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Earth's Spiritual History “I regard the spiritual history of mankind and especially of India as a constant development of a divine purpose, not a book that is closed, the lines of which have to be constantly repeated. Even the Upanishads and the Gita were not final though everything may be there in seed. In this development the recent spiritual history of India is a very important stage and the names I mentioned [Ramakrishna and Vivekananda] had a special prominence in my thought at the time — they seemed to me to indicate the lines from which the future spiritual development had most directly to proceed, not staying but passing on. I do not know that I would put my meaning exactly in the language you suggest. I may say that it is far from my purpose to propagate any religion new or old for humanity in the future. A way to be opened that is still blocked, not a religion to be founded, is my conception of the matter.” Sri Aurobindo CWSA-28/Letters on Yoga-I/p-411 A Thorough Knowledge of Earth's Spiritual History “We do not belong to the past dawns, but to the noons of the future. A mass of new material is flowing into us; we have not only to assimilate the influences of the great theistic religions of India and of the world and a recovered sense of the meaning of Buddhism, but to take full account of the potent though limited revelations of modern knowledge and seeking; and, beyond that, the remote and dateless past which seemed to be dead is returning upon us with an effulgence of many luminous secrets long lost to the consciousness of mankind but now breaking out again from behind the veil. All this points to a new, a very rich, a very vast synthesