this world and the Supramental world, about which we get hints from the previous Book-1, Canto-3, Book-2, Canto-3, 5, 10, 11 and Book-3, Canto-1, 2. The narration is like this: “And sudden ecstasies from a world of bliss.” Savitri-31 (King Aswapati’s brief experience of Supreme Self.) “This world of bliss he (King Aswapati) saw and felt its call, But found no way to enter into its joy; Across the conscious gulf there was no bridge.” Savitri-128 “But now the Light supreme is far away:” Savitri-154 "It saw afar the unreached Immortal’s home And heard afar the voices of the Gods.' Savitri-258-259 "Far-off he saw the joining hemispheres." Savitri-264 “But who that mightiness was he knew not yet.” Savitri-306 “But what That was, no thought nor sight could tell.” Savitri-308 "And still the last inviolate secret hides Behind the human glory of a Form, Behind the gold eidolon of a Name. A large white line has figured as a goal, But far beyond the ineffable suntracks blaze: What seemed the source and end was a wide gate, A last bare step into eternity." Savitri-311 "Our greater self of knowledge waits for us, A supreme light in the truth-conscious Vast:” Savitri-484 (Savitri was preparing for this experience.) In the initial phase of the Sadhana, King was able to enter the last perfection (siddhi) of integral Yoga, known as Truth Supreme, but showed his inability to stay in that world for a longer period: “Upbuoyed upon winged winds of rapid joy, Upheld to a Light it could not always hold, It left mind’s distance from the Truth supreme And lost life’s incapacity for bliss.” Savitri-43-44 A similar difficulty is marked in Savitri's Spiritual experience of arriving at Supramental and Bliss Consciousness: "Then this too paused; the body seemed a stone. All now was a wide mighty vacancy, But still excluded from eternity’s hush; For still was far the repose of the Absolute And the ocean silence of Infinity." Savitri-543-544 A similar difficulty is observed in Satyavan's Sadhana while trying to bridge the gulf between this world and the Supramental world: "I lived in the ray but faced not to the sun. I looked upon the world and missed the Self, And when I found the Self, I lost the world, My other selves I lost and the body of God, The link of the finite with the Infinite, The bridge between the appearance and the Truth, The mystic aim for which the world was made, The human sense of Immortality. But now the gold link comes to me with thy feet And His gold sun has shone on me from thy face." Savitri-407-408 How can we enter this world of Bliss through the movement of Consciousness? Through the fourfold ladders of (1) waking Self, Virat , (2) subliminal Self, dream Self, Hiranyagarbha , (3) Supramental Self, Sleep Self, causal body, Susupti (4) Supreme Self, Turiya, the Consciousness of pure self-existence, we climb back through trance or deep meditation to this absolute Divine plane. More hints we can observe from this Canto:- 1) “Although more near to us than nearness’ self,… Hidden by its own works, it seemed far off, Impenetrable, occult, voiceless, obscure… Near, it retreated; far, it called him still.” Savitri-305 2) Without this Divine Presence, the world lived empty of its Mission, all things have no charm, no glory, no brightness, which can be compared as love after the beloved’s demise. (Savitri-305) 3) The Delight of this Supreme Self can satisfy life utterly. ‘Its absence left the greatest action dull, Its presence made the smallest (action) seem divine. When it was there heart’s abyss (desire Soul) was' (Savitri-305-306) fulfilled, purified, transformed and perfected. 4) When this Deity, the Anandamaya Purusha withdraws, the existence experiences dissolution or when the Psychic Being withdraws, the individual experiences the death of the body. During that period of dissolution the godlike fullness of Divine Instruments, Vibhutis, Avataras become the support of an impermanent scene. 5) The Canto proposes that to make the mind empty, vital silent and body plastic is the condition of continuous ascent of the Soul, continuous descent of Shakti and boundless change and further proposes to live like a newborn child or a zero formed where every hope and search must cease and nothing built could live. Then all the parts of Nature can transform into the image of Bliss Self. This is the adventure of Spirit within Matter’s Ignorance. Thus Spirit can hold the universe in the trance of its luminous insufficiency. 6) The separate Self or Psychic being must be Supramentalised by the invasion of the Supramental and Bliss Self and its sepatrative identity is lost and a Sadhak becomes egoless and becomes one with the Bliss Self or 'The separate self must melt or be reborn Into a Truth beyond the mind’s appeal.' (Savitri-307) By the influence of its Supreme Truth, the mind dies like a moth and one lives in a ‘fine and blissful Nothingness.’ (Savitri-307) 7) Before that supreme state all human glory, sweetness and harmony become unimportant and obsolete. Thus, by the attraction of this Supreme Self, the unsolved slow evolution of three gunas returns to its Divine Source from which all springs and all ceases. 8) The Supreme Self has no kinship with the dominant three gunas of the universe. Thus, in its vast consciousness, there is no external movement, no tamasic mind’s ignorant action, no rajasic mind’s indulgence in human love and no sattwic mind’s disinterested search for pure truth. All the false personalities born by the influence of three gunas perished before the nameless impersonal influence and oneness of the Supreme bliss Self. There remains only one Supreme Divine Mother without a second personality to substitute Her or “There was no second, it had no partner or peer; Only itself was real to itself.” (Savitri-308) This Oneness of pure existence is safe from the falsehood of ‘thought and mood’ and pure Consciousness is ‘unshared immortal bliss’ (Savitri-309) and dwelt alone, aloof, unique, bare and unutterably sole. This Being is formless, featureless, mute, occult, impenetrable, infinite, eternal, unthinkable and alone. 9) After the prolongation of this static realisation of the Supreme Self, King Aswapati became fit to meet the Dynamic state of the Divine Mother in Person or in Her personal embodied Form for a brief period, who alone can bridge the gulf between Matter and Spirit or Death and Immortality in their entirety. “All he had been and all towards which he grew Must now be left behind or else transform (by dynamisation of Supreme Self) Into a self of That which has no name.” Savitri-307 “A height was reached where nothing made could live, A line where every hope and search must cease Neared some intolerant bare Reality, A zero formed pregnant with boundless change .” Savitri-306 (This is the point at which Supreme Self is dynamised.) This Canto gives the message to a Sadhak that by realisation of static Supreme Self one will recoil from world problems and escape into the supreme Abode of Param Dham and by dynamisation of Supreme Self through prolongation of static realisation, the world problems can be resolved and untransformed Nature can be Divinised. OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this chapter: “A cave of darkness guards the eternal Light.” Savitri-305 (Here eternal Light is the Subconscient and Inconscient Self) “Nothing could satisfy but its delight: Its (Supreme Self’s) absence left the greatest actions dull, Its presence made the smallest seem divine.” Savitri-305 22/ Book 3, Canto 2 - The Adoration Of The Divine Mother A Brief Restatement: The Book-3, Canto-2, begins with the vast static silence state of Supreme Self, Turiya , Bliss Self, and ends with its dynamisation. This initial dynamisation can abolish and swallow the burdening tamasic need, the rajasic sense urge and limited sattwic knowledge without transforming that life. In this state, ego is dead with boundless silence of the Supreme Self but oblivious of Supreme Self's Power and world transforming Mission. This realisation is an escape from life's problems and does not bring victory and crown of integral Yoga. This realisation does not define the mystery of Avatar's Divine birth and Divine action, leaving unbroken the 'last chapter's seal' and 'still the last inviolate secret' (Savitri-311) and 'last bare step' is hidden. By the pressure of static Supreme Self, 'The soul’s ignorance is slain but not the soul:' (Savitri-311) This hints that by activation of the static Supreme Self Ignorance and Falsehood can be destroyed but cannot be transformed. In the absolute silence of static supreme realisation, 'an absolute Power' sleeps and the Sadhak's task is to awaken the trance-bound Soul linked with this static realisation and 'make the world a vessel of Spirit's force' (Savitri-312) and mould the clay into 'God's perfect shape.' (Savitri-312) The dynamic state of the Supreme Self perfects the action of Psychic Being, Spiritual Being and Supramental Being; its influence reduces or silences the demand of desire Soul, it turns all parts of being towards a single-minded quest and single-minded opening towards the Divine Mother Consciousness and it establishes the Bliss Consciousness in all the parts of Being and Becoming. The King here meets the Supreme Mother or Creatrix Bliss Mother as: "A being of wisdom, power and delight, Even as a mother draws her child to her arms, Took to her breast Nature and world and soul.... The Power, the Light, the Bliss no word can speak Imaged itself in a surprising beam And built a golden passage to his heart Touching through him all longing sentient things." Savitri-312 "A Mother Might brooded upon the world; A Consciousness revealed its marvellous front Transcending all that is, denying none:” Savitri-313 "The undying Truth appeared, the enduring Power Of all that here is made and then destroyed, The Mother of all godheads and all strengths Who, mediatrix, binds earth to the Supreme." Savitri-313 "The Formless and the Formed were joined in her: Immensity was exceeded by a look, A Face revealed the crowded Infinite." Savitri-314 The speciality of successive Canto (II and III) is the manifestation of the Supreme Self's dynamic Divine Love which can transform by slaying the desire Soul surrounding Psychic being and can transform the darkness of Subconscient and Inconscient sheaths. King Aswapati was able to transform the desire Soul represented by tamasic, rajasic and sattwic mind by elevating his consciousness to the Bliss Self and dynamising it (“The soul’s ignorance (desire Soul) is slain but not the soul:” Savitri-311, “Now other claims (of desire Soul) had hushed in him their cry:" Savitri-316,): “The covering Nescience was unmasked and slain;” Savitri-313, “To err no more was natural to mind; Wrong could not come where all was light and love.” Savitri-313-14 “All that denies (Supreme Love) must be torn out and slain And crushed the many longings (of desire) for whose sake We lose the One (Divine) for whom our lives were made.” Savitri-316, “All seemed to have perished that was undivine:” Savitri-318, “The covering mind was seized and torn apart;” Savitri-319, “But where is the Lover’s everlasting Yes,” Savitri-310, “Across the silence of the ultimate Calm, Out of a marvellous Transcendence’ core, A body of wonder and translucency As if a sweet mystic summary of her self Escaping into the original Bliss Had come enlarged out of eternity, Someone (Divine Mother) came infinite and absolute.” Savitri-312 “A moment’s sweetness of the All-Beautiful (Divine Mother) Cancelled the vanity of the cosmic whirl.” Savitri-312 “A love that bore the cross of pain with joy Eudaemonised the sorrow of the world, Made happy the weight of long unending Time, The secret caught of God’s felicity.” Savitri-312-133 “A Heart was felt in the spaces wide and bare, A burning Love from white spiritual founts Annulled the sorrow of the ignorant depths; Suffering was lost in her immortal smile. A Life from beyond grew conqueror here of death; To err no more was natural to mind; Wrong could not come where all was light and love. ” Savitri-313-14 “All here shall be one day her sweetness’ home, All contraries prepare her harmony; Towards her our knowledge climbs, our passion gropes; In her miraculous rapture we shall dwell, Her clasp shall turn to ecstasy our pain.” Savitri-314 “All that denies must be torn out and slain And crushed the many longings (of desire Soul) for whose sake We lose the One (Divine Love) for whom our lives were made. Now other claims (of desire Soul) had hushed in him their cry:" Savitri-316 The Divine Love is a supremely affirmative dynamic energy defined as ‘Lover’s everlasting Yes’ (Savitri-310) which can transform Inconscient/Subconscient negations known as ‘everlasting No’ (Savitri-310) without rejecting and destroying them, without slaying the Soul’s Ignorance, can transform the wheel of earth’s doom known as ‘cosmic whirl.’ (Savitri-310) It can bear the cross of pain with joy; transcends all the creation but denies none and can annul the sorrow of ignorant depths. It can turn pain into ecstasy, confront and conquer death, and transform falsehood. Before its Presence error of mind and wrong action cannot materialise and the mind becomes a faultless instrument of the Divine. All discords of life move towards harmony, all darkness of suffering is healed and this Divine Love can transform superseding earlier static Divine realisation which can crush and silence the many longing desires of mind, life and body. The Spiritual and Psychic Love can reject falsehood, Supramental and Bliss Love can transform falsehood and save the Soul, Mind, Life and Body. So, King Aswapati’s single-minded quest longed and yearned only the Supreme Divine Mother’s Presence in the form of Soul saving Truth, Love and Joy and ‘vast surrender.’ "All Nature dumbly calls to her alone To heal with her feet the aching throb of life And break the seals on the dim soul of man And kindle her fire in the closed heart of things." Savitri-314 "Once seen, his heart acknowledged only her . Only a hunger of infinite bliss was left. All aims in her were lost, then found in her; His base was gathered to one pointing spire." Savitri-315 "This Light comes not by struggle or by thought; In the mind’s silence the Transcendent acts And the hushed heart hears the unuttered Word. A vast surrender was his only strength. A Power that lives upon the heights must act, Bring into life’s closed room the Immortal’s air And fill the finite with the Infinite." Savitri-315-316 "Only he longed to draw her presence and power Into his heart and mind and breathing frame; Only he yearned to call for ever down Her healing touch of love and truth and joy Into the darkness of the suffering world. His soul was freed and given to her alone ." Savitri-316 This Canto gives the Sadhak , the task that, after stabiliastion of his consciousness in the Psychic, Spiritual and Universal planes, he has to ascend and enter the Supreme Self in absolute silence and dynamises it to meet the Supreme Mother in Her Personal form. This will help him to receive the fourth Divine Call of Paraprakriti's union with Apara-prakriti of transforming the nether Subconscient and Inconscient Sheaths. "In her confirmed because transformed in her, Our life shall find in its fulfilled response Above, the boundless hushed beatitudes, Below, the wonder of the embrace divine ." Savitri-315 OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this chapter: “In absolute silence sleeps an absolute Power. Awaking, it can wake the trance-bound soul And in the ray reveal the parent sun:” Savitri-311-12 23/ Book 3, Canto 3 - The House Of The Spirit And New Creation A Brief Restatement: In the Book-3, Canto-3, King was able to dynamise the Supramental Force of having four consequences through ‘downward look’ (Savitri-322) and by embracing all existence. They are identified as (1) new creation, (2) extinction of suffering, (3) oneness with the existence and (4) transformation of Subconscient and inconscient sheaths. Supramental touch/embrace will equip life with new creation and new manifestation which may be identified as an extension of integral Karma Yoga . The source of all action is Consciousness or ‘The one Consciousness that made the world was seen’ (Savitri-318) These new creations are: A new and marvellous creation rose.” Savitri-323 “In these new worlds projected he became” Savitri-325 “A stream ever new-born that never dies,” Savitri-325 “Lured at each turn by new vicissitudes To self-discovery that could never cease.” Savitri-328 “Brought new creations for the thought’s surprise” Savitri-328 “And vast adventure into thinking shapes And trial and lure of a new living’s dreams.” Savitri-328 “A new creation from the old shall rise,” Savitri-330 2: Supramental touch/embrace can transform the suffering of life. This can be identified as the extension of integral Bhakti Yoga . They are: “No suffering of hearts compelled to beat” Savitri-321 “He felt the extinction of the world’s long pain,” Savitri-322 “All struggle was turned to a sweet strife of love” Savitri-324 “There was no sob of suffering anywhere; Experience ran from point to point of joy: Bliss was the pure undying truth of things. All Nature was a conscious front of God:” Savitri-324 3: Supramental touch/embrace can give the experience of Oneness with all existence. This is identified as an extension of integral Jnana Yoga and this perfection is identified as sajujya mukti . We can observe them from the following lines: “There was no more division’s endless scroll; One grew the Spirit’s secret unity , All Nature felt again the single bliss.” Savitri-319 “His soul was a delegation of the All (Psychic being as a delegate of Supreme.) That turned from itself to join the one Supreme .” Savitri-319 “A living Oneness widened at its core” Savitri-322 “Existence found its truth on Oneness’ breast” Savitri-322-23 “The great world-rhythms were heart-beats of one Soul ,” Savitri-323 “Lived their innumerable unity ;” Savitri-323 “There were no contraries, no sundered parts, All by spiritual links were joined to all And bound indissolubly to the One :” Savitri-323 “There Oneness was not tied to monotone;” Savitri-324 “And made of difference oneness’ smiling play; It made all persons fractions of the Unique, ” Savitri-324 “There leaps out unity’s supreme delight ” Savitri-324 “Harmonised a Oneness deep, immeasurable.” Savitri-325 “The bliss of a myriad myriads who are one .” Savitri-325 “An image cast by one deep truth’s absolute, Married to all in happy difference... One in the might and joy of multitude. Even in the poise where Oneness draws apart To feel the rapture of its separate selves, The Sole in its solitude yearned towards the All And the Many turned to look back at the One .” Savitri-326 “In the temple of the ideal shrined the One :… The virgin forms through which the Formless shines,” Savitri-327 4: Supramental touch/embrace or ‘constant lightnings of the spirit’ (Savitri-329) can penetrate the Subconscient and inconscient sheaths. This is identified as an extension of the integral Yoga of Self-perfection. They are: “And in subconscious whispers and in dream Still murmured at the mind’s and spirit’s choice. Its treacherous elements spread like slippery grains Hoping the incoming Truth might stumble and fall,” Savitri-317 “All Nature’s recondite (little known) spaces were stripped bare, All her dim crypts and corners searched with fire Where refugee instincts and unshaped revolts Could shelter find in darkness’ sanctuary Against the white purity of heaven’s cleansing flame.” Savitri-318 “All seemed to have perished that was undivine: Yet some minutest dissident might escape And still a centre lurk of the blind force. For the Inconscient too is infinite; The more its abysses we insist to sound, The more it stretches, stretches endlessly.” Savitri-318 “For even there (dim far universe) the boundless Oneness dwells To its own sight unrecognisable, It lived still sunk in its own tenebrous (dark shadowy or obscure) seas, Upholding the world’s inconscient unity Hidden in Matter’s insentient multitude.” Savitri-331 “It merges knowledge in the inconscient deep; Accepting error, sorrow, death and pain, It pays the ransom of the ignorant Night, Redeeming by its substance Nature’s (Spiritual) fall.” Savitri-331 “Himself he knew and why his soul had gone Into earth’s passionate obscurity To share the labour of an errant Power Which by division hopes to find the One.” Savitri-331 : His heart lay somewhere conscious and alone Far down below him like a lamp in night; Abandoned it lay, alone, imperishable, Immobile with excess of passionate will, His living, sacrificed and offered heart Absorbed in adoration mystical, Turned to its far-off fount of light and love.” Savitri-331-332 “In the centre of his vast and fateful trance Half-way between his free and fallen selves, Interceding twixt God’s day and the mortal’s night, Accepting worship as its single law, Accepting bliss as the sole cause of things, Refusing the austere joy which none can share, Refusing the calm that lives for calm alone, To her (Paraprakriti) it turned for whom it willed to be.” Savitri-332 “Armed with the intuition of a bliss To which some moved tranquillity was the key, It persevered through life’s huge emptiness Amid the blank denials of the world.” Savitri-332-33 The perfection’s law promises movement in between ‘hierarchy of lucent planes’ (Savitri-326) of Consciousness and ensures swift Spiritual evolution. This Inconscient transformation is very crucial in deciding Earth’s future. For such transformation to be active individuals must be established in Supramental Consciousness through Yoga of Self-perfection. To tear desire from its Inconscient root is identified as 'A last and mightiest transformation' (Savitri-318) of King Aswapati . A similar mighty transformation visited Savitri when 'The world’s darkness had consented to Heaven-light.' (Savitri-664) "Then lest a human cry should spoil the Truth He tore desire up from its bleeding roots And offered to the gods the vacant place. Thus could he bear the touch immaculate. A last and mightiest transformation came. " Savitri-318 OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this chapter: “In the temple of the ideal shrined the One: It peopled thought and mind and happy sense Filled with bright aspects of the might of God And living persons of the one Supreme, The speech that voices the ineffable, The ray revealing unseen Presences, The virgin forms through which the Formless shines ,” Savitri-327 24/ Book 3, Canto 4 - The Vision And The Boon A Brief Restatement: In the Book-3, Canto-4, the King Aswapati entered a Supramental world and through a Supramental vision met the ‘mighty face’ (Savitri-334) of the Divine Mother in his heart. This also symbolises that the King’s Psychic Being is Supramentalised. "An Influence had approached the mortal range, A boundless Heart was near his longing heart, A mystic Form enveloped his earthly shape.... The One he worshipped was within him now:" Savitri-334 The Divine Mother discouraged King to call down immeasurable Divine Force and man is not ready to bear the Infinite’s weight. She asked King to live with the slow-paced evolution of humanity and accept God-like toil for earth and men with patience. She further informed that a static Soul realisation of later Vedantists and the influence of three gunas of ordinary life have made a world estranged from life and thought. The Divine Mother describes elaborately the limitation of present humanity who cannot reconcile heaven with earth. The infallible Guide leads all the Souls through stumble and failure and till they discover their Psychic being, 'rest and earthly ease' (Savitri-339) are forbidden. "The goal recedes, a bourneless vastness calls Retreating into an immense Unknown; There is no end to the world’s stupendous march, There is no rest for the embodied soul. It must live on, describe all Time’s huge curve. An Influx presses from the closed Beyond Forbidding to him rest and earthly ease, Till he has found himself he cannot pause." Savitri-399 Man during his journey in higher planes of Consciousness, is assisted by Immortals and Ambassadors of those planes of Consciousness. The Divine Mother declares that in spite of present limitations, tardy evolution and attachment to inferior life, ‘a pure perfection and a shadowless bliss ’ (Savitri-340) is man’s mighty fate. She asks King to ‘Help still humanity’s blind and suffering life’ (Savitri-340) with the aid of his ‘spirit’s wide omnipotent urge.’ (Savitri-340) Any impatience towards fulfilment of the highest human aspiration can draw King Aswapati towards Titan's drive, imperfect fruit and partial prize. So, the King must renounce the fruit of his long labour and offer everything to unchanging Divine Will. All things shall change and transform in All Life and All Time and not in this life and not in this brief time. Then King’s prayer again rises to activate dynamic Divine Shakti who came to him in Supramental vision (Light floated round the marvellous Vision’s brow. Savitri-346) to fulfil his aspiration for earth and men. King saw ‘Omnipotent’s flaming pioneers,’ (Savitri-343) ‘the sun-eyed children of a marvellous dawn’, who came into this fallen human sphere as architects of Immortality. “Their tread one day shall change the suffering earth.” (Savitri-344) The King foresaw the coming of the high Divine successor, the Avatara, Satyavan . ‘He shall know’ (Savitri-344) what the heart of the mortal could not think, ‘He shall do what the heart of the mortal could not dare.’ (Savitri-344) The King prayed to the Divine Mother to ‘Mission to earth some living form’ (Savitri-345) of Her who ‘with one gesture change all future time.’ (Savitri-345) The Divine Mother was satisfied with the King’s Tapasya , askesis and consecration and agreed to incarnate Her living form on earth and She shall ‘break the iron Law, Change Nature’s doom by the lone spirit’s power.’ (Savitri-346) "She shall bear Wisdom in her voiceless bosom, Strength shall be with her like a conqueror’s sword And from her eyes the Eternal’s bliss shall gaze. A seed shall be sown in Death’s tremendous hour, A branch of heaven transplant to human soil; Nature shall overleap her mortal step; Fate shall be changed by an unchanging will.” Savitri-346 Thus, King was the eternal Seeker of Truth, Love and Power of All Life. Through him, great swift-footed deed awoke. His Supramentalised Psychic Being established the empire of the Soul, who also can conquer the opulence and wealth of heaven. His empire of Soul can rule Matter and the bounded universe and can reconcile Spirit with Matter. The literal meaning of King’s name is ‘The Lord of Life’ (Savitri-348) and he resumed his mighty Supramental action again in this ambiguous globe. Thus, ends the Book-3, Canto-4. In the next Canto, we shall witness the secret of the Divine Mother’s earthly embodiment which the Lord of the Gita confirms that ‘My birth and My work are both Divine’ janma karma cha me divyam . Savitri’s birth is the symbol of Para-prakriti’s movement in an earthly embodiment which is ‘A columned shaft of fire and light.' (Savitri-581) Satyavan’s birth is the symbol of Paramatma’s earthly incarnation of 'unknown Lover' (Savitri-374). And Their meeting symbolises the union between Supreme Mother and Supreme Purusha in our heart centre as 'incarnate dual Power.' (Savitri-705) Their task is to repeat King Aswapti's following Subconscient transformation experience: "A divinising stream possessed his veins, His body’s cells awoke to spirit sense, Each nerve became a burning thread of joy: Tissue and flesh partook beatitude. Alight, the dun unplumbed subconscient caves Thrilled with the prescience of her longed-for tread And filled with flickering crests and praying tongues." Savitri-334 This Canto proposes a Sadhak to become 'A wanderer from the occult invisible suns' (Savitri-348) substituting the earlier habit of outer wandering. King Aswapati's outer wandering reduced after his realisation of universal Self or 'Humanity framed his movements (outer wandering) less and less.' (Savitri-26) This we notice in Savitri after she discovered Divine Love from without in the form of Satyavan , she declared firmly, 'Now of more wandering it has no need.' (Savitri-412) OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this chapter: “Flashing with lightnings, mad with luminous wine.” Savitri-334 “He shall know what mortal mind barely durst think, He shall do what the heart of the mortal could not dare. Inheritor of the toil of human time, He shall take on him the burden of the gods; All heavenly light shall visit the earth’s thoughts, The might of heaven shall fortify earthly hearts; Earth’s deeds shall touch the superhuman’s height, Earth’s seeing widen into the infinite.” Savitri-344 “One moment fill with thy eternity, Let thy infinity in one body live, All-Knowledge wrap one mind in seas of light, All-Love throb single in one human heart.” Savitri-345 25/ Book 4, Canto 1 - The Birth And Childhood Of The Flame A Brief Restatement: The Book-4, Canto-1 symbolically represents the mystery of the Godhead’s birth. The Divine Mother, when incarnated in an earthly body, her birth, childhood, youth and rest of her life are guided by the influence of higher Nature, Para-prakriti. Deluded Souls do not understand this mystery of Divine birth and consider Desire (The Gita-16.8) as the sole cause of this world existence. In the Mother’s womb, Savitri spent three (five) thoughtful seasons of nine (ten) months before her mighty birth in the Spring season. Here seasons of summer, monsoon, autumn, winter, dew-time and spring are described not as a dead mechanical cycle but as a living deity, the force of the Divine Mother who participated in building the physical frame of Savitri . Savitri’s growth in the mother’s womb took place by ‘A mightier influx (that) filled the oblivious clay’ (Savitri-353) and after her birth her dim cave of Subconscient and inconscient sheaths were flooded with ‘slow conscient light’; (Savitri-355) her lovelier body was formed by the new descent of Divine Love and new Delight; her sense was purified by the pressure of Psychic being. Invisible Supramental sunlight ran through her veins and the same light flooded her brain with heavenly brilliances. This Canto suggests that in child Savitri the Mind of Light became active which lies in between Overmind and Supermind. Her surface Nature was also divinised or “Nearer the godhead to the surface pressed.’ (Savitri-357) She lived self-guarded and self-protected in the Spirit’s silence and in her luminous cell. "A mind of light , a life of rhythmic force, A body instinct with hidden divinity Prepared an image of the coming god; And when the slow rhyme of the expanding years And the rich murmurous swarm-work of the days Had honey-packed her sense and filled her limbs, Accomplishing the moon-orb of her grace, Self-guarded in the silence of her strength Her solitary greatness was not less." Savitri-357 Her pure aspiration called high Spiritual destiny down and she was able to guard the Truth’s diamond throne from the vigil tower. Her Supramental love invisibly embraced all without any sign and word and sound. Due to her half-opened Psychic being, many high Gods preferred to live in her Psychic temple. Her body is like heaven’s transparent light, a golden bridge between heaven and earth and she can walk alone with her strange and starry head in the deepest Night. "A scout of victory in a vigil tower, Her aspiration called high destiny down; A silent warrior paced in her city of strength Inviolate, guarding Truth’s diamond throne ." Savitri-358 "Many high gods dwelt in one beautiful home; Yet was her nature’s orb a perfect whole, Harmonious like a chant with many tones, Immense and various like a universe." Savitri-358 OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this chapter: “The strong Inhabitant turned to watch her field A lovelier light assumed her spirit brow And sweet and solemn grew her musing gaze; Celestial-human deep warm slumbrous fires Woke in the long fringed glory of her eyes Like altar-burnings in a mysteried shrine.” Savitri-357 “A nectarous haloed moon her passionate heart Loved all and spoke no word and made no sign, (Her universal Love needs no external aid and expression.) But kept her bosom’s rapturous secrecy A blissful ardent moved and voiceless world.” Savitri-358 26/ Book 4, Canto 2 - The Growth Of The Flame A Brief Restatement: The Book-4, Canto-2 gives an account of (1) Savitri’s state of Consciousness of young Divinity, (2) the state of consciousness of her followers and devotees, (3) the gulf between Savitri and her followers, (4) a desperate attempt to bridge those gulfs, (5) Spiritual fall down and (6) discouragement of gathering together of devotees for a Divine purpose. 1: Savitri’s Soul and Nature were equally Divinised and she was waiting to find her destined equal Soul: “But mid this world, these hearts that answered her call, None could stand up her equal and her mate. In vain she stooped to equal them with her heights, Too pure that air was for small souls to breathe. These comrade selves to raise to her own wide breadths Her heart desired and fill with her own power That a diviner Force might enter life, A breath of Godhead greaten human time.” Savitri-365-66 “Her greater self lived sole, unclaimed, within.” Savitri-366 “Among the many who came drawn to her Nowhere she found her partner of high tasks, The comrade of her soul, her other self (second Self) Who was made with her, like God and Nature, one .” Savitri-366 "No equal heart came close to join her (Savitri’s) heart, No transient earthly love assailed her calm, No hero passion had the strength to seize; No eyes demanded her replying eyes.” Savitri-367 2: The Personality of her admirers, followers and devotees: “Only a few responded to her call: Still fewer felt the screened divinity And strove to mate its godhead with their own, Approaching with some kinship to her heights.” Savitri-362 “They could not keep up with her tireless step; Too small and eager for her large-paced will, Too narrow to look with the unborn Infinite’s gaze Their nature weary grew of things too great.” Savitri-363 “Others pursued her with life’s blind desires And claiming all of her as their lonely own, Hastened to engross her sweetness meant for all. As earth claims light for its lone separate need Demanding her for their sole jealous clasp, They asked from her movements bounded like their own And to their smallness craved a like response. Or they repined that she surpassed their grip, And hoped to bind her close with longing’s cords. Or finding her touch desired too strong to bear They blamed her for a tyranny they loved, Shrank into themselves as from too bright a sun, Yet hankered for the splendour they refused. Angrily enamoured of her sweet passionate ray The weakness of their earth could hardly bear, They longed but cried out at the touch desired Inapt to meet divinity so close, Intolerant of a Force they could not house. Some drawn unwillingly by her divine sway Endured it like a sweet but alien spell; Unable to mount to levels too sublime, They yearned to draw her down to their own earth. Or forced to centre round her their passionate lives, They hoped to bind to their heart’s human needs Her glory and grace that had enslaved their souls.” Savitri-365 3: The gulf between Savitri and her admirers: “A friend and yet too great wholly to know, She walked in their front towards a greater light, Their leader and queen over their hearts and souls, One close to their bosoms, yet divine and far. ” Savitri-363 “Her will was puissant on their nature’s acts, Her heart’s inexhaustible sweetness lured their hearts, A being they loved whose bounds exceeded theirs; Her measure they could not reach but bore her touch, Answering with the flower’s answer to the sun They gave themselves to her and asked no more. One greater than themselves, too wide for their ken, Their minds could not understand nor wholly know, Their lives replied to hers, moved at her words:” Savitri-364 “Although she leaned down to their littleness Covering their lives with her strong passionate hands And knew by sympathy their needs and wants And dived in the shallow wave-depths of their lives And met and shared their heart-beats of grief and joy And bent to heal their sorrow and their pride, Lavishing the might that was hers on her lone peak To lift to it their aspiration’s cry, And though she drew their souls into her vast And surrounded with the silence of her deeps And held as the great Mother holds her own, Only her earthly surface bore their charge And mixed its fire with their mortality:” Savitri-366 “Admired, unsought, intangible to the grasp Her beauty and flaming strength were seen afar Like lightning playing with the fallen day, A glory unapproachably divine." Savitri-367 “All worshipped marvellingly (Savitri), none dared to claim.” Savitri-368 4: Desperate effort to bridge the gulf between herself and her admirers: “A mind daring heavenly experiment, Growing towards some largeness they felt near, Testing the unknown’s bound with eager touch They still were prisoned by their human grain: They could not keep up with her tireless step; Too small and eager for her large-paced will, Too narrow to look with the unborn Infinite’s gaze Their nature weary grew of things too great.” Savitri-363 “For even the close partners of her thoughts Who could have walked the nearest to her ray, Worshipped the power and light they felt in her But could not match the measure of her soul.” Savitri-363 “Or longing with their self of life and flesh They clung to her for heart’s nourishment and support: The rest they could not see in visible light; Vaguely they bore her inner mightiness. Or bound by the senses and the longing heart, Adoring with a turbid human love, They could not grasp the mighty spirit she was Or change by closeness to be even as she. Some felt her with their souls and thrilled with her, A greatness felt near yet beyond mind’s grasp; To see her was a summons to adore, To be near her drew a high communion’s force.” Savitri-363-364 “So men worship a god too great to know, Too high, too vast to wear a limiting shape; They feel a Presence and obey a might, Adore a love whose rapture invades their breasts; To a divine ardour quickening the heart-beats, A law they follow greatening heart and life. Opened to the breath is a new diviner air, Opened to man is a freer, happier world:” Savitri-364 “Her will was puissant on their nature’s acts, Her heart’s inexhaustible sweetness lured their hearts, A being they loved whose bounds exceeded theirs; Her measure they could not reach but bore her touch, Answering with the flower’s answer to the sun They gave themselves to her and asked no more.” Savitri-364 “They felt a godhead and obeyed a call, Answered to her lead and did her work in the world; Their lives, their natures moved compelled by hers As if the truth of their own larger selves Put on an aspect of divinity To exalt them to a pitch beyond their earth’s. They felt a larger future meet their walk; She held their hands, she chose for them their paths:” Savitri-364 “Some near approached, were touched, caught fire, then failed , Too great was her demand, too pure her force. Thus lighting earth around her like a sun, Yet in her inmost sky an orb aloof, A distance severed her from those most close.” Savitri-366 5: Spiritual fall: After meeting Savitri , those unable to recognise and hold her Divine Presence experienced a Spiritual fall. “Uplifted towards luminous secrecies Or conscious of some splendour hidden above They leaped to find her in a moment’s flash, Glimpsing a light in a celestial vast, But could not keep the vision and the power And fell back to life’s dull ordinary tone. ” Savitri-362 “Or with a slow great many-sided toil Pushing towards aims they hardly could conceive; Yet forced to be the satellites of her sun They moved unable to forego her light, Desiring they clutched at her with outstretched hands Or followed stumbling in the paths she made.” Savitri-363 "In man a dim disturbing somewhat lives; It knows but turns away from divine Light Preferring the dark ignorance of the fall ." Savitri-366 6: Discouragement of gathering together of devotees for a Divine purpose: In this Canto a Sadhak is discouraged from wasting his time in gathering together of people, lakasangraha, for a Divine purpose. It proposes to utilise time and space exclusively to accumulate Spiritual energy (Self-concentration) and by the movement of Spiritual consciousness, he does good of all creatures (Self-expansion). His one, only and best friend is his Psychic Being. "Whoever is too great must lonely live. Adored he walks in mighty solitude; Vain is his labour to create his kind, His only comrade is the Strength within.” Savitri-368 When a high Soul takes birth on earth, it becomes difficult for him to find an equal Soul, who can help him in accomplishing his Divine Mission of fourfold Divine union. Till the arrival of an equal companion or till the finding of a complementary Soul, he must live alone with his Psychic Being. The effort made to create, nurture and build an equal Soul is identified here as a waste of time. Savitri is a representative symbol of Incarnation and myriad Instruments and Emanations, always present close to earth’s atmosphere with the single mission of divinising the clay. This Canto proposes Divine’s Yantras, Vibhutis and Avataras , that they should not waste their time in building Soul of their own kind but to utilise time to accumulate Spiritual energy and canalise this Transcendent Force to earth and men. They will learn the lesson to depend on their own Spiritual energy rather than on collective force. In the long run, humanity will be prepared to divinise themselves and all the Divine opulence will be given to them. 7: The Gulf between Sri Aurobindo and His direct disciples: “It (Savitri) heralds the Supermind. But I had a feeling (after reading the last chapter of Savitri ) he (Sri Aurobindo ) had not completed his revision. When I read this, I felt it was not the end, just as when I read the last chapter of the “Yoga of Self-Perfection ,” (of The Synthesis of Yoga) I felt it was not finished. He left it unfinished. And he said so. He said, “No, I will not go down to this mental level anymore.” But in Savitri’s case… (I didn’t look after it, you know), he had around him Purani , that Chinmayi , and… (what is his name) Nirod —they all swarmed around him. So I didn’t look after Savitri. I read Savitri two years ago (1961), I had never read it before. And I am so glad! Because I read it at the time I could understand it –and I realised that none of those people had understood ONE BIT of it.” The Mother /The Mother's Agenda/13th March-1963 OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this chapter: “Earth nursed, unconscious still, the inhabiting flame, Yet something deeply stirred and dimly knew; There was a movement and a passionate call, A rainbow dream, a hope of golden change; Some secret wing of expectation beat, A growing sense of something new and rare And beautiful stole across the heart of Time.” Savitri-367 27/ Book 4, Canto 3 - The Call To The Quest A Brief Restatement: The Book-4, Canto-3, defines King Aswapati’s Mission known as ‘The Call’ and he made Savitri aware of her two important discoveries known as ‘The Quest’. King Aswapati again confirmed his mission for earth and men related to 'shadowless bliss.' (Savitri-340, 369) “Again the mighty yearning (of King) raised its flame That asks a perfect life on earth for men And prays for certainty in the uncertain mind And shadowless bliss for suffering human hearts And Truth embodied in an ignorant world And godhead divinising mortal forms.” Savitri-369 The King got the overhead direction or ‘from some far sky of thought’ which was received by ‘the echoing passages of his brain’ and this overhead wisdom ‘left its stamp (of Divinity) on the recording cells’ of the King and his ‘dim ignorant cells’ and ‘the blind brain’ (Savitri-375) received Divine transformation. The King got a blueprint of how he will realise the mission from above. The Fate-driven earth-born race will face the greatest opposition in realisation of the perfect life from the three Inconscient energies of gunas . The dwarf Sattwic mind will oppose the realisation of comprehensive Truth; the dwarf rajasic mind will oppose the realisation of tireless Divine Love and the dwarf tamasic mind will be satisfied with the attainment of ‘low-peaked height’ (Savitri-372) of consciousness. Inconscient’s mindless muddy water blocks all the action of Divine Will, Wisdom and Love. The man turns for little gains to ignorant Powers, kindles a light for demon face, loves ignorance fathering his pain and a great Illusion wraps his life. Even the descent of flaming light returns back to its home; none understands the Eternity’s direction and the luminous divine Eye retires from its action. The King has not lost confidence in humanity and hoped for his action with swift revealing Spiritual steps and fit all his actions to a transcendent scheme. The Godhead can grow within his heart and the Mighty Mother can stay permanently in the Psychic Heart Centre. Man must receive the Divine call to exceed himself. Earth life is an epic of hope and failure and she can exceed her form and fixed fate. Though she is a goddess, yet she is caught in the net of Death and forbidden joy . In the altar of despair, she builds hope; with the pains of hell, she aspires to joy and her high step can liberate all humanity. The King Aswapati , as Father and the Guru of Savitri , gave her double tasks of finding the Divine without and within. Firstly, she will tread a brief golden path with her second Self Satyavan , the lyrist of her Soul’s most intimate chords, mover of her force and guide. His Light will guard her from without and within and by holding his strong hand she can confront life’s extreme adversity. Secondly, she has to discover her Psychic being where the Supramental Mother can choose to stay permanently and with the power of the Psychic being, she can tread a sun-lit path followed by a journey in the abysmal night, dream twilight of Subconscient plane, permanent rise of Soul to Sachchidananda plane and permanent descent of Sachchidananda consciousness by returning to earth life along with Satyavan. This Canto also hints Savitri’s Psychic opening not by Vedic/Tantric self-discipline but by Vedantic Self-discipline where the Soul in the heart opened by the pressure/descent of Soul in the Mind or Spiritual Being, or ‘A hand from some Greatness opened her heart’s locked doors.’ (Savitri-375) In King, the Karma, Jnana and Bhakti are reconciled to such extent the all-overhead Power, Knowledge and Ecstasy rushed into his physical frame known as annamaya Purusha/annamaya Kosha and thus physical transformation or cellular change is experienced. “The Wise who know see but one half of Truth, (sattwic men) The strong climb hardly to a low-peaked height, (tamasic men) The hearts that yearn are given one hour to love.” (rajasic men) Savitri-372 “Thought, vision, feeling, sense, the body’s self Are seized unutterably and he (King) endures An ecstasy and an immortal change; He feels a Wideness and becomes a Power, All knowledge rushes on him like a sea:” Savitri-375 After Savitri knew that her unknown Lover was waiting for her the Unknown, the palace of Madra became empty of its sweetness, the sovereign of daily joys of life went far; her moonbeam feet touched not the lucent floors. The beauty and divinity were gone. Delight had fled to search for another specious world and future home. "For somewhere on the longing breast of earth, Thy unknown lover waits for thee the unknown. Thy soul has strength and needs no other guide Than One who burns within thy bosom’s powers. There shall draw near to meet thy approaching steps The second self for whom thy nature asks, He who shall walk until thy body’s end A close-bound traveller pacing with thy pace, The lyrist of thy soul’s most intimate chords Who shall give voice to what in thee is mute." Savitri-374 OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this chapter: (Earth) “Knows that one high step might enfranchise (liberate) all” Savitri-371 28/ Book 4, Canto 4 - The Quest A Brief Restatement: Before discovering Divine within Savitri has to discover her Divine without. Before this Divine Call, the attraction of ‘Madra’s spacious halls, the white carved pillars, the cool dim alcoves, the tinged mosaic of the crystal floors, the towered pavilions, the wind-rippled pools and gardens humming with the murmur of bees’ became pale, unwanted and obsolete. In Book-4, Canto-4, Savitri leaves the palace in search of her ‘only Lord’ (Savitri-637) who can hold her comprehensive Divine Love, Delight and Beauty, collaborate in fulfilling her Divine Mission which is a manifestation of the Divine Will and call down Divine Wisdom, Truth and Light to guard her mission’s ‘diamond throne’ (Savitri-358) and adventure ahead in Consciousness like a pioneer to manifest the Divine life. He (the destined Lover) will give voice to what in her is mute and the lyrist of her 'soul’s most intimate chords.' (Savitri-374) We get some hints from this Canto related with the Spiritual destiny of a Sadhaka . They are divided into three parts. The Divine Destiny is made by (1) the intervention of Divine work and Divine descent of Wisdom, (2) the intervention of higher Beings (hooded godheads) (Savitri-377) who accompany him from his birth, (3) the intervention of 'all seeing Eye above,' (Savitri-378) the Divine architect. These three elements are responsible for building Spiritual destiny. If Sadhaka has realised Psychic, Spiritual and Supramental beings, then (4) beings of those planes will join with him as emanations of Divine Mother and they will further help to change the destiny. This Canto proposes a Sadhaka that before wearing the face of Satyavan to receive Savitri’s full Divine Love, he must develop/integrate the following twelve exclusive attributes (or twelve types of liberated Souls) through practices of multiple self-disciplines of traditional and integral Yoga. They are: 1: “The strong king-sages from their labour done, Freed from the warrior tension of their task, Came to her serene sessions in these wilds; The strife was over, the respite lay in front.” Savitri-381 2: “In the soul’s unprofaned star-white recess They sojourned with an everliving Bliss; A Voice profound in the ecstasy and the hush They heard, beheld an all-revealing Light. All time-made difference they overcame; The world was fibred with their own heart-strings; Close drawn to the heart that beats in every breast, They reached the one self in all through boundless love.” Savitri-381 3: “Nameless the austere ascetics without home Abandoning speech and motion and desire Aloof from creatures sat absorbed, alone, Immaculate in tranquil heights of self” Savitri-382 4: “The seers attuned to the universal Will, Content in Him who smiles behind earth’s forms, Abode ungrieved by the insistent days. About them like green trees girdling a hill Young grave disciples fashioned by their touch Trained to the simple act and conscious word, Greatened within and grew to meet their heights.” Savitri-382 5: “Bathed in the purity of the mild gaze That, uninsistent, ruled them from its peace, And by its influence found the ways of calm.” Savitri-382 6: “King-children nurtured in that spacious air Like lions gambolling in sky and sun Received half-consciously their godlike stamp:… Plastic and firm beneath the eternal hand, Met Nature with a bold and friendly clasp And served in her the Power that shapes her works.” Savitri-382 7: “One-souled to all and free from narrowing bonds, Large like a continent of warm sunshine In wide equality’s impartial joy, These sages breathed for God’s delight in things… The love that flows from the one Mother’s breast Healed with their hearts the hard and wounded world.” Savitri-383 8: “Drunk with a wine of lightning in their cells” Savitri-383 9: “Some lost to the person and his strip of thought In a motionless ocean of impersonal Power, Sat mighty, visioned with the Infinite’s light, Or, comrades of the everlasting Will, Surveyed the plan of past and future Time.” Savitri-383-84 10: “Some winged like birds out of the cosmic sea And vanished into a bright and featureless Vast: Some silent watched the universal dance, Or helped the world by world-indifference.” Savitri-384 11: “Some watched no more merged in a lonely Self, Absorbed in the trance from which no soul returns, All the occult world-lines for ever closed, The chains of birth and person cast away:” Savitri-384 12: “Some uncompanioned reached the Ineffable.” Savitri-384 Among the above twelve types of great exclusive liberated Souls, Savitri was unable to discover her Soul’s companion who was a symbol of comprehensive Divine Love: “Still she found not the one predestined face For which she sought amid the sons of men.” Savitri-385 Thus, in Savitri’s life, many months passed without discovering Satyavan (Paramatma in material embodiment). She has not lost hope and waited for the opportune moment of the destined meeting. OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this chapter: “August, exulting in her Maker’s eye, She felt her nearness to him in earth’s breast, Conversed still with a Light behind the veil, Still communed with Eternity beyond.” Savitri-381 29/ Book 5, Canto 1 - The Destined Meeting Place A Brief Restatement: This Book-5, Canto-1 gives the message that Savitri has to receive the Divine Love from without, from within and from above. They will bring complete fulfilment of her earth life and her mission of transforming earth will be expedited which is her long pending issue of all life. This Canto confirms that all the happenings of past, present and future life are not accidental but there exists a Divine plan and all events happen in the cosmic play in a foreseen time and place. "Unknowing she had neared her nameless goal… And nothing happens in the cosmic play But at its time and in its foreseen place.” Savitri-389 "These knew each other though in forms thus strange. Although to sight unknown, though life and mind Had altered to hold a new significance, These bodies summed the drift of numberless births, And the spirit to the spirit was the same." Savitri-398-399 We are given a brief time from cradle to grave to call down Timeless eternity and a small place to call down spaceless Infinity. Savitri’s birth and youth in Madra’s palace is the symbol of the ascent of the Soul to the highest status of Supreme Self and her return to Shalwa’s forest hermitage is the symbol of descent into nether earth in order to discover the last Godhead sleeping in the Inconscient sheath (Savitri-405) and this Godhead in the form of Inconscient Self can illumine earth life by its lone power or ‘lay his (man’s) hand on happy inconscient things.’ (Savitri-390) This Canto also proposes a Sadhak to become ascetic within symbolised as 'a soul retiring from the world' (Savitri-391) and ‘solitude far from the world’ (Savitri-391) with the realisation of Brahma Satya Jagat Mithya as the starting point of ‘sad and limitless (Divine) Call’ (Savitri-391) of the endless integral Yoga. OM TAT SAT The Important Secret of this chapter: "The Mighty Mother lay outstretched at ease. All was in line with her first satisfied plan; Moved by a universal will of joy The trees bloomed in their green felicity And the wild children brooded not on pain... Behind the rapt smile of the Almighty’s dance." Savitri-390 The More Important Secret of this chapter: “His (ascetic’s) vast extended spirit couched behind.” Savitri-391 The Most Important Secret of this chapter: “To lay his hand on happy inconscient things,” Savitri-390 “Love in the wilderness met Savitri.” Savitri-391 30/ Book 5, Canto 2 - Satyavan A Brief Restatement: Satyavan's surface personality was built from the accumulation of Soul Forces from his past births. " Noble and clear as the broad peaceful heavens A tablet of young wisdom was his brow; Freedom’s imperious beauty curved his limbs, The joy of life was on his open face. His look was a wide daybreak of the gods, His head was a youthful Rishi’s touched with light, His body was a lover’s and a king’s." Savitri-393 Satyavan’s early days in the Shalwa’s forest land were to think, act, enjoy and breathe like other mundane man and yet he had a brief partial glimpse of his deeper Self. If an individual's thoughts, actions and emotions are activated without the support and help of the Divine, then he is identified as a Mundane "Once were my (Satyavan’s) days like days of other men: To think and act was all, to enjoy and breathe; This was the width and height of mortal hope:” Savitri-406-407, Then a ‘truth was felt’ in his moderate life ‘that screened its shape from mind.’ (Savitri-407) A moderate is oblivious of future doom and is preoccupied with present moments. An awareness of future doom comes through vision, and by consecration, Divine union is experienced and the doom changes. The moderate Satyavan , who lived in the illumined Soul ray of God’s touch but was not ready to face the eternal Sun of His constant embrace. ('I lived in the ray but faced not to the sun.' Savitri-407) As child Soul or ‘infant Spirit’ (Savitri-716) he was unaware of two consenting world oceans of the Bliss/Supramental Self and the Subconscient/Inconscient Self. He later became ascetic Satyavan , when this surface concentration of the Divine ray penetrated heart and flesh. This ascetic Divine realisation could not bridge the gulf between Matter and Spirit. When he concentrated on the world, he lost the God and when concentrated on the God, he lost the world. With Savitri’s arrival this gulf was bridged and the consecrated Satyavan became King Child and was able to live and face the Sun light, representing Vijnana . And in the cosmic Consciousness of Vijnana , the Spirit and Matter are reconciled and Matter’s or physical body’s fixed death-bound destiny and grooves of Iron law are changed into the Spirit’s immortal all life. This is a passage from mere mundane man incarnating to the integral ascending Godhead of the race or ‘the soul of man climbing to God,’ (Savitri-703) and its destined saviour. Satyavan’s Godhead status does not prevent him from living ‘in one house with the primal beast’ (Savitri-541) in the forest, colloquies with the Djinn and Asuras of the Subconscient world; thus, in the Divine’s single plan ‘high meets the low’ (Savitri-541) or ‘God’s summits look back on the mute Abyss;’ (Savitri-541) accepts to be small and human on earth. This is the emergence of Lord Satyavan , for whom Savitri fought with dark Godhead in Death’s Night. Through this sacrificial action, the highest Divine Consciousness of the Avatar is reconciled with the lowest consciousness of the earth. Sri Aurobindo reveals Satyavan as a symbol of Divine Love (masculine Power). Divine love is an overhead energy that descends to Earth through a prepared human channel. When Divine Love enters earth’s atmosphere he is ‘Abased, disfigured, mocked’ (Savitri-397) by inferior beings. Tamasic beings (within and without) misunderstand the Divine Love, rajasic beings misuse the Divine Love and sattwic beings limit the action of Divine Love. The dwarf mind, life and body cannot hold the ineffable Divine Love in its pure form. Still, this Divine Love is held by 'A soul made ready through a thousand years' (Savitri-396) and 'He is still the godhead by which all can change.' (Savitri-397) Through this Canto, we can concentrate on dual Avatara’s supreme relation of Krishna and Kali in a mortal body. Even the experience of a brief touch of Divine Love is of immense value in our external life. The meeting of the Dual Avatara in the heart is also identified as a brief Supramental experience of uninterrupted intense immortal joy. The mortal body learns with much difficult training to wear this intense delight. This bliss is born after the awakening of the last Godhead of the Inconscient Self and it can transform and remake our all life. This Book-5, Canto-2 symbolically proposes a Sadhak to 'meet the ancient Mother ' (Savitri-393) and live in the matrix of new triple Time and new universalised Space of Cosmic Consciousness, where an incalculable amount of Divine Force, Truth, Light, Ananda, Love, Beauty, Peace and Silence invades into earth's atmosphere and to live without them is to return to the old world and mortal time subject to death, decay and disease. His rare privilege is to meet the dual Avatara in subtle physical, Psychic and Superconscient planes. "This golden figure given to his grasp Hid in its breast the key of all his aims, A spell to bring the Immortal’s bliss on earth, To mate with heaven’s truth our mortal thought, To lift earth-hearts nearer the Eternal’s sun. In these great spirits (dual Avatar) now incarnate here Love brought down power out of eternity To make of life his new undying base." Savitri-397 OM TAT SAT The Important Secret of this chapter: “The one for whom her heart had come so far.” Savitri-393 “For suddenly her heart looked out at him,” Savitri-395 “Then trembling with the mystic shock her heart” Savitri-396 “Heart feels for heart, limb cries for answering limb; All strives to enforce the unity all is.” Savitri-398 “Her heart unveiled and his to find her turned;” Savitri-399 The More Important Secret of this chapter: “The chariot stood like an arrested wind. And Satyavan looked out from his soul’s doors And felt the enchantment of her liquid voice Fill his youth’s purple ambience and endured The haunting miracle of a perfect face.” Savitri-396 “A forehead that wore the crown of all her (Savitri’s) past, Two eyes her constant and eternal stars, Comrade and sovereign eyes that claimed her soul, Lids known through many lives, large frames of love.” Savitri-396 The Most Important Secret of this chapter: "A mystery wakes in our inconscient stuff, A bliss is born that can remake our life.” Savitri-397-398 31/ Book 5, Canto 3 - Satyavan And Savitri A Brief Restatement: Sri Aurobindo was able to accommodate His (and also The Mother’s ) all life’s comprehensive high Spiritual Visions and experiences in symbolic characters of incarnations, emanations and instruments, depicted from the legendary epic Mahabharata where Savitri , the descending Godhead, Avatara, the all Mother, the Mother of all Time, Paraprakriti, knew her fiery Self and her Being’s aim of pursuing the Soul of earth, symbolised as Satyavan in his earthly form in each birth and in all life. She glimpsed the glory for which she had chosen earth and its atmosphere for a gradual and subsequently constant, intense, comprehensive and instantaneous total descent of Divine attributes of Truth-Light, Power, Wisdom and Delight. She keeps her will alive to drive human Souls and fills in their brute elements, the endless hope to Divinise clay and confronts the riddle of Birth, inevitable Death, grooves of iron Law and stone eyes of fixed Fate in them with the sheer power of her unchanging Soul force manifested as living fire of Divine Love. She has chosen the Souls who have long suffered on this harsh globe, for the field of her sacrifice and action and she is even ready to walk and waste all infinity with wounded feet to accomplish her seemingly impossible task of transforming earth’s shadow, fixed destiny, grooves of iron Law, meaningless suffering, splendid failure, twilight and grey inhibitions. She leans with pity over earth-bound men in order to share the burden of ‘earth’s struggle and fate.’ Satyavan , a mere man of action, a woodsman, Nara, Jivatma , raised his consciousness to the status of the ascending integral Godhead, Avatara, Narayana , by the Power of consecration and loss of ego and was destined to fulfill Savitri’s mighty Mission of bridging the gulf between Heaven, Earth and Hell. He was also the Eternal Consciousness, a unique rare treasure loaned by Gods, who accompanied Savitri from the beginning of the creation as first ‘man and woman’ or first dual Incarnation and the Supreme had promised to grant physical immortality in all life when the first Avatara’s ‘heart dared death and suffered life.’ He continued his life in many successive births and bodies as ‘twin souls born from one undying fire’ of this mortal existence to endure in his human heart a million wounds representing the delegate Soul of earth. Through his long suffering in human form the God’s debt is paid. His Godhead status does not prevent him from living ‘in one house with the primal beast’ in the forest, colloquies with the Djinn and Asuras of the Subconscient world; thus in the Divine’s single plan he reveals solidarity with antagonist powers; ‘high meets the low’ or ‘God’s summits look back on the mute Abyss.’ He accepts the small and human personality of woodsman on earth and his small beginning witnesses the immense ascent of the Soul and immense descent of Shakti, leading the creation towards a mighty end. While tracing the path of immortality he signed salvation’s testament with his blood and broke into the dangerous and dark Inconscient’s depth and if he were to meet the Spiritual fall in the form of death while attempting to break the wheel of earth’s doom and before bridging the gulf between Heaven and Earth in order to balance the dark account of mortal Ignorance then this would be a great loss for humanity. Or an Avatara , as a delegate Soul of Heaven lent to earth must live a brief period in human history in order to trace and build a passage in intermediate ranges of consciousness so that a large section of humanity will be able to bridge the gulf between Heaven and Earth and reconcile Spirit with Matter with less effort. This work is further accelerated if Divine Love becomes active in earth’s atmosphere through action and interfusion of dual Avatara . His Divine work on earth of invasion of the series of Light and Love is treated unfinished and half done till all the evils are slain or transformed in their Inconscient home. In Savitri and Satyavan , Soul and Nature had realised equal Divine Presences and merged themselves in the oneness of wide harmony and balance. Their Spirit and body were glad, fulfilled through their union which drove them towards the discovery of ‘Love’s deathless moment,’ (Savitri-579) beings’ aim and richness extending over all Time. Their first meeting gives the most thrill by witnessing the dual Avatara in a secluded shrine of earth and in the secluded chamber of their heart who carry all the memory of their past births and their unfulfilled world task. From time to time or from the beginning of the creation, earth waits patiently for this destined meeting. Each meeting after the passing of many ages brings a new promise of Divine manifestation and the new hope becomes again visible in earth’s creatures. They had treasured the rich relation of their brief human birth through a subtle link of union or clasp of two eternities through many successive births and bodies of un-beginning past and felt the call of Spirit’s unending future joy; even they knew their Selves ‘older than the birth of Time.’ (Savitri-537) A vast intention of love’s unseen Presence has drawn these dual incarnating Powers closer in this life and their love asks them to wait endlessly as if they have all eternity ahead for their self-fulfilment. Together they have disdained from the God’s everlasting Night of Inconscient world and turned away from His everlasting Day of Sachchidananda plane and returned to Earth to wage a million wars against the universal dark rebel forces attached to present unstable existence, to bear the earth Mother’s ancient adversary, to bear ‘world’s intolerable wrongs’ (Savitri-701) and to accomplish their double task of raising the world to God’s deathless Light, a permanent ascent of Divine Consciousness and bringing down Divine Shakti to earth and men, a permanent descent of Divine Consciousness. Dyumatsena, the self-exiled King of Shalwa , father of Satyavan , is the Divine’s Conscious instrument, Yantra , here fallen blind, limiting his capacity to three gunas and walks lamely on this dangerous world with slow evolutionary mental footsteps. Through this Spiritual fall he has lost the celestial inner kingdom of seven immortal Selves and through that loss its kingdom of outer glory and opulence. Due to this adverse fate, he now sojourns a wiser life in the solemn rustle of the wood and his yearning towards All meets two solitudes (1) that of an outcast from the empire of the outer light symbolically represented as a crutch upon which his faltering-limb supports and he helplessly stumbles in the rushing speed of hasty Time and (2) lost to the comradeship of five galloping hooves of sense that of sound, touch, sight, taste and smell symbolically represented as his sightless blind identity. This double doom of his father compelled Satyavan to live in the high peopled loneliness of the Spirit which called the Divine Mother to enter his earthly life in human form and finally helped his long pure childhood’s lonely dream to restore King Dyumatsena’s steady royal walk in high dynamic outer Kingdom and a deeper visionary eye of Divine Wisdom. Restoration of the outer Kingdom was also the outcome of his revival of the inner kingdom through sadhana in double seclusion. OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this chapter: “Her beating heart a remembrance of bliss” Savitri-410 “Each now was a part of the other’s unity, The world was but their twin self-finding’s scene Or their own wedded being’s vaster frame.” Savitri-411 “Oneness must sever its recovered bliss Or fate sunder (divide) our lives while life is ours.” Savitri-412 32/ Book 6, Canto 1 - The Word Of Fate A Brief restatement : This book (with its two Cantos) deals with the question of Fate, its source, its effect on our lives and whether it can be conquered. It also deals with problem of pain, the reason for its existence and when it will leave the scene. In this Book-6, Canto-1 (and also Canto-2) a reconciliation of moderate Spirituality represented by Savitri’s birth Mother, ancient Vedantic Spirituality represented by King Aswapati and Savitri , Overmental Spirituality of God represented by Narad are observed. Moderate Spirituality aims at escaping from problems of existence and extreme adversity through partial Divine union whereas ancient Vedantic Spirituality aims at resolving the problems of existence and confronting with extreme adversity of life through comprehensive Divine union. Overmental Gods have a role of helping men through foreknowledge and strengthening the Soul force of strong Souls and forcing weak Souls to experience Spiritual fall. Narad proposes that if one could live in the exceeding joy of the Self then doom might sleep in his life; this doom hunts and captures men when they remain unconscious of their Divine existence; if Savitri’s heart could be permanently imprisoned in the Supramental world and if she could live in the highest consciousness and exceeding bliss in her conscious waking state then doom might have slept permanently in her life and subsequently from earth’s life. He also proposes that this exceeding Bliss must be routed to man’s life through the opening of the Inconscient Self and the discovery of Divine Love hidden in the Inconscient Sheath or ‘Love that broods within the dim abyss.’ (Savitri-416) Narad’s arrival also calls down the future Supramental world and the promise of transformation of dark energies of the Subconscient and inconscient world: “And as he sang the demons wept with joy Foreseeing the end of their long dreadful task And the defeat for which they hoped in vain, And glad release from their self-chosen doom And return into the One from whom they came.” Savitri-417 Ancient Vedantists have the conviction ‘Only for good the secret Will can work’ (Savitri-424) and ‘I am stronger than death and greater than my fate.’ (Savitri-432) Others do not have this faith as they have no strong direct contact with the Divine. Here the King speaks of the double destiny of men. One is that of fixed destiny born out of ‘blindness of our will,’ our Karma or bounded action and the other is our changeable Spiritual destiny which is born out of oneness with Divine Will, Divine Wisdom and Divine Love. So, this Canto gives the message that one can escape untimely death and can live a long secure life if his Psychic being opens. For these Psychic and Spiritual Self opened Souls Death is not a curse but a passage and choice (iccha mrityu) for higher life. "Death is our road to immortality." Savitri-424, “Our death is made a passage to new worlds,” Savitri-194, “Death is a passage, not the goal of our walk:” Savitri-197, Savitri was able to trace her Lord in the distant land. Here, Savitri is identified as Para-prakriti or the virgin Mother and her meeting with Paramatma Satyavan can bring perfection in life and perfection in delight. Thus, we discover the Mahamantra of Savitri whose repetition can bring our Souls to the front: “Virgin who comest perfected by joy,” Savitri-424 The main participants who partake in uncovering this topic (mystery) are: Narad – who represents a Divine messenger aware of the source and secret mystery of fate and the forces that act behind all apparent destinies but does not have the power to change fate (that is also the limitation of our relation with Overmental Gods and Goddess) only he has the power to inform and awaken one to its impending action. He lives in a realm where Truth manifests without the distortion (What Narad saw about the detailed future of Savitri, about the same thing King Aswapati got the hint. In this sense Gods are superior to King Aswapati as projected in Savitri book) of any intermediary ignorance or inconscience, but he understands the secret mystery behind the ignorance and the future destiny of the earth. He comes to awaken and add a sense of haste (swiftness and acceleration) to Savitri’s Divine mission. King Aswapati – plays the role of both the father and the Guru of Savitri but as a seer of Truth and aware of the Divine Mother’s descent and action and ability to change fate, he is unperturbed by Narad’s pronouncements (Because King Aswapati had developed the strong conviction that the Supreme Will can work only for the good, independent of whatever it seems good or bad to man’s mind) and is aware of the purpose that Savitri has descended for. (Like king Aswapat i, in Integral Yoga the physical Guru has the responsibility of helping to find the Psychic Self. Then Psychic being is the inner Guru who takes the next responsibility of transforming Subconscient and Inconscient darkness in Sadhana .) The Queen – birth mother of Savitri and here is shown as someone who has accomplished some realisations and done sadhana , aware of the higher planes of existences and some of the secrets behind life and nature, but does not believe that Death can be overcome by a direct descent of the Divine power, but rather pleads the case for a slow and gradual evolution of man to his divine nature. (She has realized the Divine but was not aware that the Divine Power can change the untransformed Nature and hence can change human destiny.) The Queen was strong moderate by nature and hence she recoils from any high mission and discourages Savitri to step back from her Soul’s choice and asks her to follow an easier established path (“A choice less rare may call a happier fate,” Savitri-432). In the course of time, Savitri transcended her moderate passionate wise Mother and Mighty Seer Father. (She must disrupt, dislodge by her soul’s force Her past, a block on the Immortal’s road, Savitri-12) Savitri – although the incarnation of the Divine Mother, here she also represents someone who accepts their fate (which in her case is not the result of any karma of her previous lives) and can answer to it, not by pleading to a lower power/gods or by side stepping it (by rejecting to marry Satyavan), but by relying on (Spiritual experience of meeting with Satyavan that uplifted her consciousness to Supreme Height) their pure Soul force and the Divine within. (Savitri book indicates that Savitri’s Psychic being has more power than the Gods and the Guru.) “Then meet a greater god, thy self beyond Time.” (Savitri-375) The two cantos explore how the fate of most mortals differs from the fate of the Avatars or divine beings (Divine instruments, Yantra, Vibhuti and Avatara ). In the former case fate (is the fixed destiny activated by Nature’s law where the Supernature or Ishwara remains as witness during critical transitional moments) is usually prescribed to mortals by their karma, or nature or the actions of the Gods, while in the latter it is self-chosen, part of their mission (to activate the Supernature and witness or the ruler becomes Over-ruler and Overseer to change the fixed death bound destiny of the individual and the race). Hence, to escape one’s fate of a self-chosen mission is not possible for the divine (conscious) beings, who descend from a higher plane of Consciousness. We learn that these beings have to take their share of human misery if they wish to transform the earth and that all suffering can ultimately only be erased by bringing the highest supramental light to the lowest/deepest part of the Inconscient. Pain, we are told is the necessary instrument, the Gods use to cajole the divine within the inconscient to evolve towards the higher light…without which it would remain in its current (untransformed dark) state. We learn that once the highest divine light invades and transforms the inconscient sheath, pain no longer has its place and is transformed into its true state of divine (Ecstasy) good/joy…. OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this chapter: "Earth keeps for man some short and perfect hours” Savitri-421 “Virgin who comest perfected by joy, Reveal the name thy sudden heart-beats learned. Whom hast thou chosen, kingliest among men?” Savitri-424 33/ Book 6, Canto 2 - The Book Of Fate, The Way Of Fate And The Problem Of Pain Summary Restated: In this Book-6, Canto-2 we meet three personalities. First one is the human personality of Savitri’s Mother, who seems to be concerned and blind with her own interest in an easy, comfortable and long happy human life. She does not bother for the world's misery and suffering and its irradiation from earth life. Due to her partial union with the Divine and satisfaction with that achievement, she was unaware of Divine’s comprehensive world plan, unaware of Divine Grace which acts during danger and difficulties of human life, unaware of dynamic Divine Power which can descend to change individual and collective destiny. King Aswapat i, due to his hard life of concentrated Tapasya could get a brief glimpse of Savitri’s past, present and future and also earth’s past, present and future. A detailed foreknowledge of the above issue was available to Narad , due to his Overmental God status. None of the above three have the capacity to change Savitri’s destiny and hence earth’s destiny. So, Savitri’s Psychic Being is identified as a greater God, and enjoys greater power and privilege than God and the Guru . Narad confirms that man is the author of his fate/doom and he can rewrite his fixed fate by opening the Psychic being through long sacrifice. He also issues the same proposal of hard sacrifice for Avatara for achieving his task of earth’s redemption. One can note the following two verses from Savitri: “Even if he (Avatara ) escapes the fiercest fires, Even if the world breaks not in, a drowning sea, Only by hard sacrifice is high heaven earned: He must face the fight, the pang who would conquer Hell.” Savitri-447 “Thy (common man) fate is a long sacrifice to the gods Till they have opened to thee thy secret self (Psychic Being) And made thee one with the indwelling God (Psychic Being).” Savitri-458 Narad identifies three dwarves, tamasic mind, rajasic mind and sattwic mind as the ‘hidden foe.’ Through these three inconscient energies the dark and hostile forces of the nether world enter into our life. The ordinary destiny can be changed if one can go beyond their influence. “There is no visible foe, but the unseen Is round us, forces intangible besiege, Touches from alien realms, thoughts not our own Overtake us and compel the erring heart; Our lives are caught in an ambiguous net. An adversary Force was born of old: Invader of the life of mortal man, It hides from him the straight immortal path. A power came in to veil the eternal Light, A power opposed to the eternal will Diverts the messages of the infallible Word, Contorts the contours of the cosmic plan: A whisper lures to evil the human heart, (whisper of vital and physical mind) It seals up wisdom’s eyes, the soul’s regard, It is the origin of our suffering here, It binds earth to calamity and pain. This all must conquer who would bring down God’s peace. This hidden foe lodged in the human breast Man must overcome or miss his higher fate. This is the inner war without escape.” Savitri-447-448 The main participants who partake in uncovering this topic (mystery) are restated with more deeper meaning: King Aswapati: Aswapati, King of Madra , the son of God, Vibhuti, destined to do some special Divine work, represents the human aspiration, hard Tapasya , askesis, and concentrated endeavour to explore all the multiple planes of Consciousness through vast and multiple identities. As Divine father he fostered, nourished and served his Divine daughter selflessly without attachment and wanted his daughter to ‘set earth alight’ with her ‘flame of radiant happiness.’ Like all human fathers, he aspires that her mortal life be unwounded and to serve humanity with ‘glad and griefless days.’ His capacity to unite with new bliss and flame-white Love came by annulling all ‘the contact formed with time-born things.’ He was able to retrieve the earth’s lost Spiritual energies, discovered earth’s secret beyond all previously attained Spiritual wisdom, nurtured Almighty’s Power in silence and solitude, sought the Divine strength that was not yet manifested on earth and called down the Divine Mother in the form of his daughter, Savitri. As Spiritual Teacher, the Guru ; firstly, he made her aware that her world Mission of awakening ‘Almighty powers’ that ‘are shut in Nature’s cells,’ ‘meet the Omnipotent in this house of flesh,’ ‘Out of Immortal’s substance you were made’ and hewing the path of immortality would be accomplished not by her own effort alone but by venturing to find her second Self, future Lord, unknown Lover, personal Godhead of the race and lyricist of her ‘soul’s most intimate chords’ in distant lands, who alone can match the measure of her waiting Soul, can walk with him like Gods in Heaven and can stand up as her equal comrade and peer; secondly, ‘must fire always test’ the purity and greatness of her Soul, who must wrestle with supernatural Darkness and must leave behind Death’s night to raise the fallen world. None can possess the kingdom of heaven and supreme Delight that has not passed through the ‘stones of suffering’ and tragic torture of giant sons of Falsehood; thirdly, she must continue her father’s unfinished Yoga and unfinished mission of ‘pure perfection and a shadowless bliss’ for the whole of suffering humanity and of changing all future time by unlocking the doors of human Fate. Queen: The Queen , the beautiful, passionate and the wise human mother of Savitri, the Divine’s unconscious instrument in Ignorance, child Soul, bala , represents mankind satisfied and preoccupied with earthly life of surface consciousness with having partial static Divine realisation through ‘sacrificial flame of aspiration,’ illumination of intellect, sattwic mind, limited light in Ignorance, and in her understanding of the mystery of creation and the Creator, the truth distorted and the Immortal’s meaning in the world was veiled. Thus, the limitation of her sattwic mind is here identified as soul slaying truth. As a human mother she fostered, nourished and served her Divine daughter with self-interest and attachment. She understands perfectly the limitations of human love and static Divine Love which cannot illuminate material life and not aware of the dynamic aspect of Divine Love which can transform life and human love. She was unaware of the secret of abundant dynamic Divine’s Grace and Bliss that hunt behind all effort to accept danger and pain to resolve the fundamental problem of existence and hence to decline all greater adventure by rejecting the doomed Satyavan was identified by her as the best solution. She, like a common man, was unable to recognise the greatness, nobility and action of world redemption of an Avatara and hence nourished no regard and gratitude towards him. She was also not aware that all unforeseen events are part of God’s secret plan and that He can overrule the Iron Law of Nature by conscious human effort and by dynamisation of His Supernature. So Narad asks the Queen not to interfere in matters that are beyond her understanding and power and to stand back from the stupendous scene and tremendous strife of her daughter’s heaven-sent task. The Queen was a representative Soul of moderate Spirituality or a beginner of integral Yoga and during the critical hour of her daughter’s choice of Satyavan , she experienced a Spiritual fall as her Soul was not sufficiently trained to lean on the pure and tranquil Spirit for all necessary aid and help during the hour of extreme adversity. This suggests that to oppose Divine’s Will in carrying out her daughter’s ‘heaven-sent task’ of rescuing men is the cause of her Spiritual decline. Her only daughter and husband’s mighty Spiritual Presence did not help her to overcome this fall of Consciousness and she lost the ‘empire of her hard-won quietude.’ (Savitri-437) Narad: Narad , the heavenly sage, the God, the instrument having the experience of oneness and complete union with the Divine. He was a mediator between Heaven and Earth, who was aware of the source and mystery of human fate and was having the power to foresee the future of man and knowledge of Soul saving Truth behind this creation, came down to earth to make Savitri aware that Soul’s greatness is measured through the capacity to bear pains of hell and she must cross on the stones of supreme universal suffering to arrive at her high mission, though he was having no power at his disposal to change her destiny and hence incapable of changing human destiny. Savitri’s Psychic being has the ability to give shelter where all the ‘high Gods could live.’ This Divine stationed in the heart centre is also projected as ‘greater than the God,’ the Guru and personal Godhead and has the capacity to change her own destiny and the destiny of the race or ‘She only can save herself and save the world.’ To bring all the worlds under her loving control and to uplift her body’s destiny or destiny of the race, her Soul entered a series of world adventures in different planes of Consciousness to become one with Divine Will and with the growth of Consciousness, a sort of mastery, a harmony and peace preoccupied the cells of the body and further extended to her multiple Selves of Sun-vast Truth. OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this chapter: “A day may come when she must stand unhelped On a dangerous brink of the world’s doom and hers, Carrying the world’s future on her lonely breast, Carrying the human hope in a heart left sole To conquer or fail on a last desperate verge, Alone with death and close to extinction’s edge. Her single greatness in that last dire scene Must cross alone a perilous bridge in Time And reach an apex of world-destiny Where all is won or all is lost for man." Savitri-461 34/ Book 7, Canto 1 - The Book Of Yoga, The Joy Of Union Summary: We have identified the special features in Book-7, Canto-1 that have inspired our sadhana life. 1, First, we discover that both Savitri and Satyavan were Karma Yogis accepting the most practical and the most difficult issue of material life and divinised them. They are: “A worshipped empress all once vied to serve, She made herself the diligent serf of all, Nor spared the labour of broom and jar and well, Or close gentle tending or to heap the fire Of altar and kitchen, no slight task allowed To others that her woman’s strength might do. In all her acts a strange divinity shone: Into a simplest movement she could bring A oneness with earth’s glowing robe of light, A lifting up of common acts by love.” Savitri-470 “All of his (Satyavan) speeding days that he could spare From labour in the forest hewing wood And hunting food in the wild sylvan glades And service to his father’s sightless life He gave to her (Savitri) and helped to increase the hours By the nearness of his presence and his clasp, And lavish softness of heart-seeking words And the close beating felt of heart on heart.” Savitri-472 2, Secondly, we discover a subtle physical relation between them which will replace the transient and divisible human love. Subtle physical relations increase by changing the centre of living from the surface to deep within. They are: “For when he (Satyavan) wandered in the forest, oft Her conscious spirit walked with him and knew (while Satyavan was away from her in the forest.) His actions as if in herself he moved; He, less aware, thrilled with her from afar.” Savitri-473 3, Thirdly, we discover their Psychic, Spiritual, Supramental, Bliss Divine union and through which Psychic, Spiritual, Supramental and Bliss Love are manifested in the earthly atmosphere. They are: “A fusing of the joys of earth and heaven, A tremulous blaze of nuptial rapture passed, A rushing of two spirits to be one, (Psychic union experience) A burning of two bodies in one flame. (Spiritual union experience) Opened were gates of unforgettable bliss: (Supramental and bliss Self experience.) Two lives were locked within an earthly heaven And fate and grief fled from that fiery hour.” Savitri-468 4, Fourthly, we observe that if the bond of their relation is made strong through the accumulation of Spiritual energy or Yoga Shakti or Divine Love, then Death cannot divide their life. They are: “Priceless she deemed her joy so close to death; (Her joy was priceless which can confront death and can save life. Earthly joy is soul slaying and always submits itself before death.) Apart with love she lived for love alone.” Savitri-468 (She lived only for the Divine who has incarnated here as Love.) “Always behind this strange divided life Her spirit like a sea of living fire Possessed her lover and to his body clung, One locked embrace to guard its threatened mate.” Savitri-471 “Yet ever they grew into each other more Until it seemed no power could rend apart, Since even the body’s walls could not divide.” Savitri-473 5: Fifthly, Satyavan’s birth Mother is identified in this epic as the smallest character, the symbolic representation of the child Soul and through her Sri Aurobindo gives the strongest message of true consecrated service to all earth-bound aspiring child Souls and their right relation with the Mother Soul; here symbolically represented as Savitri . Mother Soul serves Earth from below as a slave and from above and beyond like strong sunlight and she trespasses the bound life of child Souls as a strong Goddess and liberates them from their barren days. Like all other parents, Satyavan’s birth mother was not aware of the doom nearing her only child and aspired for him ‘All joy of earth, all heaven’s beatitude.’ (Savitri-467) A similar observation is marked in King Aswapati who aspired to pass the mortal life of his only child Savitri unwounded and further aspired for this young spirit untouched with tears, and be possessed by all new and ‘beautiful things.’ (Savitri-422) OM TAT SAT The Important Secret of this chapter: “All of his (Satyavan) speeding days that he could spare From labour in the forest hewing wood And hunting food in the wild sylvan glades And service to his father’s sightless life He gave to her and helped to increase the hours By the nearness of his presence and his clasp, And lavish softness of heart-seeking words And the close beating felt of heart on heart.” Savitri-472 “Thus in the silent chamber of her soul Cloistering her love to live with secret grief She dwelt like a dumb priest with hidden gods Unappeased by the wordless offering of her days, Lifting to them her sorrow like frankincense, Her life the altar, herself the sacrifice.” Savitri-472-73 35/ Book 7, Canto 2 - The Parable Of The Search For The Soul A Brief Restatement: The Book-7, Canto-2 concentrates on the initial approach to find the Soul. Savitri’s Consciousness was moving between Psychic and Spiritual planes and also between three gunas and these Psychic and Spiritual planes. In her search for Soul, she entered the inner world leaving aside the surface world and came across two planes known as the (1) world of titans and asuras , (2) the world of lower nature of forbidden joy. They are linked with each other through the verse, ‘“Man’s lower nature hides these awful guests.’ (Savitri-481) They are also linked with each other through "This (Spiritual) illumination is constantly opposed by the Forces of the lower nature and still more by the adverse Forces that live and reign by the world’s imperfections and have laid down their formidable foundation on the black rock of the Inconscience" (CWSA-22/The Life Divine/p-970) So those who want to lead a higher life, must enter the inner ten worlds of desire Souls to discover their Psychic being. If they do not want to reject the untransformed lower nature which occupies ‘too large a place’ (Savitri-487) in life and dare not to meet and confront with the dark and invisible dangerous forces, they are considered unfit to lead a higher Divine life. In this Canto, we find a relation between Para prakriti Savitri and Paramatma Satyavan whose source is in absolute trance or brief cataleptic trance. They are: “As the Voice touched, her body became a stark And rigid golden statue of motionless trance, A stone of God lit by an amethyst soul.” Savitri-474 “Then Savitri by her doomed husband sat, Still rigid in her golden motionless pose, (brief cataleptic trance) A statue of the fire of the inner sun.” Savitri-477 Through the movement of consciousness, she came in contact with the Psychic being and also met the Spiritual Mother who consented to live permanently in her Psychic heart centre. Thus, before a Psychic being is Supramentalised it has to be Spiritualised. These experiences are: “Our larger being sits behind cryptic walls: There are greatnesses hidden in our unseen parts That wait their hour to step into life’s front: We feel an aid from deep indwelling Gods; (Psychic beings) One speaks within, Light comes to us from above.” (Spiritual being) Savitri-485 “Out of the mystic cavern in man’s heart The heavenly Psyche must put off her veil And step into common nature’s crowded rooms And stand uncovered in that nature’s front And rule its thoughts and fill the body and life.” Savitri-486-87 (Psychic transformation) “A portion of the mighty Mother came (Spiritual Mother) Into her as into its own human part: Amid the cosmic workings of the Gods It marked her the centre of a wide-drawn scheme, Dreamed in the passion of her far-seeing spirit To mould humanity into God’s own shape And lead this great blind struggling world to light Or a new world discover or create. Earth must transform herself and equal Heaven Or Heaven descend into earth’s mortal state.” Savitri-486 We again find in this Canto, Savitri came in contact with her Inconscient Self, which is identified here as nameless God. They are: “A conscious soul in the Inconscient’s world, (discovery of Inconscient Self) Hidden behind our thoughts and hopes and dreams, An indifferent Master signing Nature’s acts Leaves the vicegerent mind a seeming king.” Savitri-478 “A nameless god (Inconscient Self) in an unapproachable fane, In the secret adytum of his inmost soul He guards the being’s covered mysteries Beneath the threshold, behind shadowy gates Or shut in vast cellars of inconscient sleep. The immaculate Divine All-Wonderful Casts into the argent purity of his soul His splendour and his greatness and the light Of self-creation in Time’s infinity As into a sublimely mirroring glass. Man in the world’s life works out the dreams of God.” Savitri-479 During this movement of Consciousness, Savitri also entered the source of existence, here identified as Supreme Light which is felt necessary to arrive at a deathless state. “Our greater self of knowledge waits for us, A supreme light in the truth-conscious Vast: It sees from summits beyond thinking mind, It moves in a splendid air transcending life. It shall descend and make earth’s life divine.” Savitri-484 “His (Divine’s) young unaging look on deathless things, His joy in our escape from death and Time,” Savitri-484 OM TAT SAT The Important Secret of this chapter: “Man’s lower nature hides these awful guests. Their vast contagion grips sometimes man’s world. An awful insurgence overpowers man’s soul. In house and house the huge uprising grows: Hell’s companies are loosed to do their work, Into the earth-ways they break out from all doors, Invade with blood-lust and the will to slay And fill with horror and carnage God’s fair world.” Savitri-481 “Nothing is wholly dead that once had lived; In dim tunnels of the world’s being and in ours The old rejected nature still survives; The corpses of its slain thoughts raise their heads And visit mind’s nocturnal walks in sleep, Its stifled impulses breathe and move and rise; All keeps a phantom immortality.” Savitri-483-84 “The inferior nature born into ignorance Still took too large a place, it veiled her self And must be pushed aside to find her soul.” Savitri-487 36/ Book 7, Canto 3 - Entry Into The Inner Countries A Brief Restatement: The Book-7, Canto-3 concentrates on the inner world. Here Savitri discovered her two Selves, identified as annamaya Purusha , true physical being, Soul in the body and Pranamaya Purusha , true vital being, Soul in the vital. Here also we find the description of subtle physical sheath and subtle vital sheath and their relation with Subconscient sheath and how Subconscient lower untransformed nature trespass the subtle physical and subtle vital. Here we mark, Savitri utilised Nama Japa (to repeat the name of the Divine) or ‘saviour Name’ (Savitri-491) as means of sadhana which has the capacity to transform all the invasion of lower Nature into a still and empty chamber and can call down peace, vast calmness, freedom and tranquillity of mind. After exploring the limitations of the tamasic mind and rajasic mind she came across ‘a brilliant ordered Space’ of Sattwic mind. Here we observe a reason’s balanced reign, ‘adamant walls of law,’ ‘a small world or rule and line,’ and limited freedom. Here, the sattwic mind is divided into three parts of schoolman mind, fixed mind and outer mind . They, three have three characteristics of fear, doubt and impatience respectively and through these attributes they limit the Illimitable. Schoolman mind occupies life’s large space, fixed pillars of thought, lives in its dreams. ‘Its thoughts (are) an army ranked and disciplined.’ It does not dare to pursue ‘great and difficult’ adventure,’ does not call down the ‘flaming god;’ cannot set the world ablaze with the inner Fire. It limits the Soul with narrow ideal, adores an exclusive God, meditation is done to realise a narrow end; shuts its door to Divine Love and dries the heart with a rational religion. Its sacrifice is cold and flameless, Shastra is a sealed book devoid of Spiritual influence. Fixed mind is a quiet country where sense hunger is partly quenched, doubt is replaced with fixed faith. This is a firm and settled space of intelligence where all things are kept in their proper place. This fixed mind appears to be the creator of this apparent world, a substitute of the mighty Soul. Aspirant of limited perfection, limited truth and limited harmony. This is the home of elite who are satisfied with their exclusive achievement, the victory of single truth, and clarity of the sword of limited Light. It does not want to go beyond itself to discover the Psychic being. A fixed mind is satisfied with truth’s rounded outcome and ordered knowledge of apparent things. This is the world of artists, scientists, writers, philanthropists who are satisfied with their single achievement and do not show interest to go beyond their exclusive confident life. The Mother observed that the attitude of the most developed class, the most intellectual elite towards immense transformation work, "Ah, no! I don’t want to bother about that, I just want to live peacefully, as well as I can. We’ll see once the world has been transformed, then we can start bothering about it." (The Mother’s Agenda-7/294-295) Then, Savitri came to the world of outer mind , where all are in haste and all are impatient to save the God’s world. Here no Divine Light and mystic Voice are received. The outer mind cannot receive the Divine messengers of the subliminal world. It is not aware of waking trance, dreams of unborn Reality and strange goddesses with deep pooled magical eyes. This Canto gives the message that those who are deeply dissatisfied with the limitations of schoolman mind, fixed mind and outer mind can trace their Psychic being. OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this chapter: “Awhile she moved through a blank tranquillity Of naked Light from an invisible sun, A void that was a bodiless happiness, A blissful vacuum of nameless peace.” Savitri-491 “To find the inner self concealed in sense.” Savitri-489 (true vital being) “She forced her way through body to the soul.” Savitri-489 (true physical being) “Soul was not there but only cries of life.” Savitri-490 (surface life is far from the influence of true vital being.) “She crossed through spaces of a secret self ” Savitri-490 (Annamaya and Pranamaya Purusha .) “But now the vital godhead wakes within (true vital being) And lifts the life with the Supernal’s touch.” Savitri-490 “A schoolman mind had captured life’s large space,” Savitri-496 “Here was a quiet country of fixed mind ,” Savitri-498 “And pass through masked doorways into outer mind ” Savitri-500 37/ Book 7, Canto 4 - The Triple Soul Forces A Brief Restatement: In the Book-7, Canto-4, before finding the Psychic being Savitri came across three Mother powers of the subtle world who are having link with three inconscient energies of tamas, rajas and sattwa of Aparaprakriti (lower Nature) and also have a link with the higher Nature (Para-prakriti) of four Mother powers of Psychic plane. They are three untransformed Subliminal Soul Forces known as tamasic Mother or Mother of seven sorrows, rajasic Mother or Mother of might and sattwic Mother or the Mother of Light. They are also representative symbols of desire Soul and also three (limited) perfections, siddhis in the subtle mental world of having a link with the lower worlds of Ignorance. Those who search their Soul, feel satisfied with these three Mother powers and their limited Siddhis and do not strive to go beyond to discover the Psychic being. A subtle world is accepted as a link through which the gulf between higher nature and lower untransformed nature is bridged or this important subtle physical plane bridges the gulf between the Spiritual plane and the surface Nature of mind, life and body. Since Subtle physical, subtle vital and subtle mental have important roles in earth’s transformation, so purification, transformation and perfection of three subliminal Mother powers are identified as crucial in the life of Sadhaka of integral Yoga. These three Mother Powers are to be strongly linked with four Psychic Mother Powers of Brahma Shakti, Kshetra Shakti, Vaisya Shakti, Shudra Shakti and the four Spiritual Mother Powers of Maheswari, Mahakali, Mahalakshmi, and Mahasaraswati . They are also to be linked with the Supramental Source identified as Truth Supreme, Power supreme, Supreme Delight and Will supreme as hinted in Savitri . The Mother of seven sorrow is the deformed attribute of Vaisya Shakti ; the Mother of Might is a deformed attribute of Kshetra Shakti and Shudra Shakti and Mother of Light is the deformed attribute of Brahma Shakti. Seven Sorrows of the Mother: 1) The beauty of sadness lingered on her face, 2) Her eyes were dim with the ancient stain of tears. 3) Her heart was riven with the world’s agony (riven: split or tear apart violently) 4) And burdened with the sorrow and struggle in Time, 5) An anguished music trailed in her rapt voice. 6) Absorbed in a deep compassion’s ecstasy, 7) Lifting the mild ray of her patient gaze, Seven sorrows are (1) memory of ‘beauty of sadness,’ (2) ancient strain of tears, (3) world’s agony, (4) sorrow and struggle in all Time, (5) anguished music, (6) deep sorrowful compassion towards bereaved souls, (7) patient gaze and patient prayer that does not reach heaven. Seven limited Might of the Mother: 1: “I stand upon earth’s paths of danger and grief And help the unfortunate and save the doomed.” 2: “I smite the Titan who bestrides the world And slay the ogre in his blood-stained den.” 3: “I am Durga, goddess of the proud and strong, And Lakshmi, queen of the fair and fortunate; I wear the face of Kali when I kill, I trample the corpses of the demon hordes.” 4: “I guide man to the path of the Divine And guard him from the red Wolf and the Snake.” 5: “A few I guide who pass me towards the Light; A few I save, the mass falls back unsaved; A few I help, the many strive and fail.” 6: “Slowly the light grows greater in the East, Slowly the world progresses on God’s road.” 7: “I shall hear the silver swing of heaven’s gates When God comes out to meet the soul of the world.” Seven limited Light of the Mother: 1: “I have come down to the wounded desolate earth To heal her pangs and lull her heart to rest And lay her head upon the Mother’s lap That she may dream of God and know his peace And draw the harmony of higher spheres Into the rhythm of earth’s rude troubled days.” 2: “I show to her the figures of bright gods And bring strength and solace to her struggling life; High things that now are only words and forms I reveal to her in the body of their power.” 3: “I am peace that steals into man’s war-worn breast, Amid the reign of Hell his acts create A hostel where Heaven’s messengers can lodge; I am charity with the kindly hands that bless, I am silence mid the noisy tramp of life; I am Knowledge poring on her cosmic map.” 4: “I am the Power that labours towards the best And works for God and looks up towards the heights. I make even sin and error stepping-stones And all experience a long march towards Light. Out of the Inconscient I build consciousness, And lead through death to reach immortal Life.” 5: “Thus slowly I lift man’s soul nearer the Light. But human mind clings to its ignorance And to its littleness the human heart And to its right to grief the earthly life.” 6: “Only when Eternity takes Time by the hand, Only when infinity weds the finite’s thought, Can man be free from himself and live with God.” 7: “I shall save earth, if earth consents to be saved. Then Love shall at last unwounded tread earth’s soil; Man’s mind shall admit the sovereignty of Truth And body bear the immense descent of God.” Seven Subconscient Tamasic Sorrows: Seven sorrows of man are: 1: I am nailed on the wide cross of the universe; 2: I am the fighter who can never win, 3: I toil like the animal, like the animal die., 4: I have loved for mine, not for the beloved’s sake, 5: If once the Titan’s strength could wake in me, But God has taken from me the ancient Force. 6: Only by suffering can I excel, 7: Evil I must be and by evil live. Seven Subconscient rajasic might: 1: “The last-born of the earth I stand the first; Her slow millenniums waited for my birth.” 2: “Immortal spirit in the perishing clay, I am God still unevolved in human form; Even if he is not, he becomes in me.” 3: “I was born weak and small and ignorant, A helpless creature in a difficult world Travelling through my brief years with death at my side; I have grown greater than Nature, wiser than God.” 4: “What God imperfect left, I will complete, Out of a tangled mind and half-made soul His sin and error I will eliminate; What he invented not, I shall invent: He was the first creator, I am the last.” 5: “I have studied my being, I have examined the world, I have grown a master of the arts of life.” 6: “I shall slay my enemies with a look or thought, I shall sense the unspoken feelings of all hearts And see and hear the hidden thoughts of men.” 7: “No wish I harbour unfulfilled shall die: Omnipotence and omniscience shall be mine.” Seven Subconscient Sattwic Light: 1: “I am the mind of God’s great ignorant world Ascending to knowledge by the steps he made; I am the all-discovering Thought of man.” 2: “Yet have I loosened the cord, enlarged my room. I have mapped the heavens and analysed the stars, Described their orbits through the grooves of Space, Measured the miles that separate the suns, Computed their longevity in Time.” 3: “The tree of evolution I have sketched, Each branch and twig and leaf in its own place, In the embryo tracked the history of forms, And the genealogy framed of all that lives. I have detected plasm and cell and gene, The protozoa traced, man’s ancestors, The humble originals from whom he rose; I know how he was born and how he dies: Only what end he serves I know not yet Or if there is aim at all or any end Or push of rich creative purposeful joy In the wide works of the terrestrial power.” 5: “All Matter is a book I have perused; Only some pages now are left to read. I have seen the ways of life, the paths of mind; I have studied the methods of the ant and ape And the behaviour learned of man and worm. If God is at work, his secrets I have found. But still the Cause of things is left in doubt, Their truth flees from pursuit into a void; When all has been explained nothing is known” 6: “Nay, let me work within my mortal bounds, Not live beyond life nor think beyond the mind; Our smallness saves us from the Infinite. In a frozen grandeur lone and desolate Call me not to die the great eternal death, Left naked of my own humanity In the chill vast of the spirit’s boundlessness. Each creature by its nature’s limits lives, And how can one evade his native fate?” 7: “Human I am, human let me remain Till in the Inconscient I fall dumb and sleep. A high insanity, a chimaera is this, To think that God lives hidden in the clay And that eternal Truth can dwell in Time, And call to her to save our self and world. How can man grow immortal and divine Transmuting the very stuff of which he is made? This wizard gods may dream, not thinking men.” Sevenfold transformation of Mother of seven sorrows: 1: To bear the unbearable sorrow of the world, 2: Because thou art, the wretched still can hope. 3: But thine is the power to solace, not to save., 4: One day I will return, a bringer of strength, 5: Divine Love shall be bond of human kind, 6: Misery shall pass abolished from the earth, 7: There shall be peace and joy for ever more. Sevenfold transformation of Mother of Might: 1: transformation of nature through reconciliation of Shudra Soul force of work and Kshatriya Soul force of Strength or Force. (2) since individual isolated transformation is not practicable, so she has to include the whole of humanity and shall be preoccupied is doing good of all creature. (3) Because of the Divine Presence within, men’s Soul can climb to heaven. (4) transformation of nature through reconciliation of Brahmin wisdom and Kshatriya Power.(5) ‘And fear and weakness shall desert men’s lives,’ (6) Ego will be silenced within. (7) “All shall be might and bliss and happy force.” Sevenfold transformation of Mother of Light: 1. Hunger for eternal and heart filled with heaven’s fire, (2) bringing god down to body and life, (3) golden hand of Lord will return, (4) Divine will be visible to the naked eye, (5) reconciliation of Spirit and Matter, (6) Humanity will be transformed into Divine family, (7) All the ten worlds or planes will be filled with light and peace The great hope with which the Mother of seven Sorrows strives for purification, transformation and perfection of her existing limited attributes are observed in the following verse where she will be transformed in the future as the Mother of seven Delight: “Within me a blind faith and mercy dwell; I carry the fire that never can be quenched And the compassion that supports the suns. I am the hope that looks towards my God, My God who never came to me till now; His voice I hear that ever says ‘I come’: I know that one day he shall come at last.” Savitri-505 “Thy (Mother of seven Delight) love shall be the bond of humankind, Compassion the bright key of Nature’s acts: Misery shall pass abolished from the earth; The world shall be freed from the anger of the Beast, From the cruelty of the Titan and his pain. There shall be peace and joy for ever more.” Savitri-507-508 Similarly, we observe great hope in the Mother of (limited) Might and she strives for her purification, transformation and perfection to become Mother of perfect and unlimited Might. She is waiting for the days when she can guide, save and help all humanity. Her future hope and promise we observe in the following verse: “The cosmic evil is too deep to unroot, The cosmic suffering is too vast to heal. A few I guide who pass me towards the Light; A few I save, the mass falls back unsaved; A few I help, the many strive and fail. But my heart I have hardened and I do my work: Slowly the light grows greater in the East, Slowly the world progresses on God’s road. His seal is on my task, it cannot fail: I shall hear the silver swing of heaven’s gates When God comes out to meet the soul of the world.” Savitri-510 “One day I will return (as Mother of unlimited Might), a bringer of light; Then will I give to thee the mirror of God; Thou shalt see self and world as by him they are seen Reflected in the bright pool of thy soul. Thy wisdom shall be vast as vast thy power. Then hate shall dwell no more in human hearts, And fear and weakness shall desert men’s lives, The cry of the ego shall be hushed within, Its lion roar that claims the world as food, All shall be might and bliss and happy force.” Savitri-514 Similarly, the third and the greatest Mother Power of the subliminal world, the Mother of (limited) Light strives for her purification, transformation and perfection. Her future hope of becoming the Mother of unlimited Light and helping mankind to lead towards Supramental Light is observed in the following verse: “Only when Eternity takes Time by the hand, Only when infinity weds the finite’s thought, Can man be free from himself and live with God. I bring meanwhile the gods upon the earth; I bring back hope to the despairing heart; I give peace to the humble and the great, And shed my grace on the foolish and the wise. I shall save earth, if earth consents to be saved. Then Love shall at last unwounded tread earth’s soil; Man’s mind shall admit the sovereignty of Truth And body bear the immense descent of God.” Savitri-516 “His hunger for the eternal thou must nurse And fill his yearning heart with heaven’s fire And bring God down into his body and life. One day I will return (as Mother of unlimited Light), His hand in mine, And thou shalt see the face of the Absolute. Then shall the holy marriage be achieved, Then shall the divine family be born. There shall be light and peace in all the worlds.” Savitri-521 This Canto gives the important message that for the transformation of human life into Divine Life the gulf between Divine Consciousness and human Consciousness of three gunas must be bridged. That gulf can be bridged in the subtle mind, the subtle vital and the subtle body which have double doors ; one open towards Subconscient negative energies and the other open towards Superconscient affirmative energies. So, their purification, transformation, universalisation and perfection are important requisites in the manifestation of Divine Life. So, all our opposition to enter and concentrate on the inner life must be transcended and open the doors of three Mother Powers for their own perfection and discovery of still powerful and more intimate Psychic Being. OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this chapter: “One day I will return, a bringer of strength, (as Mother of seven Delight) And make thee drink from the Eternal’s cup; His streams of force shall triumph in thy limbs And Wisdom’s calm control thy passionate heart.” Savitri-507 “But without wisdom power is like a wind, It can breathe upon the heights and kiss the sky, It cannot build the extreme eternal things.” Savitri-514 “His hunger for the eternal thou (Mother of Light) must nurse And fill his yearning heart with heaven’s fire And bring God down into his body and life.” Savitri-521 38/ Book 7, Canto 5 - The Finding Of The Soul A Brief Restatement: This Canto gives importance to the entire opening of the Psychic being. Sri Aurobindo confirms, "Then only can the psychic being fully open when the sadhaka has got rid of the mixture of vital motives with his sadhana and is capable of a simple and sincere self-offering to the Mother....Purity, simple sincerity and the capacity of an unegoistic unmixed self-offering without pretension or demand are the conditions of an entire opening of the psychic being.” CWSA-30/Letters on Yoga-III/p-349, "In the Tantric discipline there is a process of opening all the centres from the Muladhara upward. In our Yoga (Integral Yoga) very often the Power descends from above and opens the Ajnachakra first, then the others in order. But it is perhaps the safest to open by concentration the heart-lotus first so as to have the psychic influence from the beginning." CWSA-30/Letters on Yoga-III/350-351 In Book 7, Canto-5, Savitri discovered her Psychic being through the Tantric Method of Yoga and not the Vedantic self-discipline. This Tantric method is safe for Developed Souls but not so safe for developing Souls. Because the desire Soul surrounding the Psychic Being is not easy to overcome but rather it invites Spiritual fall. In the Vedantic method, first, the Spiritual being opens and by its pressure or descent, the Psychic being opens and this Self-discipline is rather safe for developing Souls without any possibility of Spiritual fall. In this Canto, Savitri’s Psychic being not only opens but the Psychic being is Spiritualised and Supramentalised. It means mediatrix Spiritual Mother and Creatrix Supramental Mother consented to live permanently in Savitri’s Psychic heart centre, thus, the Psychic being is identified as an important centre for individual and world Transformation. “Here in this chamber of flame and light they met; (Psychic and Spiritual being met) They looked upon each other, knew themselves, The secret deity (Spiritual being) and its human part (Psychic being), The calm immortal (Spiritual being) and the struggling soul (Psychic being). Then with a magic transformation’s speed They rushed into each other and grew one.” Savitri-527 (This is the experience of Spiritualisation of Psychic being.) (By this experience the Spiritual Mother consented to live in the Psychic heart centre.) “In its deep lotus home her being sat As if on concentration’s marble seat, Calling the mighty Mother of the worlds To make this earthly tenement her house.” Savitri-528 (The Mighty Supramental Mother stationed permanently in the Savitri’s Psychic Heart Centre.) So, Savitri book proposes that if a Sadhaka has realised the Psychic being and his consciousness learns the lesson to live in a waking trance, then through the movement of Consciousness he can Spiritualise and Supramentalise the Psychic being, then he can save and transform himself, the collectivity and the world. But to realise this perfection is a long patient action of time. After opening of Savitri's Psychic being, Savitri experienced the opening of her seven chakras beginning from above the head. “One can speak of the chakras only in reference to Yoga. In ordinary people the chakras are not open, it is only when they do sadhana that they open. For the chakras are the centres of the inner consciousness and belong organically to the subtle body. So much as is active in ordinary people is very little — for in them it is the outer consciousness that is active…The centres of consciousness [are meant by the term “centres”], the chakras. It is by their opening that the Yogic or inner consciousness develops — otherwise you are bound to the ordinary outer consciousness.” CWSA-28/Letters on Yoga-I/p-231 In this Canto Savitri experienced the Vedantic ascent Soul followed by descent of Shakti and opening of chakras: “Out of the Inconscient’s soulless mindless night A flaming Serpent rose released from sleep. It rose billowing its coils and stood erect And climbing mightily, stormily on its way It touched her centres with its flaming mouth; As if a fiery kiss had broken their sleep, They bloomed and laughed surcharged with light and bliss. Then at the crown it joined the Eternal’s space. In the flower of the head, in the flower of Matter’s base,... In the country of the lotus of the head (Sahasrara Chakra (Crown Chakra)) Which thinking mind has made its busy space, In the castle of the lotus twixt the brows (Ajna Chakra (Third Eye Chakra)) Whence it shoots the arrows of its sight and will, In the passage of the lotus of the throat (Vishuddha Chakra (Throat Chakra)) Where speech must rise and the expressing mind And the heart’s impulse run towards word and act... In the kingdom of the lotus of the heart (Anahata Chakra (Heart Chakra)) Love chanting its pure hymeneal hymn Made life and body mirrors of sacred joy And all emotions gave themselves to God. In the navel lotus’ broad imperial range (Manipura Chakra (Solar Plexus Chakra)) Its proud ambitions and its master lusts Were tamed into instruments of a great calm sway To do a work of god in earthly soil. In the narrow nether centre’s petty parts (Svadhisthana Chakra (Sacral Chakra) and Muladhara Chakra (Root Chakra)) Its childish game of daily dwarf desires Was changed into a sweet and boisterous play, A romp of little gods with life in Time.” Savitri-528-30 This Canto gives the input, that if the Psychic being opens, then this heart Centre acts as a Fortress of Truth and Virginity, surrounded by a large world of Ignorance and from this Divine Centre the Overhead truth and purity pour into the world of Falsehood and world perversion, thus one extends help to illumine the world and this is further universalised as ‘the little strength we have to help our race.’ (Savitri-527) “O soul, my soul, we have created Heaven, Within we have found the kingdom here of God, His fortress built in a loud ignorant world.” Savitri-531 This Canto also informs us that with the Psychic realisation of Savitri, the Gods and Goddess of the Overmental world preferred to live with her. Similar experience we also observe with King Aswapati : (Savitri's experience) "Casting aside its veil of Ignorance, Allied to gods and cosmic beings and powers It built the harmony of its human state; Surrendered into the great World-Mother’s hands Only she obeyed her sole supreme behest In the enigma of the Inconscient’s world." Savitri-530 (Savitri's experience) “In the slow process of the evolving spirit, In the brief stade between a death and birth A first perfection’s stage is reached (by Savitri) at last; Out of the wood and stone of our nature’s stuff A temple is shaped where the high gods could live. Even if the struggling world is left outside One man’s perfection still can save the world.” Savitri-531 (Savitri's experience) "Many high gods dwelt in one beautiful home; Yet was her nature’s orb a perfect whole, Harmonious like a chant with many tones, Immense and various like a universe." Savitri-358 (King Aswapati’s experience) “In an outburst of heavenly joy and ease Life yields to the divinity within And gives the rapture-offering of its all, And the soul opens to felicity. A bliss is felt that never can wholly cease, A sudden mystery of secret Grace Flowers goldening our earth of red desire. All the high gods who hid their visages From the soiled passionate ritual of our hopes, Reveal their names and their undying powers.” Savitri-278 This Canto also hints at the Psychic transformation or Supramentalised Psychic transformation of Savitri’s untransformed Nature. They are: “And all emotions gave themselves to God.” Savitri-529 “Its proud ambitions and its master lusts Were tamed into instruments of a great calm sway To do a work of God on earthly soil.” Savitri-530 “Its childish game of daily dwarf desires Was changed into a sweet and boisterous play,” Savitri-530 “Then sin and virtue leave the cosmic lists;” Savitri-531 OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this chapter: “In its deep lotus home her (Psychic) being sat As if on concentration’s marble seat, Calling the mighty Mother of the worlds (Supramental Mother) To make this earthly tenement her (Savitri’s) house.” (Supramentalised Psychic being) Savitri-528 “But when its feet had touched the quivering bloom, A mighty movement rocked the inner space As if a world were shaken and found its soul: (Discovery of Inconscient Self) Out of the Inconscient’s soulless and mindless night” Savitri-528 “All underwent a high celestial change: Breaking the black Inconscient’s blind mute wall, (opening of Inconscient Self) Effacing the circles of the Ignorance, Powers and divinities burst flaming forth; (Powers of Subconscient and Inconscient Self.) Each part of the being trembling with delight Lay overwhelmed with tides of happiness And saw her hand in every circumstance And felt her touch in every limb and cell.” Savitri-529 (Cellular transformation) “In the deep place where once the Serpent slept, There came a grip on Matter’s giant powers (opening of Inconscient Self) For large utilities in life’s little space; A firm ground was made for Heaven’s descending might.” Savitri-530 39/ Book 7, Canto 6 - Nirvana And The Discovery Of The All Negating Absolute A Brief Restatement: “The psychic and the spiritual opening with their experiences and consequences can lead away from life or to a Nirvana ; but they are here (in integral Yoga) being considered solely as steps in a transformation of the nature.” CWSA-22/The Life Divine-943 In this Canto Savitri's Spiritual Being opened which is identified as 'calm slow sun' (Savitri-532) or 'Impersonal, signless, featureless, void of forms' (Savitri-545) and from which overhead light invaded her whole inner and outer life. If Spiritual energy enters the body in a large scale, then the body vibrates unusually or symbolically as represented in Savitri , 'Still quivering from her lover’s strong embrace.' (Savitri-533) Thus, 'Matter is the Spirit’s willing bride' (Savitri-538) and "The high meets the low, all is a single plan.” (Savitri-541) With the opening of her Spiritual being, she could see Satyavan's future Spiritual destiny where the dark shadow above his head was illumined: "Above the cherished head of Satyavan She saw not now Fate’s dark and lethal orb; A golden circle round a mystic sun Disclosed to her new-born predicting sight The cyclic rondure of a sovereign life." Savitri-533 This Canto defines the Nature of Spiritual Love which is 'Absolved in the self-rapt immortal’s bliss.' (Savitri-533) and this joy can bridge the gulf between Earth and Heaven or Matter and Spirit. After the sun-lit Psychic path, Savitri was able to trace the golden path. She was given a brief time to tread this 'Golden Path' with Satyavan before the abysmal Night fell on her days: "Always he was with her, a living soul That met her eyes with close enamoured eyes, A living body near to her body’s joy. But now no longer in these great wild woods In kinship with the days of bird and beast And levelled to the bareness of earth’s brown breast, But mid the thinking high-built lives of men In tapestried chambers and on crystal floors, In armoured town or gardened pleasure-walks, Even in distance closer than her thoughts, Body to body near, soul near to soul, Moving as if by a common breath and will They were tied in the single circling of their days Together by love’s unseen atmosphere, Inseparable like the earth and sky." Savitri-533 Savitri, in her Spiritual Journey, meets two Voices from within and above. One Voice is soul-slaying negation or 'A denser darkness than the Night could bear,' (Savitri-534) and the other is Soul saving affirmation or 'a greater Voice came down' (Savitri-536) from height. The former Voice gives the message that this world is an illusion and 'only the blank Eternal can be true' (Savitri-535) and proposes to cease from this vain illusory existence. The latter affirmative Voice confirms that the Spiritual being can be dynamised to such an extent that it 'Accept to be small and human on the earth,' (Savitri-536) and consecrates even the smallest and the meanest work. Thus, the smallest action can be a means for contact with the highest Divine Force and mind can be made blank to ascend on this path. "But not for self alone the Self is won: Content abide not with one conquered realm; Adventure all to make the whole world thine, To break into greater kingdoms turn thy force. Fear not to be nothing that thou mayst be all; Assent to the emptiness of the Supreme That all in thee may reach its absolute." Savitri-536 "Consent to be nothing and none, dissolve Time’s work, Cast off thy mind, step back from form and name. Annul thyself that only God may be.”" Savitri-538 "Impersonal, signless, featureless, void of forms A blank pure consciousness had replaced the mind." Savitri-545 "All else grew unsubstantial, self-annulled , This only everlasting seemed and true, Yet nowhere dwelt, it was outside the hours." Savitri-547 "Only some last annulment now remained, Annihilation’s vague indefinable step: A memory of being still was there And kept her separate from nothingness: She was in That but still became not That." Savitri-549 Cantos 6 & 7 are best understood when they are read in conjunction (Spiritual or blank pure Consciousness and Cosmic Consciousness) with each other and when the term Nirvana is understood from the perspective of Integral Yoga as an intermediate transitory phase to a higher, more encompassing consciousness. The all negating Absolute is not a nihilistic state where existence and being ceases or is treated as a false concoction of the separative personality as has been understood from past philosophies and religions – rather the Absolute is beyond all positive terms of existence, even the most abstract and transcendent that can be conceived of by the human mind and senses. The reaching of a state of static realisation above and residing in the absolute is the foundation (and starting point) for the next stage of the play of the cosmic energies and dynamic self. In these following two Cantos, Savitri proceeds from her first perfection of finding her Psychic being in her heart centre (which is Spiritualised and Supramentalised) to the subsequent perfections of finding her spiritual and supramental beings/realisations – the process of these ascents are reflected in her passing through the transitionary stages of Nirvana and cosmic consciousness and finally reaching a stage where both the personal liberation and cosmic consciousness are held together in a state of (absolute) harmony (of dwelling in the supramental/transcendent consciousness). As such, we find that Nirvana and cosmic/universal consciousness are not opposites or contraries; they only appear so when we reside in the consciousness of the mind; in the higher plane (supramental consciousness), they are contained as mutually complementary states. Brahma satya Jagat Mithya is the first fundamental Siddhi of integral Yoga. The Canto-6 deals with this part of Savitri’s realisation. This realisation is a little different from escapist later Vedantic doctrine. “The Divine alone is true – all the rest is falsehood. The Divine alone is real – all the rest is illusion. The Divine alone is life – all the rest belongs to the kingdom of death. The Divine alone is light – all the rest is semi-obscurity. The Divine alone is love – all the rest is selfish sentimentality. And yet the Divine is everywhere, in the ignorant man as well as in the sage. And yet the Divine is everywhere, in the sinner as well as in the saint.” The Mother/The Mother's Agenda/undated-1958 OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this chapter: “When Nature who is now unconscious God Translucent grows to the Eternal’s light, Her seeing his sight, her walk his steps of power And life is filled with a spiritual joy And Matter is the Spirit’s willing bride.” Savitri-538 “So man (Satyavan ) evolving to divinest heights Colloques still with the animal and the Djinn; The human godhead with star-gazer eyes Lives still in one house with the primal beast. The high meets the low, all is a single plan.” Savitri-542 40/ Book 7, Canto 7 - The Discovery Of The Cosmic Spirit And The Cosmic Consciousness A Brief Restatement: The Book-7, Canto-7, confirms that both Paramatma Satyavan and Para prakriti Savitri’s main method of Yoga was Spiritual or “Her divine emptiness was their instrument.” (Savitri-553) or “An impersonal emptiness walked and spoke in her.’ (Savitri-552) In the previous Canto Savitri’s main method of Sadhana was also confirmed as Spiritual. Or “Annul thyself that only God may be.” (Savitri-538) Or “In a simple purity of emptiness Her mind knelt down before the unknowable.” (Savitri-522) " Assent to the emptiness of the Supreme That all in thee may reach its absolute." (Savitri-536) "Banish all thought from thee and be God’s void." (Savitri-537) This Canto confirms that Savitri had the knowledge of past, present and future birth known as All Life, about which her surrounding world was little aware: “They marvelled at her, for she seemed to know What they had only glimpsed at times afar.” Savitri-553 Its complementary line from the Gita: “The Blessed Lord said: Many are my lives that are past, and thine also, O Arjuna ; all of them I know, but thou knowest not, O scourge of the foe.” The Gita-4.5 With the attainment of Cosmic Consciousness, the inner life changes but ‘daily human life,’ ‘outward body of the routine,’ ‘small unchanging works’ and ‘happy quiet of ascetic peace’ (Savitri-551) do not change. Cosmic consciousness is the dynamic state of the Divine where ‘living spirit’ clasps her body and in this state, Matter can reconcile with the Spirit and with the Spirit’s penetration into material life, Savitri experiences change in the form of purification, transformation and perfection in her outward life. She continues to pour her greatness, sweetness and light upon her surrounding little hermit world. In this Book-7, Canto-7 Savitri realised her cosmic Self which is identified as the second fundamental realization of integral Yoga. In this Consciousness Divine becomes dynamic and one lives in waking trance. First fundamental realisation: Brahma satya jagat mithya , Divine is Real and world is an Illusion; second fundamental realisation: the world which appears to be false is created from Brahman ; third fundamental realisation: Brahma satya jagat satya and Brahman consciousness can penetrate material life and Divinise life. The characteristics of the second fundamental realisation are: “Her being, a circle without circumference,” Savitri-554 “A spirit, a being saw created things And cast itself into unnumbered forms” Savitri-554-55 “A Truth in which negation had no place,” Savitri-555 “Her spirit saw the world as living God;” Savitri-556 In the earlier Cantos it is confirmed that those who have a Mission (aim of life) and have realised their Psychic beings, their life is fully protected by the Divine. Savitri had both the awareness of her aim and Psychic realisation. This Canto proposes that if a Spiritual being is made open, then also it ensures protection to life. These developments are as follows: “Heaven’s tranquil shield guarded the missioned child.” Savitri-16 (Spiritual opening) “Only were safe who kept God in their hearts:” Savitri-211(Psychic opening) “And Savitri’s life was glad, fulfilled like earth’s; She had found herself, she knew her being’s aim.” Savitri-532 (Psychic being’s awareness) “Something perhaps unfelt, unseen, unknown Guarded the body for its future work,” Savitri-552 (Spiritual opening) “Guarded behind its face of ignorance:” Savitri-556 (Spiritual opening) This Canto also hints that the attainment of Cosmic consciousness is also the beginning of Subconscient transformation. So the opening of higher Selves like Psychic, Spiritual and Supramental Selves are utilised exclusively for purification, transformation and perfection of untransformed Nature. “She was a subconscient life of tree and flower, The outbreak of the honied buds of spring; She burned in the passion and splendour of the rose, She was the red heart of the passion-flower, The dream-white of the lotus in its pool. Out of subconscient life she climbed to mind,” Savitri-557 These are the hidden agenda of cosmic Consciousness, which are utilised for both self-concentration and self-expansion. OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this chapter: “She passed beyond Time into eternity, Slipped out of space and became the Infinite; Her being rose into unreachable heights And found no end of its journey in the Self.” Savitri-555 “She was the godhead hid in the heart of man, She was the climbing of his soul to God.” Savitri-557 41/ Book 8, Canto 3 - Death In The Forest Summary or Brief Restatement: This Canto speaks symbolically of the earthly departure of Satyavan in all life and Satyavan will return to earth after Savitri’s Yoga in Subconscient and Inconscient planes are complete which is again an issue of many births. Savitri was supremely aware of the day in which Satyavan would leave his body. "Now has a strong desire seized all my heart To go with Satyavan holding his hand Into the life that he has loved and touch Herbs he has trod and know the forest flowers And hear at ease the birds and the scurrying life That starts and ceases, rich far rustle of boughs And all the mystic whispering of the woods." Savitri-562 This gives a clear message to a Sadhak , instead of following the escapist solution of Moderate and later Vedantist , he must prepare and accumulate Soul force in his inner life all the time to confront Death which is experienced by Sayavan as follows: "But as he worked, his doom upon him came. The violent and hungry hounds of pain Travelled through his body biting as they passed Silently, and all his suffering breath besieged Strove to rend life’s strong heart-cords and be free. Then helped, as if a beast had left its prey, A moment in a wave of rich relief Reborn to strength and happy ease he stood Rejoicing and resumed his confident toil But with less seeing strokes. Now the great woodsman Hewed at him and his labour ceased: lifting His arm he flung away the poignant axe Far from him like an instrument of pain. She came to him in silent anguish and clasped, And he cried to her, “Savitri, a pang Cleaves through my head and breast as if the axe Were piercing it and not the living branch. Such agony rends me as the tree must feel When it is sundered and must lose its life. Awhile let me lay my head upon thy lap And guard me with thy hands from evil fate: Perhaps because thou touchest, death may pass.” Savitri-564 This has to be understood that during the inner wandering in the Subconscient and Inconscient plane in finding the secret of Immortality and origin of Death, Satyavan met an accidental death in all life. His link with Savitri made him again return to earth as the last Avatara. This link is the Divine Love which grows and becomes strong through Sadhana . By breaking the weak bond fostered through human love, Death succeeds in carrying human Souls to its home. The awareness of Satyavan’s death will make a Sadhaka supremely conscious of the brief Time he is given in this birth and utilis es it as a bank to accumulate Spiritual energy. His only Divine work is to call down timeless Eternity into slipping moments and to call down spaceless Infinity into his limited surrounding space. "Wordless but near she watched, no turn to lose Of the bright face and body which she loved . Her life was now in seconds, not in hours, And every moment she economised (every moment is utilised to call down Divine energy.) Like a pale merchant leaned above his store, The miser of his poor remaining gold. But Satyavan wielded a joyous axe. He sang high snatches of a sage’s chant That pealed of conquered death and demons slain, And sometimes paused to cry to her sweet speech Of love and mockery tenderer than love:" Savitri-563-564 This Canto also hints that during death 'the bright spirit’s luminous gaze' was withdrawn and 'Only the dull and physical mind was left.' (Savitri-565) Integral Yoga proposes that before meeting physical death, the dwarf physical mind must be illumined and transformed. This is a difficult task and the Mother declared, "This physical mind receiving the supramental light Sri Aurobindo called the Mind of Light… As soon as Sri Aurobindo withdrew from his body, what he has called the Mind of Light got realised in me.” The Mother’s Centenary Works/13/62-63 OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this chapter: “Like the strong sun that serves earth from above.” Savitri-562 “All grief and fear were dead within her now And a great calm had fallen. The wish to lessen His suffering, the impulse that opposes pain Were the one mortal feeling left. It passed: Griefless and strong she waited like the gods.” Savitri-564-65 42/ Book 9, Canto 1 - Towards The Black Void A Brief Restatement: This Book-9, Canto-1 is concentrated on Savitri’s entry into the Inconscient world. This world is the home of Death and only dead people can visit that unhealthy world of negation and darkness. King Aswapati traveled this world without dying and suffered multiple injuries that were slow to heal. Savitri also visited the Inconscient world without dying. (Death said to Savitri) “O mortal, turn back to thy transient kind; Aspire not to accompany Death to his home, As if thy breath could live where Time must die." Savitri-580 In this Canto, the movement of Consciousness between the Supramental and Inconscient plane is observed which appears to be a long movement before Consciousness is preoccupied with Subconscient transformation (which is the message of Book-10, Canto-1 to 4). This Canto suggests that those who are established in Supramental Consciousness can alone visit the Inconscient world in deep trance and through that exercise alone, the Inconscient world can be illumined and transformed. Sri Aurobindo’s Accident in 1938 was an attack by a dark asuric force (Lord of Falsehood) while he was pursuing transformation action in Subconscient/Inconscient Sheath. This Canto also suggests that a Sadhaka must be established in Supramental Consciousness, before meeting his own death or death of kith and kin or brother Souls. Extreme adversity must be met ‘like a tree recovering from a wind.’ (Savitri-574) Savitri had the following experiences after Satyavan’s death: “She measured not her loss with helpless thoughts,” Savitri-571 “Then suddenly there came on her the change Which in tremendous moments of our lives Can overtake sometimes the human soul And hold it up towards its luminous source.” Savitri-571 “Over was the haunted pain, the rending fear: Her grief had passed away, her mind was still, Her heart beat quietly with a sovereign force. There came a freedom from the heart-strings’ clutch, Now all her acts sprang from a godhead’s calm.” Savitri-573 This Canto suggests that after arriving in Supramental Consciousness, the transformation work pursued in the Subconscient and inconscient world may not be easy and may continue through many births. “That mightier spirit turned its mastering gaze On life and things, inheritor of a work Left to it unfinished from her halting past, (This line suggests that Subconscient and Inconscient transformation is a continuation of Savitri’s past birth extending over future birth till she returns to earth as last Avatara .) When yet the mind, a passionate learner, toiled And ill-shaped instruments were crudely moved.” Savitri-573 (This line suggests mind’s infant state in transformation action.) This Canto suggests that in order to change destiny and conquer Death , one must have knowledge of past, present and future lives. This is possible by the opening of Psychic, Spiritual and Supramental beings. “Only the spirit sees and all is known.” Savitri-571 “Now to the limitless gaze disclosed that sees” Savitri-572 “And live in borders of the seen and known.” Savitri-579 (One can foresee and know much before the happening of the event.) Its complementary line: “For what the spirit sees, creates a truth And what the soul imagines is made a world.” Savitri-456 “I know all past and all present and future existences, O Arjuna , but Me none yet knows.” The Gita-7.26 "Many are My lives that are past, and thine also, O Arjuna ; all of them I know, but thou knowest not…" The Gita-4.5 This change of destiny is further strengthened by the following experience as hinted in Savitri : “Only the spirit (of Savitri) knew the spirit (of Satyavan) still, And the heart divined the old loved heart, though changed. ” Savitri-576 “All was the violent ocean of a will Where lived captive to an immense caress, Possessed in a supreme identity, Her aim, joy, origin, Satyavan alone. ” Savitri-579 “Around him nameless, infinite she surged, Her spirit fulfilled in his spirit, rich with all Time, As if Love’s deathless moment had been found, A pearl within eternity’s white shell.” Savitri-579 The mystery of the Inconscient world is that it is a kingdom of titans who can slay the living Soul. They are cruel, sentinels of dumb necessity, and they watch across Savitri’s path mercilessly. In this midnight’s dumb abysses, Savitri rose like a ‘columned shaft of fire and light,’ (Savitri-581) ‘against fixed destiny and the grooves of’ (Savitri-581) Iron Law and there Satyavan met her with his wonderful bright eyes. "Then, to that chill sere heavy line arrived Where his feet touched the shadowy marches’ brink, Turning arrested luminous Satyavan Looked back with his wonderful eyes at Savitri ." Savitri-580 OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this chapter: “The Woman answered not. Her high nude soul, Stripped of the girdle of mortality, Against fixed destiny and the grooves of law Stood up in its sheer will a primal force.” Savitri-581 43/ Book 9, Canto 2 - The Journey In Eternal Night And The Voice Of The Darkness A Brief Restatement: The importance of Book-9, Canto-II is the movement of Consciousness through which the gulf between the Supramental plane and the Inconscient plane is bridged. If this gulf is not bridged then Satyavan cannot be traced or discovered in the Inconscient home of Death and by this loss of contact Satyavan cannot return to earth. In other Cantos, we have marked how through the movement of Psychic, Spiritual, and Supramental Consciousness different planes of Consciousness or ten worlds are bridged. They are: The gulf between Savitri and Satyavan in the Inconscient plane: “But now a silent gulf between them came” Savitri-584 “Visionless she moved amid insensible gulfs,” Savitri-584 The gulf between Savitri and Satyavan in the Subconscient plane: “In vain thou (Death) hast dug the dark unbridgeable gulf,” Savitri-648, A similar gulf King Aswapati felt in between Supramental Self and Bliss Self: “This world of bliss he saw and felt its call, But found no way to enter into its joy; Across the conscious gulf there was no bridge.” Savitri-128, Linking the gulf between the Spiritual and Mental plane: “A mediating ray had touched the earth (mediating ray is the Spiritual energy) Bridging the gulf between man’s mind and God’s; Its brightness linked our transience to the Unknown.” Savitri-353 Psychic being can bridge the gulf between Spirit and Matter: “But soon the link of soul with form grew sure” Savitri-355 “Unlocked were inner spirit’s trance-closed doors:” Savitri-369 Spirit travelling backwards in Time in order to illumine the dark untransformed world in universalised Consciousness: “A gap was rent in the all-concealing vault (of King Aswapati); The conscious ends of being went rolling back: The landmarks of the little person fell, The island ego joined its continent.” Savitri-25, Bridging the gulf between Bliss self and Sense mind: “A consciousness of beauty and of bliss, A knowledge which became what it perceived, Replaced the separated sense and heart And drew all Nature into its embrace.” Savitri-28 Bridging the gulf between Absolute, Alone, Real and his Fate in universalised Consciousness: “A union of the Real with the unique, A gaze of the Alone from every face, The presence of the Eternal in the hours Widening the mortal mind’s half-look on things, Bridging the gap between man's force and Fate Made whole the fragment-being we are here.” Savitri-35, The gulf between Psychic being and Spiritual Being is bridged: “In moments when the inner lamps are lit And the life’s cherished guests are left outside, (This line suggests life’s cherished guests stand as obstacles to Spiritual experience.) Our spirit sits alone and speaks to its gulfs. A wider consciousness opens then its doors; Invading from spiritual silences” Savitri-47-48, Our surface casual life is harmonized by bridging the gulf between surface action and inner life: “But who shall pierce into the cryptic gulf And learn what deep necessity of the soul Determined casual deed and consequence?” Savitri-52, Supramental action and removal all gulfs in different planes: “Because eternal eyes turned on earth's gulfs” Savitri-101 “She hopes by the creative act’s release To o’erleap sometimes the gulf she cannot fill, To heal awhile the wound of severance, Escape from the moment’s prison of littleness And meet the Eternal’s wide sublimities In the uncertain time-field portioned here.” Savitri-177 “Its (Supermind) mights that bridge the gulf twixt man and God, Its (Supermind) lights that combat Ignorance and Death.” Savitri-261, “There was no cleavage between soul and soul, There was no barrier between world and God.” Savitri-319 “There (in the Supramental) was no gulf between the thought and fact,” Savitri-327 “And made her joy a bridge twixt earth and heaven,” Savitri-534, “To make thy life a bridge twixt earth and heaven;” Savitri-536, (Death asked) “What bridge can cross the gulf that she (Truth supreme) has left Between her (Truth supreme) and the dream-world she (Truth supreme) has made?” Savitri-663, “The two (Heaven and Earth) longing to join, yet walk apart, Idly divided by their vain conceits; … They gaze across the silent gulfs of sleep.” Savitri-684 Bridging the gulf between Supramental/bliss Self and Inconscient/Subconscient Sheath is the most difficult exercise of integral Yoga and hence from this point of view Book-9 and Book-10 are very important and the Mother had chosen Book-10 for translation into the French language in order to better understand and pursue her Subconscient transformation. The purpose of entry into this dark Inconscient world is to bridge the gulf with the aid of her golden relation with Satyavan which calls down (‘But now a silent gulf between them came’ (Savitri-584) ‘In vain thou (Death) hast dug the dark unbridgeable gulf,’ (Savitri-648)) large scale invasion of Divine Love. Now this action of Divine Love is still remote from the Inconscient plane or ‘Even from herself cast out, from love remote.’ (Savitri-584) How can the gulf between them be bridged by the movement of Consciousness? The most crucial gulf is identified as the border of Subconscient and Inconscient Sheath where Savitri lost Satyavan for a brief period while journeying along with Death. Due to this gulf, ‘Her eyes had lost their luminous Satyavan ’ (Savitri-584) or ‘The soul of the beloved now seen no more.’(Savitri-585) Ordinary human love cannot bridge this gulf, so death becomes inevitable. After the gulf is bridged in isolation/loneliness and deep meditation/sleep state in the Inconscient sheath she again restores her relation with Satyavan through a series of Spiritual experiences: ‘Her husband, grew into a luminous shade;’ (Savitri-585) ‘I will bear with him the ancient Mother’s load I will follow with him earth’s path that leads to God.’ (Savitri-590) ‘For I (Savitri) who have trod with him (Satyavan ) the tracts’ (Savitri-590) of all Time; ‘Wherever thou (Death) leadst his (Satyavan’s) soul I shall pursue.’ (Savitri-590) This is identified as the great victory of Savitri in the Inconscient world. “The feet of love tread naked hardest worlds. He (Divine Love) labours in the depths, exults on the heights; He (Divine Love) shall remake thy universe, O Death .” (Savitri-592) This victory can meet other extreme danger, “Let not the inconscient gulf swallow man’s race” (Savitri-687) or “Her mouth of darkness swallowing all that is.” (Savitri-585) Inconscient Sheath is ‘an all-negating immensity’ (Savitri-585) or ‘immense refusal of the eternal No.’ (Savitri-583) In the core of it lies the Inconscient Self (‘Matter still slept empty of its Lord’ (Savitri-405)) which is the Divine’s last and the greatest Spiritual energy by whose intervention ‘a grand solution’ (Savitri-90) will be witnessed in the cosmic life. So, after the discovery of the Psychic, Spiritual and Supramental Self, a Sadhaka’s task is to trace the Subconscient and Inconscient Selves, by whose discovery, Supramental energy will flow into mind, life, and body from below the feet. The simultaneous flow of Supramental energy from above the head and below the feet or ‘Our life is entrenched between two rivers of light’ (Savitri-531) is the apex Spiritual experience for transformation action. The Divine Love labours in the depths as the Inconscient Self and exults on the height as the Supramental/Bliss Self and this Divine Love has the capacity to rebuild Death’s perishable world. "Love’s golden wings have power to fan thy void: The eyes of love gaze starlike through death’s night, The feet of love tread naked hardest worlds. He labours in the depths, exults on the heights; He shall remake thy universe, O Death .” Savitri-592 OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this chapter: “Armoured with light she advanced her foot to plunge Into the dread and hueless vacancy; Immortal, unappalled, her spirit faced The danger of the ruthless eyeless waste.” Savitri-582 “Mine is the labour of the battling gods: Imposing on the slow reluctant years The flaming will that reigns beyond the stars, They lay the law of Mind on Matter’s works And win the soul’s wish from earth’s inconscient Force.” Savitri-588 44/ Book 10, Canto 1 - The Dream Twilight And The Ideal A Brief Restatement: The Book-10 is identified as The Book of Double Twilight. The first twilight is created by the invasion of fathomless Light above to the dark Subconscient plane below and the second twilight is created either by the invasion of darkness below to the bright Subconscient plane or by the invasion of fathomless Light below the feet through the opening of Subconscient and Inconscient Selves to dark Subconscient sheath. The Book-10, Canto-1 concentrates on Subconscient transformation by Psychic, Spiritual and Supramental invasion to a dark Subconscient sheath. They are identified as: Psychic invasion: “As when a goddess’ bosom dimly moves To first desire and her white soul transfigured, A glimmering Eden crossed by faery gleams, Trembles to expectation’s fiery wand, But nothing is familiar yet with bliss.” Savitri-604 “A comrade of the Ray and Mist and Flame, By a moon-bright face a brilliant moment drawn, Almost she seemed a thought mid floating thoughts, Seen hardly by a visionary mind Amid the white inward musings of the soul . Half-vanquished by the dream-happiness around, Awhile she moved on an enchantment’s soil, But still remained possessor of her soul.” Savitri-605-606 Spiritual Invasion: “Here in this seat of Darkness mute and lone, In the heart of everlasting Nothingness Light conquered now even by that feeble beam: Its faint infiltration drilled the blind deaf mass; Almost it changed into a glimmering sight That housed the phantom of an aureate Sun Whose orb pupilled the eye of Nothingness. Savitri-601 Supramental Invasion: “A golden fire came in and burned Night’s heart ; Her dusky mindlessness began to dream; The Inconscient conscious grew, Night felt and thought.” Savitri-601 “Above, her spirit in its mighty trance Saw all, but lived for its transcendent task, Immutable like a fixed eternal star.” Savitri-606 The whole of humanity is now going through this Subconscient transformation unconsciously and few prepared vessels are going through this transformation consciously. Those who are open towards Subconscient transformation, they will feel all the time a Divine Force is entering the mind, vital, body, and Subconscient sheaths in a very minuscule manner. When this descent of Divine force is strong enough to be felt as a higher body temperature of fever, then its outcome is a miracle in Subconscient sheath resulting in some Divine manifestation. In the previous Cantos of the whole book, (1) we get the information that if our Psychic and Spiritual beings are open then beings of those higher planes will accompany us and assist us in our sadhana , involve in many creative actions, and call down Divine energies. Integral Yoga identifies ten Selves and their opening activates affirmative Beings belonging to higher planes. (2) Similarly, through our untransformed nature, asuric beings or dark energies enter our system and do their destructive and pessimistic action both in waking and dream states. (3) We also get this information from Savitri that like our parents, some invisible beings pursue us in this birth and take care of us. Similarly, some beings accompany us from our previous births. So, we have to remember that neither this world, nor any creative action, nor any destructive action, nor any powers and personalities that are acting through us are our own. (4) Now in this book-10, Canto-1, we get some new inputs that will assist in our Subconscient transformation action. It describes some invisible beings identified as ‘a morning twilight of the gods’ (Savitri-601) who assist us in our sadhana and carry us from the twilight physical mind, twilight vital mind, and twilight intellect to complete and integral Divine Light, Wisdom, Delight etc. Now we will concentrate on the character of these affirmative twilight beings. Their forms arise from our sleep and they justify the long night followed by a new dawn and a new birth of consciousness. These dreaming deities look beyond the visible things and fashion in their thoughts, ideal worlds. By their presence ‘the heaviness of the eyeless dark’ (Savitri-602) has overpassed and all the sorrow of the night perished. He who wakes in this twilight world, finds his dreams true and all ran after light and joy and love. This twilight world is an atmosphere that cannot dare too much light, love and delight yet breathes strange ecstasy and anticipates deeply of delight. This twilight world is surrounded by vague fields, vague pastures, vague trees, vague scenes, vague cattle, vague spirits, vague melodies and vague ideal lands without a goal but having sweet memories, mighty measures of thought, far chanting of gods with low disturbing voices of desire. These twilight gods are fugitive beings and 'natural habitants of' (Savitri-602) the Subconscient world and they have the capacity to assist an individual to find his Soul. In that Subconscient sheath, nothing there was fixed or stayed for long, no mortal feet can take rest upon that soil, no breath of life lingered embodied there, no joy can dance for long period and no beauty can settle there. Yet in that Subconscient world, the memory of gladness ever repeats the same note, shapes are strangely consistent, the same thoughts are constant passers-by, all charms are renewed unendingly, waits always to hear the music like the recurrence of a haunting rhyme. Divine touches incessantly, the things that never seized for Subconscient transformation. The Divine Light showers as a trail of disappearing star and each Divine touch faints the vessel and the promise of unrealised bliss is heard. Psychic being participates in this Subconscient transformation through its purity, adoration and subtle presence and its unaware, momentary and escaping thrill is experienced as much sweeter than any rapture known to earth and heaven. Now we will concentrate on the line: “Heaven ever young and earth too firm and old” (Savitri-603) This line also suggests that when we open ourselves towards Divine Forces, we become young and energetic and when we keep the door open towards dark Subconscient and inconscient undivine energies we become old and weak. This also suggests the presence of heavenly beings for Subconscient transformation whose raptures of creation last too long; their affirmative bold formations are too absolute and are too intimate with eternal things. They stand up sculptured on the eternal hills and win immortality by perfect physical form. These heavenly beings are too pure, too great, too meaningful without shadow and without incertitude. "Their bold formations are too absolute; Carved by an anguish of divine endeavour They stand up sculptured on the eternal hills, Or quarried from the living rocks of God Win immortality by perfect form. They are too intimate with eternal things: Vessels of infinite significances, They are too clear, too great, too meaningful; No mist or shadow soothes the vanquished sight, No soft penumbra of incertitude." Savitri-603-604 Thus, a golden hem of bliss is experienced along with the gleaming shoulder of some godlike hope and flying feet of fine desires. These heavenly beings are visitors from the morning star, satisfied with the first perfection of Psychic opening. They mingle in a passion of pursuit and thrill with the spray of joy…. "Half-vanquished by the dream-happiness around, Awhile she moved on an enchantment’s soil, But still remained possessor of her soul. Above, her spirit in its mighty trance Saw all, but lived for its transcendent task, (Realisation of Cosmic and Transcendent Divine.) Immutable like a fixed eternal star." Savitri-606 OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this chapter: “In that tremendous darkness heavy and bare She atoned for all since the first act whence sprang The error of the consciousness of Time, The rending of the Inconscient’s seal of sleep,” Savitri-599 “And when there is no world, no creature more, When Time’s intrusion has been blotted out, It shall last, unbodied, saved from thought, at peace.” Savitri-600 “Here in this seat of Darkness mute and lone, In the heart of everlasting Nothingness Light conquered now even by that feeble beam: Its faint infiltration drilled the blind deaf mass; Almost it changed into a glimmering sight That housed the phantom of an aureate Sun Whose orb pupilled the eye of Nothingness." Savitri-601 “A golden fire came in and burned Night’s heart; Her dusky mindlessness began to dream; The Inconscient conscious grew, Night felt and thought.” Savitri-601 45/ Book 10, Canto 2 - The Gospel Of Death And Vanity Of The Ideal A Brief Restatement: Book 10, Canto 2 represents the gospel of Death which is a Soul slaying truth and his ideal appears to be in vain in resolving world problems. This Canto proposes that to remain satisfied with a brief touch of Divine Force is a moderate and escapist Spirituality which cannot transform Nature but to prepare for that Truth which slowly and constantly infiltrates into the material vessel, which alone can expedite Subconscient transformation and transform Nature. Death’s ideal accepts the later Vedantic doctrine of the Soul’s (Jivatma’s) union with Spirit (Paramatma) and refuges the ancient Vedantic doctrine of the Spirit’s reconciliation with Matter. This Canto is important from three points of view. Firstly , it gives more description of the twilight of the Subconscient world which must be approached through faint infiltration of Truth Light (Or ‘Threatened (falsehood) with this faint beam of wandering Truth’ Savitri-585) and not the later Vedantic escape from material problems; secondly, here Sri Aurobindo defines the Soul slaying human love through the symbolic representation of Death’s gospel; thirdly in this Canto, the Supreme word, Mahavakya, of Savitri book is revealed. 1: “I think Sri Aurobindo deliberately made this Death very vulgar to discourage all the Illusionists and Nirvanists .” The Mother/The Mother’s Agenda-6/164, (Death said) “Earth only is there and not some heavenly source. If heavens there are they are veiled in their own light, If a Truth eternal somewhere reigns unknown, It burns in a tremendous void of God; For truth shines far from the falsehoods of the world; How can the heavens come down to unhappy earth Or the eternal lodge in drifting time?” Savitri-609 (Death said) “The Avatars have lived and died in vain, Vain was the sage’s thought, the prophet’s voice; In vain is seen the shining upward Way. Earth lies unchanged beneath the circling sun; She loves her fall and no omnipotence Her mortal imperfections can erase, Force on man’s crooked ignorance Heaven’s straight line Or colonise a world of death with gods.” Savitri-609-610 (Death said) “Heaven’s hour adjourned flees into bodiless Time. Death saves thee from this and saves Satyavan: He now is safe, delivered from himself; He travels to silence and felicity. Call him not back to the treacheries of earth And the poor petty life of animal Man. In my vast tranquil spaces let him sleep” Savitri-611 (Death said) “Renounce, forgetting joy and hope and tears, Thy passionate nature in the bosom profound Of a happy Nothingness and worldless Calm, Delivered into my mysterious rest.” Savitri-612 2: As per our study like Arjuna of the Gita, Death has raised twenty-three questions and indirectly hints at a passage to immortality. From the Arjuna we learn the lesson of Jivatma’s union with Paramatma, similarly, from Death’s conversation with Savitri, we can learn the lesson of reconciliation of Perfect Spirit with imperfect Matter. A Soul-slaying human love, a soul-slaying word and a soul-slaying momentary work can slay the Psychic being. This means human association, thought bound to three gunas and any action by the pressure of three gunas can veil the Psychic being. Whereas Divine Love, Divine descended overhead Knowledge and Divine action by the pressure of Divine Will can save and activate the Psychic being. (Death said) “Thy mortal longing made for thee a soul. This angel in thy body thou callst love, Who shapes his wings from thy emotion’s hues, In a ferment of thy body has been born And with the body that housed it it must die. It is a passion of thy yearning cells, It is flesh that calls to flesh to serve its lust; It is thy mind that seeks an answering mind And dreams awhile that it has found its mate; It is thy life that asks a human prop To uphold its weakness lonely in the world Or feeds its hunger on another’s life.” Savitri-608 (Death said) “What is this love thy thought has deified, This sacred legend and immortal myth? It is a conscious yearning of thy flesh, It is a glorious burning of thy nerves, A rose of dream-splendour petalling thy mind, A great red rapture and torture of thy heart. A sudden transfiguration of thy days, It passes and the world is as before.” Savitri-610 (Death said) “If Satyavan had lived, love would have died; But Satyavan is dead and love shall live A little while in thy sad breast, until His face and body fade on memory’s wall Where other bodies, other faces come.” Savitri-610 (Death said) “Love cannot live by heavenly food alone, Only on sap of earth can it survive. For thy passion was a sensual want refined, A hunger of the body and the heart; Thy want can tire and cease or turn elsewhere. Or love may meet a dire and pitiless end By bitter treason, or wrath with cruel wounds Separate, or thy unsatisfied will to others Depart when first love’s joy lies stripped and slain: A dull indifference replaces fire Or an endearing habit imitates love: An outward and uneasy union lasts Or the routine of a life’s compromise:” Savitri-611 (Death said) “Two strive, constant associates without joy, Two egos straining in a single leash, Two minds divided by their jarring thoughts, Two spirits disjoined, for ever separate. Thus is the ideal falsified in man’s world; Trivial or sombre, disillusion comes, Life’s harsh reality stares at the soul:” Savitri-611 (Death said human love is) “A sweet secretion from the erotic glands Flattering and torturing the burning nerves, Love is a honey and poison in the breast Drunk by it as the nectar of the gods. Earth’s human wisdom is no great-browed power, And love no gleaming angel from the skies; If they aspire beyond earth’s dullard air, Arriving sunwards with frail waxen wings, How high could reach that forced unnatural flight? But not on earth can divine wisdom reign And not on earth can divine love be found; Heaven-born, only in heaven can they live; Or else there too perhaps they are shining dreams.” Savitri-618-619 3: Supreme Word of Savitri (Mahavakya) “If there is a yet happier greater god, Let him first wear the face of Satyavan And let his soul be one with him I love; So let him seek me that I may desire.” Savitri-614, A Psychic being is identified as a greater God. That means if a Sadhaka has realised his Psychic Being in the heart centre, then his status is greater than overmental God and he can call down Divine Love to earth and men. If he calls down Paramatma/Purushottama/ Supramental Purusha to the heart centre then he begins to wear the face of Satyavan and experiences static Divine union. With the prolongation of this union, dynamic Brahman/Paraprakriti/ Supramental Mother comes down permanently to stay in the heart centre. Then heart centre becomes the meeting ground of Paramatma Satyavan and Paraprakriti Savitri and this dynamic union possesses material life and the cellular transformation begins the action. To Love and Possess equally Paramatma Satyavan and Paraprakriti Savitri in the heart centre is the supreme Word of Savitri and the extension of World transformation through the mighty descent of Divine Force. This is the condition of receiving Savitri’s comprehensive Divine Love. Here we divide this comprehensive Divine Love into four parts: Jivatma’s union with Paramatma (realisation of transcendent Divine) Jivatma’s union with Paraprakriti (Universalisation of Consciousness and beginning of individual transformation)) Parmatma’s union with Paraprakriti (beginning of cellular and world transformation.) Paraprakriti’s union with Aparaprakriti (Matter) (transformation of Subconscient and Inconscient Sheaths or Reconciliation of Spirit with Matter.) A Sadhak , who does not wear the face of Paramatma Satyavan within the heart centre has no issue, no charm and glory and his life is symbolically revealed as experiencing the sorrow of widowhood or 'Like love when the beloved's face is gone.' (Savitri-306) This is the most difficult Spiritual task before a Sadhak but there is none else. When King Aswapati asked Savitri 'somewhere on the longing breast of earth, Thy unknown lover waits for thee the unknown,’ (Savitri-374) Savitri went across the world to meet her Lord. She met twelve types of exclusive liberated great Souls before meeting Satyavan but they were not fit to hold Savitri’s Comprehensive Divine Love. To hold Savitri’s comprehensive Divine Love, one has to reconcile twelve exclusive Divine attributes of liberated Souls. So he can ‘wear the face of Satyavan ’ or move the Consciousness comprehensively in all the above four ways. OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this chapter: “His bliss laughs to us or it calls concealed Like a far-heard unseen entrancing flute From moonlit branches in the throbbing woods, Tempting our angry search and passionate pain. Disguised the Lover seeks and draws our souls. He named himself for me, grew Satyavan. For we were man and woman from the first, The twin souls born from one undying fire. Did he not dawn on me in other stars? How has he through the thickets of the world Pursued me like a lion in the night And come upon me suddenly in the ways And seized me with his glorious golden leap! Unsatisfied he yearned for me through time, Sometimes with wrath and sometimes with sweet peace Desiring me since first the world began. He rose like a wild wave out of the floods And dragged me helpless into seas of bliss. Out of my curtained past his arms arrive; They have touched me like the soft persuading wind, They have plucked me like a glad and trembling flower, And clasped me happily burned in ruthless flame. I too have found him charmed in lovely forms And run delighted to his distant voice And pressed to him past many dreadful bars. If there is a yet happier greater god, Let him first wear the face of Satyavan And let his soul be one with him I love; So let him seek me that I may desire. For only one heart beats within my breast And one god sits there throned. Advance, O Death, Beyond the phantom beauty of this world; For of its citizens I am not one. I cherish God the Fire, not God the Dream.” Savitri-614 46/ Book 10, Canto 3 - The Debate Of Love And Death A Brief Restatement: This book-10, Canto-3, reveals first Savitri’s discovery of the Subconscient Self within Subconscient Sheath. This discovery is important for the purification and transformation of Subconscient and adjacent worlds of mind, life and body. "A spirit moved in black immensities And built a Thought in ancient Nothingness; A soul was lit in God’s tremendous Void, A secret labouring glow of nascent fire." Savitri-622 This creation is to be wholly accepted and embraced as the manifestation of the Brahman . If the existing mind of most man is crippled; life is untaught and crude; if there exist brutal and evil activities, then they are to be accepted as incidents of the Divine’s vast and varied plot; His great and dangerous drama’s needed steps. We have to meet our Lord in the nascent sleep of shadow and the Night and in the wakefulness of the stars and Sun and wait for the hour in which high Supracosmic Source meets the low and nether Inconscient Sheath. The emergence of Divine Life on earth is possible by the reconciliation of God’s Night with His fathomless Light and Life and Death become the fuel of the great world action and world existence. "For now at last I know beyond all doubt, The great stars burn with my unceasing fire And life and death are both its fuel made. Life only was my blind attempt to love: Earth saw my struggle, heaven my victory; All shall be seized, transcended; there shall kiss Casting their veils before the marriage fire The eternal bridegroom and eternal bride. The heavens accept our broken flights at last. On our life’s prow that breaks the waves of Time No signal light of hope has gleamed in vain.” Savitri-638 Savitri has to unite with Satyavan in the Subconscient and Inconscient world by calling down Divine energy there. Satyavan’s death created such an opportunity for Savitri . She has to prove her Divine Love which can transform those dark worlds. So, her task is to call down Divine Love from higher planes and the emergence of the same Divine Love by activation of Subconscient Self and the ‘two rivers of Light’ (Savitri-531) wait ‘to be kindled in our secret cells.’ (Savitri-626) "Yet Light is there; it stands at Nature’s doors: It holds a torch to lead the traveller in. It waits to be kindled in our secret cells; It is a star lighting an ignorant sea, A lamp upon our poop piercing the night. As knowledge grows Light flames up from within: It is a shining warrior in the mind, An eagle of dreams in the divining heart, An armour in the fight, a bow of God." Savitri-626 Lastly, this Canto gives a clue how the business of Death and Night fails on Earth. That is possible by universalisation of Divine Love, by attainment of unity consciousness of Supermind and all is known and clasped by Divine Love. "A Lover leaning from his cloister’s door Gathers the whole world into his single breast. Then shall the business fail of Night and Death: When unity is won, when strife is lost And all is known and all is clasped by Love Who would turn back to ignorance and pain?” Savitri-632-33 This Canto also proposes that Subconscient transformation can only be experienced in deep meditation or non-waking trance. Entry into Subconscient plane is a terrible battle against the forces of darkness and in the Mother’s language, “I am given the awareness of how huge this thing (Divine descent) is one drop at a time…so I won’t be crushed,” (The Mother’s Agenda, July 15, 1961,) and this Subconscient transformation could be done ‘only in deep meditation…and not in any other time, in activity or even in concentration.’ (The Mother’s Agenda, December 11, 1963) "But now her spirit’s flame of conscient force Retiring from a sweetness without fruit Called back her thoughts from speech to sit within In a deep room in meditation’s house ." Savitri-639 A Sadhak of integral Yoga must understand that before conquering Death from without Savitri must conquer Death from within accompanied with mighty calmness. “O Death, I have triumphed over thee within ; I quiver no more with the assault of grief; A mighty calmness seated deep within Has occupied my body and my sense: It takes the world’s grief and transmutes to strength, It makes the world’s joy one with the joy of God." Savitri-633 OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this chapter: “My love eternal sits throned on God’s calm; For Love must soar beyond the very heavens And find its secret sense ineffable; It must change its human ways to ways divine, Yet keep its sovereignty of earthly bliss.” Savitri-633 “For now at last I know beyond all doubt, The great stars burn with my unceasing fire And life and death are both its fuel made. Life only was my blind attempt to love: Earth saw my struggle, heaven my victory; All shall be seized, transcended; there shall kiss Casting their veils before the marriage fire The eternal bridegroom and eternal bride.” Savitri-638 47/ Book 10, Canto 4 - The Dream Twilight And The Earthly Real A Brief Restatement: The canto marks the final confrontation of Savitri with Death in his own realm (of Night). The next time Savitri meets Death will be in the realm of light where Death’s contorted mask is removed and his true divine nature is revealed. Death (after his gospel in the previous canto) argues for Savitri to give up her quest and conviction of revealing the Divine behind all matter and bringing down the divine from the highest planes. Savitri destroys all his arguments with the Truth. Finally, Death slowly recognises that the Divine Mother may be present in Savitri and asks for that darshan and agrees to release him if he is blessed with that vision. A vast transformation comes over Savitri and the divine Mother within steps forward and reveals herself to Death and asks him to return Satyavan’s soul. Despite this Death remains stubborn and refuses to give up Satyavan. But the light and force of the Divine Mother overwhelms him and he retreats defeated, giving up the soul of Satyavan . Arjuna was shown Viswarupa Darshana (The Vision of the universal Godhead) by the Lord in the Gita f or the completeness of his Spiritual life. Here in this Canto-IV, book-10, Savitri, the Divine Mother had possessed Death by Her dynamic Viswa rupa. Death God is projected here as a temporary dark instrument of the Divine. This is also the message for a Sadhak of integral Yoga that he has to realise the vision of Viswarupa of the Gita through his third eye and be possessed by the Viswarupa of the Divine Mother, in his passage towards immortality. For him, realisation of the Divine is an easier task and the transformation of earthly Nature is a very difficult task, which he has to experience after the universalization of Consciousness. (Death's Viswa rupa experience) "Weighed on his unbowed head and stubborn breast; Light like a burning tongue licked up his thoughts, Light was a luminous torture in his heart, Light coursed, a splendid agony, through his nerves; His darkness muttered perishing in her blaze. Her mastering Word commanded every limb And left no room for his enormous will That seemed pushed out into some helpless space And could no more re-enter but left him void. He called to Night but she fell shuddering back, He called to Hell but sullenly it retired: He turned to the Inconscient for support, From which he was born, his vast sustaining self; It drew him back towards boundless vacancy As if by himself to swallow up himself: He called to his strength, but it refused his call. His body was eaten by light, his spirit devoured." Savitri-667 If a Sadhak attains Cosmic Consciousness, then he must pursue sadhana in secrecy and silence. His presence will be intolerable for the common man because of this particular nature, ‘Universal, he is all,--transcendent, none.’ (Savitri-657) When he lives in universal Self, he becomes very intimate with all; when he lives in transcendent Consciousness, he goes beyond all these relations. This is unbearable to man’s righteousness. His outward appearance will be marked with Truth-Power or the 'sound of infinity' in his voice and his eyes will shine with the 'light of things beyond.' (Savitri-663) OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this chapter: “Darkness below, a fathomless Light above, In Light are joined, but sundered by severing Mind Stand face to face, opposite, inseparable, Two contraries needed for his great World-task, Two poles whose currents wake the immense World-Force.” Savitri-656-657 “A few have dared the last supreme ascent And break through borders of blinding light above, And feel a breath around of mightier air, Receive a vaster being’s messages And bathe in its immense intuitive Ray.” Savitri-659 48/ Book 11, Canto 1 - The Soul's Choice And The Supreme's Consummation A Brief restatement: After the Savitri moves through the realms of Eternal Night and the Dream Twilight and defeats Death so that he retreats and gives up his claim to Satyavan’s Soul, Savitri enters the realm of the Superconscient plane. As she enters these realms, she moves up the levels of the Overmind and then onto the Supramental and Sachchidananda planes. As she ascends past the Overmind regions, she encounters the Supreme, who gives her the final test. To date, Savitri has had to deal with obstacles from her birth mother, her untransformed nature and Death, both within (as a void/nirvana) and without. Having conquered Death and secured Satyavan , the Supreme asks her to enjoy the fruits of her glory, reminds her that she is the Eternal Bride and His force – He asks her to withdraw to live in her Spirit above or in her Soul within and no longer does she need to strive against the recalcitrant nature who in the course of time (eons) will eventually be transformed. Savitri in spite of the deeply loving and ensnaring words of the Divine, refuses – just as she refused to succumb to the eternal night and the twilight, she also refuses these great boons. This is because, for Savitri, the Divine has to be experienced integrally in ten planes, not just satisfied in one or two realms. The Divine then takes her to the highest planes of existence, from where she will be better able to make her decision and tempts her three more times with boons. But each time Savitri refuses, because in those highest stations of Sachchidananda, Savitri is united with the Supreme Mother’s consciousness and she feels all of creation as her children. The voices of these children plead to her to remain with them and the love which binds her to Her creations makes her ask the Supreme that all that He offers her, let that be provided to all of Earth and man, not just to her. One key difference I (Auroprem) note between the Supreme’s discussion with Savitri and the Divine Mother’s instruction with King Aswapthi is that even though both Lord and the Supreme Mother said not to hasten the descent of the force on unprepared earth, with King Aswapati, he was asked to remain on earth and “let thy toil be vast” (Savitri-340) or ‘Accept the difficulty and godlike toil,’ (Savitri-335) and not to retire to a station above creation. With Savitri, the Supreme is actually asking her to withdraw into the highest planes of Consciousness 'through immense extinction in eternity'. (Savitri-696) This also hints at the difference between the dynamic Divine Mother embracing earth problems and the static Divine Father indifferent to world problems. The Supreme is pleased with Savitri’s choice and grants her the Supreme Consummation which is to find the Divine in all through 'A thousand doors of oneness', (Savitri-695) 'force her will on fate,' (Savitri-694) 'stamp her will on Time' (Savitri-695) and her joy becomes imperfect if 'not shared by all.' (Savitri-686) "A virgin unity, a luminous spouse, Housing a multitudinous embrace To marry all in God’s immense delight, Bearing the eternity of every spirit, Bearing the burden of universal love, A wonderful mother of unnumbered souls." Savitri-695 Divine says that after Savitri prepares the Earth in all life, it will then be able to bear the descent of the Supreme Mother, the last Avatar . This will coincide with the emergence of a new race of diviner men, who will also raise the existing race of men towards the Divine. This will then allow the Supreme’s force and presence to act directly on Earth without distortion and the need of any intermediary consciousness. OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this Canto: "A divine force shall flow through tissue and cell And take the charge of breath and speech and act And all the thoughts shall be a glow of suns And every feeling a celestial thrill. Often a lustrous inner dawn shall come Lighting the chambers of the slumbering mind; A sudden bliss shall run through every limb A nd Nature with a mightier Presence fill. Thus shall the earth open to divinity And common natures feel the wide uplift, Illumine common acts with the Spirit’s ray And meet the deity in common things. Nature shall live to manifest secret God, The Spirit shall take up the human play, This earthly life become the life divine.” Savitri-710 49/ Book 12, Epilogue - The Return To Earth A Brief restatement : This Canto hints at human love's transformation into Divine Love, which is again the prerogative of very rare developed Souls. The whole of Savitri hints that before developing Divine Love of Sachchidananda Consciousness, a Sadhak must develop strong subtle physical love. This subtle physical love is perennial in its nature and it grows in successive births through activation of true Physical Being, Annamaya Purusha. This Canto also hints at the penetration of Supreme Ananda into physical substance and thus cellular transformation action becomes active. This chapter signifies the permanent descent of Sachchidananda Consciousness to earth consciousness which was the result of Savitri’s permanent ascent of Soul to Sachchidananda consciousness, here symbolically represented as Everlasting Day. Savitri along with Satyavan return to earth consciousness and to their bodies with the blessings of the Supreme to stay in the Earth’s atmosphere and continue their eternal work as the dual incarnating power of the Supreme (1) to raise the consciousness of man to God and (2) to bring down the higher consciousness to the Earth plane. Satyavan recognizes the great (subjective and objective) change that Savitri has undergone (during this long cataleptic trance) and realizes that it is due to her love alone (Or accumulation of her Yoga Shakti in the form of Divine Love that was able to bring back Satyavan from the clutch of Death or Their strong bond of Divine union failed Death to take Satyavan away from Savitri ) that he has consented to remain on the earth plane and continue their work. The boons Death gave to Savitri have resulted in the King’s (Dyumatsena’s ) outward vision (and inner vision of seven immortal worlds) being restored and his lost kingdom (symbolized as King Dyumatsena’s lame identity with Ignorance) and returned with the eye of wisdom and integral Knowledge. The poem finishes with marked difference in the consciousness of the Earth, (permanent manifestation of Sachchidananda Consciousness on Earth), especially in the inconscient plane, which now houses the promise of greater dawn and light due to the work of this dual Force on the (Subconscient/Inconscient plane) earth plane. Now, The Mother and Sri Aurobindo have opened ‘two consenting worlds’ (Savitri-716) for humanity. They are identified as Bliss/Supramental Self above the head and Subconscient/Inconscient Self below the feet. Through the opening of these double doors, humanity can transform existing life and this exercise can begin with a few prepared Souls and can be later generalised into whole of humanity. OM TAT SAT The Most Important Secret of this chapter: "Ever she held on the paradise of her breast Her lover charmed into a fathomless sleep, Lain like an infant spirit unaware Lulled on the verge of two consenting worlds .” Savitri-716 “Awakened to the meaning of my heart That to feel love and oneness is to live And this the magic of our golden change, Is all the truth I know or seek, O sage.” Savitri-624 Download the above synopsis as PDF file Savitri - Yoga Sadhana Camp Discussion 28 July - 31 July 2024 Audio Recording 28 July 2024 Audio Recording 29 July 2024 Audio Recording 30 July 2024 Audio Recording 31 July 2024 We must pursue Sadhana by outwardly becoming a mere man of action like the woodsman status of Satyavan and inwardly like King Aswapati, who drops all his separative identity in the Divine, possesses the highest objective of Jnana and Bhakti Yoga by becoming a Karma Yog i. We must note that while pursuing this difficult Yoga if we experience Spiritual fall then, also we can again pursue this Sadhana of Karma Yoga like King Dyumatsena , in double seclusion that of an outcast from the privilege of light of the outer world and renouncing the enjoyment of five senses symbolised here as loss of eyesight. We must learn to consecrate our Soul’s childhood near the Mother Soul, here identified as Savitri , who serves earth and her children from below like a slave and from above like Sunlight. Her ceaseless consecration and ceaseless Divine union could not satisfy and fulfill life because there is always the threat of an inrush of Ignorance, Falsehood, Suffering and Death from below. They can abruptly end all the charm of life. The remedy lies in her Subconscient and Inconscient transformation through a collaboration of a few prepared universalised individual vessels. “Q: Savitri represents the Mother’s Consciousness, doesn’t she? Ans: Yes. Q: What does Satyavan represent? Ans: Well, he is the Avatar. He is the incarnation of the Supreme. ” The Mother The Mother’s Centenary Works/5/390 “Now, a third thing also one must know, but for this one has to be a mighty yogi. For this means knowing that death is not an inevitable thing, it is an accident which has been occurring till now (which seems in any case to have always occurred till now), and that we have put it into our head and our will to conquer this accident and overcome it. But it is so terrible, so formidable a battle against all the laws of Nature, against all collective suggestions, all earthly habits, that unless, as I have said, you are a first-rate warrior whom nothing frightens, it is better not to begin the battle. You must be an absolutely intrepid hero, for at every step, at every second you have to fight a battle against all established things. So it is not a very easy thing. And even as an individual it is a battle against oneself, because (I think I have already told you this once), if you want your physical consciousness to be in a state which admits of physical immortality, you must be free to such an extent from everything which at present represents the physical consciousness that it becomes every second a battle. All feelings, all sensations, all thoughts, all reflexes, all attractions, all repulsions, all existing things, all that forms the fabric of our physical life must be overcome, transformed and freed from all their habits. This is a battle of every second against thousands and millions of enemies. Unless you feel you are a hero, it is better not to try. Because this solution, well... I do not know, but I believe I was asked this question once before: “Has anyone succeeded so far?” To tell you the truth I don’t know, for I have not met such a person. I do not have the feeling that anyone has succeeded till now. But it is possible. Only, he or she who has done it has not declared it, at least, not till now.” The Mother The Mother’s Centenary works/Vol-5/p-316-317"

The Ascetic's Fortress “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 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, 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 hour 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. 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 movement. 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 become 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’ 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 the 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 till integral Shastra and integral methods are evolved to experience comprehensive, all-inclusive and all the revelatory aspect 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 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 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 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 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 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 fulfillment 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 the immergence 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 Schools of Yoga select 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, 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) 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

"Our life is entrenched between two rivers of Light," Savitri 531 The Savitri Handbook "Q: Savitri represents the Mother’s Consciousness, doesn’t she? Ans: Yes. Q: What does Satyavan represent? Ans: Well, he is the Avatar . He is the incarnation of the Supreme.” The Mother The Mother’s Centenary Works/Vol-5/p-390 Savitri book proposes a Sadhaka to utilise Time and Space exclusively for fourfold Divine union and by this an increase and accumulation of Soul force is witnessed which must be utilised towards preparation of meeting the worst adversity in life or immobile in herself, Savitri gathered Soul force to meet the hour "This was the day when Satyavan must die." (Savitri-10) Fourfold Divine Union: Jivatma's union with Paramatma Jivatma's union with Para-prakriti Paramatma's union with Para-prakriti in the heart centre Para-prakriti's union with Apara-prakriti. For this, the Savitri book proposes a Sadhaka to develop single-minded devotion, ekabhakti, through complete union of Psychic being with the Supreme Self or "Her consciousness grew aware of him (Satyavan) alone...Her aim, joy, origin, Satyavan alone....Give me back Satyavan , my only lord." (Savitri-410, 579, 637) The book emphasies Psychic Being in the heart as the virgin Mother and to live under its sole Influence which is elevated further as Spiritualised Psychic Being and Supramentalised Psychic Being or we have to be aware of the Maha Mantra of Savitri, "Virgin who comest perfected by joy...." (Savitri-424) and recognise it as "His only comrade is the Strength within." (Savitri-368) Sri Aurobindo proposes that 'even the most highly developed psychical consciousness cannot be absolutely safe unless the psychical is illumined and uplifted by a higher force...' (CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-896) The single Protection ("Only were safe who kept God in their hearts:" Savitri-211) promised by the Psychic being has to be secured and strengthened by the discovery of double and multiple protection by realisation of the verse, "‘Our life is entrenched between two rivers of Light.... Heaven’s leaning down to embrace from all sides earth....It (dynamic Spirit) is within, below, without, above." (Savitri-531, 716, 98) We have to be aware of the Maha Vakya, Supreme Word of Savitri, which proposes to call down the Supreme Self, Paramatma and the Supreme Mother, Para-prakriti, to the heart Centre and through Their union open God's Supramental door. Or "If there is a yet happier greater god, Let him first wear the face of Satyavan And let his soul be one with him I love; So let him seek me that I may desire." Savitri- 614 This, Savitri handbook partly satisfies Sri Aurobindo’s directives issued in The Synthesis of Yoga, that ‘all truth and practice… must be constantly renovated by fresh streams of the spirit’¹ and ‘thus constantly renewed, relived, their stuff of permanent truth constantly reshaped and developed… continue to be of living importance’² and by this exercise alone a Sadhaka will trace a path of his own Sadhana and prevent the written truths from becoming ‘monuments of the past’² without any ‘actual force or vital impulse for the future.’² (Reference: 1: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-5, 2: CWSA-19/Essays on the Gita/p-5,) The Mother had issued guidelines to her biographers, “If anyone ever wanted to write about me, the first thing I would say is: NOT ONE WORD about my personal life – not a word.” (The Mother’s Agenda- September 23, 1961) The Mother also insisted on the same rule for Sri Aurobindo’s biographers. She observed, "My book, of course, would be: What I have known of Sri Aurobindo – and on his supreme level. What I have known of Sri Aurobindo is ... what I have been able to perceive of the Avatar. What he represents. That’s how I see him. So, what I have known of Sri Aurobindo, expressed ‘spontaneously,’ with a minimum of external events, the very minimum, but with all the experiences of our meetings..." (The Mother's Agenda/ December 20, 1961) This Savitri Handbook partly restates the history of Their inner life, which is a comprehensive movement on Consciousness extending over multiple ten planes or ten subtle bodies of our existence. This is not Their story of this birth (This life is a small fragment of all life.) but All Life extending from the beginning of creation to the end when the life of humanity will be divinised. Our objective in preparing the Savitri Handbook is not to propagate Their Teachings (Soul-slaying truth) but to live Their Teachings (Soul-saving truth), to learn the lesson of ascent of the Soul and the descent of the Shakti; first intermittently, then continuously. Truth revealed through partial Divine union is identified here as Soul Slaying Truth and the Truth revealed through complete Divine union is identified as Soul Saving Truth. Here in this epic, Savitri's birth Mother and Death God are symbolically represented as symbols of soul-slaying Truth and King Aswapati, Narad, Savitri and Satyavan are symbols of soul-saving truth. OM TAT SAT Savitri, the representative Symbol of The Mother's Consciousness: Sri Aurobindo was able to accommodate His (and also The Mother’s ) all life’s comprehensive high Spiritual Visions and experiences in symbolic characters of incarnations, emanations and instruments, depicted from the legendary epic Mahabharata where Savitri, the descending Godhead, Avatara , the all Mother, the Mother of all Time, Paraprakriti , knew her fiery Self and her Being’s aim of pursuing the Soul of earth, symbolised as Satyavan in his earthly form in each birth and in all life. She glimpsed the glory for which she had chosen earth and its atmosphere for gradual and subsequently constant, intense, comprehensive and instantaneous total descent of Divine attributes of Truth-Light, Power, Wisdom and Delight. She keeps her will alive to drive human Souls and fills in their brute elements, the endless hope to Divinise clay and confronts the riddle of Birth, inevitable Death, grooves of iron Law and stone eyes of fixed Fate in them with the sheer power of her unchanging Soul force manifested as living fire of Divine Love. She has chosen the Souls who have long suffered on this harsh globe, for the field of her sacrifice and action and she is even ready to walk and waste all infinity with wounded feet to accomplish her seemingly impossible task of transforming earth’s shadow, fixed destiny, grooves of iron Law, meaningless suffering, splendid failure, twilight and grey inhibitions. She leans with pity over earth-bound men in order to share the burden of ‘earth’s struggle and fate.’ (Savitri-698) Satyavan, the incarnation of the Supreme: Satyavan, a mere man of action, a woodsman, Nara, Jivatma, raised his consciousness to the status of the ascending integral Godhead, Avatara, Narayana, by the Power of consecration and loss of ego and was destined to fulfil Savitri’s mighty Mission of bridging the gulf between Heaven, Earth and Hell. He was also the Eternal Consciousness, a unique rare treasure loaned by Gods, who accompanied Savitri from the beginning of the creation as first ‘man and woman’ (Savitri-614) or first dual Incarnation and the Supreme had promised to grant physical immortality in all life when the first Avatara’s ‘heart dared death and suffered life.’ (Savitri-59) He continued his life in many successive births and bodies as ‘twin souls born from one undying fire’ (Savitri-614) of this mortal existence to endure in his human heart a million wounds representing the delegate Soul of earth. Through his long suffering in human form the God’s debt is paid. His Godhead status does not prevent him from living ‘in one house with the primal beast’ (Savitri-541) in the forest, colloquies with the Djinn and Asuras of the Subconscient world; thus in the Divine’s single plan he reveals solidarity with antagonist powers; ‘high meets the low’ (Savitri-541) or ‘God’s summits look back on the mute Abyss.’(Savitri-541) He accepts the small and human personality of woodsman on earth and his small beginning witnesses immense ascent of Soul and immense descent of Shakti, leading the creation towards a mighty end. While tracing the path of immortality he signed salvation’s testament with his blood and broke into the dangerous and dark Inconscient’s depth and if he were to meet the Spiritual fall in the form of death while attempting to break the wheel of earth’s doom and before bridging the gulf between Heaven and Earth in order to balance the dark account of mortal Ignorance then this would be a great loss for humanity. Or an Avatara , as a delegate Soul of Heaven lent to earth must live a brief period in human history in order to trace and build a passage in intermediate ranges of consciousness so that a large section of humanity will be able to bridge the gulf between Heaven and Earth and reconcile Spirit with Matter with less effort. This work is further accelerated if Divine Love becomes active in earth’s atmosphere through action and interfusion of dual Avatara. His Divine work on earth of invasion of the series of Light and Love is treated unfinished and half done till all the evils are slain or transformed in their Inconscient home. King Aswapati, Symbol of Concentrated Tapasya: Aswapati, King of Madra, the son of God, Vibhuti, destined to do some special Divine work, represents the human aspiration, hard Tapasya , askesis, and concentrated endeavour to explore all the multiple planes of Consciousness through vast and multiple identities. As Divine father, he fostered, nourished and served his Divine daughter selflessly without attachment and wanted his daughter to ‘set earth alight’ (Savitri-423) with her ‘flame of radiant happiness.’ (Savitri-423) Like all human fathers, he aspires that her mortal life be unwounded and to serve humanity with ‘glad and griefless days.’ (Savitri-423) His capacity to unite with new bliss and flame-white Love came by annulling all ‘the contact formed with time-born things.’ (Savitri-322) He was able to retrieve the earth’s lost Spiritual energies, discovered earth’s secret beyond all previously attained Spiritual wisdom, nurtured Almighty’s Power in silence and solitude, sought the Divine strength that was not yet manifested on earth and called down the Divine Mother in the form of his daughter, Savitri. As Spiritual Teacher, the Guru ; firstly, he made her aware that her world Mission of awakening ‘Almighty powers’ that ‘are shut in Nature’s cells,’ (Savitri-370) ‘meet the Omnipotent in this house of flesh,’ (Savitri-370) ‘Out of Immortal’s substance you were made’ (Savitri-370) and hewing the path of immortality would be accomplished not by her own effort alone but by venturing to find her second Self, future Lord, unknown Lover, personal Godhead of the race and lyricist of her ‘soul’s most intimate chords’ (Savitri-374) in distant lands, who alone can match the measure of her waiting Soul, can walk with him like Gods in Heaven and can stand up as her equal comrade and peer; secondly, ‘must fire always test’ (Savitri-423) the purity and greatness of her Soul, who must wrestle with supernatural Darkness and must leave behind Death’s night to raise the fallen world. None can possess the kingdom of heaven and supreme Delight that has not passed through the ‘stones of suffering’ (Savitri-457) and tragic torture of giant sons of Falsehood; thirdly, she must continue her father’s unfinished Yoga and unfinished mission of ‘pure perfection and a shadowless bliss’ (Savitri-340) for the whole of suffering humanity and of changing all future time by unlocking the doors of human Fate. Narad’s pronouncement of Satyavan’s death did not perturb him because he could foresee double destiny above Satyavan’s head, one that of a ‘heavy shadow’ and the other that of chasing by a ‘sudden and stupendous (Divine) light.’ (Savitri-424) King Aswapati proposes that seekers of Immortality should understand the double destiny of men. One is that of fixed destiny born out of ‘blindness of our will,’ our Karma or bounded action of past and present birth and the other is our changeable Spiritual destiny which is born out of union and oneness with Divine Will, Divine Wisdom and Divine Love. So, one can escape untimely death and can live a long, secure life if one's Psychic being opens. For these Psychic and Spiritual Self opened Souls, Death is not a curse but a passage and choice (iccha mrityu ) for higher life. King had seen in Savitri the manifestation of the Divine Mother who could fight against fate to change it and he had a strong conviction that the Supreme Will could work only for the good, independent of whatever it seems good or bad to man’s mind. King Aswapati’s Palace and Kingdom of Madra, stands as a symbol of the Supreme Self and Savitri left this highest Heaven permanently and had chosen the darkest forest of Shalwa as the symbol of the Subconscient and Inconscient Sheaths for illumination and Divine transformation. Narad: The symbol of Overmental God: Narad, the heavenly sage, the God, the instrument having the experience of oneness and complete union with the Divine. (The Gita identifies him as Vibhuti and the best among Divine sages. (The Gita-10.26)) He is a mediator between Heaven and Earth, who was aware of the source and mystery of human fate and was having the power to foresee the future of man and knowledge of Soul saving Truth behind this creation, came down to earth to make Savitri aware that Soul’s greatness is measured through the capacity to bear pains of hell. She must cross on the stones of supreme universal suffering to arrive at her high mission of manifeting Divine Love and Delight in the Subconscient and Inconscient Sheaths. However, he had no power at his disposal to change her destiny and hence incapable of changing human destiny. Savitri’s Psychic being has the ability to give shelter where all the ‘high Gods could live.’ (Savitri-531) This Divine stationed in the heart centre is also projected as ‘greater than the God,’ (Savitri-375) the Guru and personal Godhead and has the capacity to change her own destiny and the destiny of the race or ‘She only can save herself and save the world.’ (Savitri-461) To bring all the ten worlds under her loving control and to uplift her body’s destiny or destiny of the race, her Soul entered a series of world adventure in different planes of Consciousness to become one with Divine Will and with the growth of Consciousness, a sort of mastery, a harmony and peace preoccupied the cells of the body and further extended to her multiple Selves of Sun-vast Truth. Ordinary man 'rejects Divine Grace' (Savitri-431) and wastes time and space in earthly enjoyments. The Divine Grace will act when either of the four conditions below is satisfied. The Supreme Divine Grace will intensify only when the four conditions are simultaneously satisfied in Integral Concentration of (1) total and sincere surrender, (2) exclusive self-opening to the Divine Power, (3) constant and integral choice of descending Truth and (4) constant and integral rejection of the falsehood of mind, vital, body, surrounding world and Subconscient plane. Narad made Savitri aware of Supreme's Grace in the form of Satyavan which 'was too great to stay' (Savitri-431) and 'earth could not keep too long' this unique treasure loaned by God. King Dyumatsena, the symbol of Spiritual fall Dyumatsena, the self-exiled King of Shalwa , father of Satyavan , is the Divine’s Conscious instrument, Yantra , here fallen blind, limiting his capacity to three gunas and walks lamely on this dangerous world with slow evolutionary mental footsteps. Through this Spiritual fall he has lost the celestial inner kingdom of seven immortal Selves and through that loss its kingdom of outer glory and opulence. Due to this adverse fate, he now sojourns a wiser life in the solemn rustle of the wood and his yearning towards All meets two solitudes (1) that of outcast from the empire of the outer light symbolically represented as crutch upon which his faltering-limb supports and he helplessly stumbles in the rushing speed of hasty Time and (2) lost to the comradeship of five galloping hooves of sense that of sound, touch, sight, taste and smell symbolically represented as his sightless blind identity. This double doom of his father compelled Satyavan to live in the high peopled loneliness of the Spirit which called the Divine Mother to enter his earthly life in human form and finally helped his long pure childhood’s lonely dream to restore King Dyumatsena’s steady royal walk in high dynamic outer Kingdom and a deeper visionary eye of Divine Wisdom. Restoration of the outer Kingdom was also the outcome of his revival of the inner kingdom through sadhana in double seclusion. Savitri and Satyavan accepted double seclusion as the field of their ceaseless Tapasya and consecration and the forest of Shalwa stands as symbol of dark Subconscient and Inconscient Sheaths and the field of their Divine transformation. Queen, symbol of Moderate Spirituality: The Queen , the beautiful, passionate and the wise human mother of Savitri , the Divine’s unconscious instrument in Ignorance, child Soul, bala, represents mankind satisfied and preoccupied with earthly life of surface consciousness with having partial static Divine realisation through ‘sacrificial flame of aspiration,’ (Savitri-417) illumination of intellect, sattwic mind, limited light in Ignorance, and in her understanding of the mystery of creation and the Creator, the truth distorted and the Immortal’s meaning in the world was veiled. Thus, the limitation of her sattwic mind is here identified as soul slaying truth. As a human mother, she fostered, nourished and served her Divine daughter with self-interest and attachment. She understands perfectly the limitations of human love of ordinary life and static Divine Love of ascetics, which cannot illuminate material life and not aware of the dynamic aspect of Divine Love which can transform life and human love. She was unaware of the secret of abundant dynamic Divine’s Grace and Bliss that hunts behind all effort to accept danger and pain to resolve the fundamental problem of existence and hence to decline all greater adventure by rejecting the doomed Satyavan was identified by her as the best solution. She, like a common man, was oblivious of past births and was unable to recognise the greatness, nobility and action of world redemption of an Avatara and hence nourished no regard and gratitude towards him. She was also not aware that all unforeseen events are part of God’s secret plan and that He can overrule the Iron Law of Nature by conscious human effort and by dynamisation of His Super nature. So Narad asks the Queen not to interfere in matters that are beyond her understanding and power and to stand back from the stupendous scene and tremendous strife of her daughter’s heaven-sent task. The Queen was a representative Soul of moderate Spirituality or a beginner of integral Yoga and during the critical hour of her daughter’s choice of Satyavan, she experienced a spiritual fall as her Soul was not sufficiently trained to lean on the pure and tranquil Spirit for all necessary aid and help during the hour of extreme adversity. This suggests that to oppose Divine’s Will in carrying out her daughter’s ‘heaven-sent task’ (Savitri-461) of rescuing men is the cause of her Spiritual decline. Her only daughter and husband’s mighty Spiritual Presence did not help her to overcome this Spiritual fall of Consciousness and she lost the ‘empire of her hard-won quietude.’ (Savitri-437) Savitri and Satyavan, The symbol of Incarnating dual Godhead: In Savitri and Satyavan , Soul and Nature had realised equal Divine Presences and merged themselves in oneness of wide harmony and balance. Their Spirit and body were glad, fulfilled through their union, which drove them towards the discovery of ‘Love’s deathless moment,’ beings’ aim and richness extending over all Time. Their first meeting gives the most thrill by witnessing the dual Avatara in a secluded shrine of earth and in the secluded chamber of their heart, who carry all the memories of their past births and their unfulfilled world task. From time to time or from the beginning of the creation, the earth waits patiently for this destined meeting. Each meeting after the passing of many ages brings a new promise of Divine manifestation and the new hope becomes again visible in earth’s creatures. They had treasured the rich relation of their brief human birth through a subtle link of union or clasp of two eternities through many successive births and bodies of un-beginning past and felt the call of Spirit’s unending future joy; even they knew their Selves ‘older than the birth of Time.’ (Savitri-537) A vast intention of love’s unseen Presence has drawn these dual incarnating Powers closer in this life and their love asks to wait endlessly as if they have all eternity ahead for their self-fulfilment. Together they have disdained from the God’s everlasting Night of Inconscient world and turned away from His everlasting Day of Sachchidananda plane and returned to earth to wage a million war against the universal dark rebel forces attached to present unstable existence, to bear the earth Mother’s ancient adversary, to bear ‘world’s intolerable wrongs’ (Savitri-701) and to accomplish their double task of raising the world to God’s deathless Light, a permanent ascent of Divine Consciousness and bringing down Divine Shakti to earth and men, a permanent descent of Divine Consciousness. Death God, temporary Guardian of this mutable World: Death God, the dire universal impersonal dark Force, here personified as godhead of the Inconscient world, Yama, who as the intolerant dark instrument of the Divine, Yantra, having realisation of partial union with the Divine, and in his personality the escapist doctrine of mundane perfection, moderate Spirituality and later Vedantic Spirituality are reconciled. He guards and obeys the Divine’s fixed immutable law of Nature which is a part and derivation of Divine's dynamic Super nature and his hunger through world spreading death-net-trap can devour all, slay the infant Souls, those who are unable to open towards the Spirit’s changeable Supernature and endless truth. He was oblivious of his temporary instrumental action in Ignorance and considered himself as Omnipotent Supreme Power without the Spiritual experience of Divine Identity and Oneness. He was aware that the static Divine union of Saints and Avataras and the Ananda and Freedom gained through this union was not enough to dismantle death from outer existence. For him man’s identity was diminished as ‘the naked two-legged worm’ (Savitri-634) and he was not aware of the seven-fold personality of the Divine Lover, Divine’s mighty whole, total vision and swift evolutionary change in Knowledge through dynamic Divine union for His unfinished world existence and was aware only of that impersonal Divine where ‘there is no room for’ (Savitri-608) personal love and the incomplete task given to him during the passage of man’s tardy evolution in Ignorance within the boundary of three gunas . He was against the ancient Vedantic solution of life of reconciliation of Spirit with Matter as proposed by Savitri for whom Satyavan’s physical form is as important and real as his Soul and one need not die in order to find the Spirit. Death proposes Savitri to leave the dead husband Satyavan either through escapist moderate solution of life through procreation of children and multiple earthly enjoyments with ‘other men’ (Savitri-637) or later Vedantic/Nirvanist solution of life by escaping through Death’s door to supreme abode of Param dham and live a celestial life with Satyavan there and by forgetting the responsibility of emancipating the race here on earth. This Moderate and Ascetic solution of the problem of life proposed by Death was not acceptable to Savitri. Savitri’s Soul’s clarity and mind’s clarity made Death powerless. Death , like other cosmic Gods, has the immeasurable heart of silence, knowledge of past, present and future, trikaladristi and limited power of offering boons to the wounded mortals and in his understanding of existence, the Soul saving truth is thoroughly distorted and his Soul slaying words have denied contact with the dynamic Spirit and Divine Shakti. Savitri’s Mind and Soul’s clarity delivered Death partly from limitation of gospel of human love and twilight thought in which falsehood is ‘mingled with sad strains of truth’ (Savitri-612) and he became powerless before her greater God status of Psychic Being, universal Soul saving Power, Supramentalised Psychic Being and a superior incarnating Divine Mother Force. Those who can open themselves towards Savitri’s universal Soul saving Impersonal energy can confront Time and Fate. The future vision of Savitri promises that when she will enter the Spiritual experience of everlasting Day, this dreadful majesty of Death’s face and his pessimistic harsh philosophy will not be slain in his own inconscient home but will be changed into the beauty of suns and a sum of all sweetness will gather into his limbs. His grand fort of darkness, huge Inconscient’s grasp and sad destroying might will be abolished forever, his vague infinity filling the universe with dangerous breath will be transformed and he will emerge as a wonderful God. Now the Spiritual significance and utility of Death is identified as a passage in the Soul’s unending journey of all life in order to ‘force the soul of man to struggle for Light’ (Savitri-666) and a ‘whip to his yearning for eternal bliss.’ (Savitri-666) The Divine instrumentation of untransformed Death and its nobility is still hidden from humanity as he abruptly ends the parable of the charm of life through the ‘last gift of death.’ (Savitri-204) This greatness will be revealed to man when he will be aware of the Divine’s comprehensive plan extending over all life, confirming that death is a Spirit’s opportunity to begin a greater life. The Gita identifies Death as Vibhuti, the lord of the Law and insists ‘to see that Nature devouring her children, Time eating up the lives of creatures, Death universal and ineluctable and the violence of the Rudra forces in man and Nature are also the supreme Godhead in one of his cosmic figures.’ (CWSA-19/Essays on the Gita/p-382) Death God’s existence on earth is provisional or as identified in Savitri ‘a failing star.’ (Savitri-640) As long as Ignorance is there, Death is a Spiritual necessity. His business on earth will fail with more and more working of universalised Divine Love; his safe and secured throne in the Inconscient sheath will be questioned when more and more Sadhak of integral Yoga will hold Paramatma Satyavan in the heart centre and enter that dark Inconscient world with Supramental sword to confront that dark universal world force. Here, Sri Aurobindo projected Death as a ‘dark-browed sophist’ (Saviti-621) with experience of partial transformation of nature and Spiritual fall through return to his Inconscient home and left the issue of his complete transformation till the arrival of the last Avatar. Since Death is not a Divine’s instrument of Soul saving Truth, he proposes a Sadhak (or Savitri within) to live in the world with triple limitation/deficiency of human love. Firstly, human love cannot leave life pure and untouched and hence one is deprived of vast descent of Truth-Light. Secondly, Death God forces a Sadhaka to experience the sorrow of widowhood by forgetting Paramatma Satyavan in the heart centre or 'leave this fated head' (Savitri-431) or 'Leave then thy dead, O Savitri , and live.' (Savitri-656). Lastly, human love is identified as a weak bond and it cannot 'break earth’s seal of ignorance and death.' (Savitri-315) The triple efficiency of Divine Love is that, firstly, Death is intolerant towards Divine Love, which leaves life pure and untouched, calling down vast Divine Grace. Secondly, Divine Love is a strong bond between Jivatma and Paraprakriti, and Savitri within guards that seal against Death's 'rending hands.' (Savitri-633). And lastly, with the strong, ceaseless fourfold Divine union, Soul force accumulates, which can confront death and destiny. Savitri book reminds a Sadhaka to be aware of the triple Divine Love. They are identified as individual Psychic Love, universal Divine Love and Transcendent Divine Love. They are: “Assailed, surprised in the fortress of her self, Conquered by her own unexpected king (the Divine),” Savitri-87 (Psychic Love.) "A captive Life wedded her conqueror (Supreme Lord)." Savitri-125 (Psychic Love) "The calm delight that weds one soul to all," Savitri-6 (Activation of Universal Divine Love.) "The wedding of the eternal Lord and Spouse Took place again on earth in human forms:" Savitri-411 (Transcendent Supramental Love in the heart centre.) Satyavan's birth Mother, symbol of developing Soul: Satyavan’s birth mother is identified in this epic as the smallest character, the symbolic representation of child Soul and through her Sri Aurobindo gives the strongest message of true consecrated service to all earth-bound aspiring child Souls and their right relation with the Mother Soul; here symbolically represented as Savitri . Mother Soul serves earth from below as a slave and from above and beyond like strong sunlight and she trespasses the bound life of child Souls as strong Goddess and liberates them from their barren days. Like all other parents, Satyavan’s birth mother was not aware of the doom nearing her only child and aspired for him ‘All joy of earth, all heaven’s beatitude.’ (Savitri-467) A similar observation is marked in King Aswapati who aspired to pass the mortal life of his only child Savitri unwounded and further aspired for this young spirit untouched with tears, and be possessed by all new and ‘beautiful things.’ (Savitri-700) Savitri Handbook I (under preparation) The Handbook II of Savitri (under preparation) The Central Truth of Savitri “I am not doing it (Savitri translation) to show it to people or to have anyone read it, but to remain in Savitri's atmosphere, for I love that atmosphere. It will give me an hour of concentration, and I'll see if by chance. I have no gift for poetry, but I'll see if it comes! (It surely won't come from a mentality developed in this present existence there's no poetic gift!) So it's interesting, I'll see if anything comes. I am going to give it a try. I know that light. I am immediately plunged into it each time I read Savitri. It is a very, very beautiful light… So now I don't mind finishing The Synthesis (of Yoga). I was a little bothered because I have no other books by Sri Aurobindo to translate that can help me in my sadhana: there was only The Synthesis. As I said, it always came right on time, just when it was needed for a particular experience… All his other books that could help me are already translated. And with Savitri, the idea isn't to make a translation, but to SEE. To try something. To give me the daily experience of that contact. I had some magnificent experiences when I read it the first time (two years ago, I believe). Wonderful, wonderful experiences! And since then, each time I read those lines, the same thing happens – not the same experience, but I come in contact with the same realm.” The Mother The Mother’s Agenda-18.09.1962 “The importance of Savitri is immense. Its subject is universal. Its revelation is prophetic. The time spent in its atmosphere is not wasted. Take all the time necessary to see this exhibition. It will be a happy compensation for the feverish haste men put now in all they do.” The Mother TMCW-13/Words of the Mother-I/p-26

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

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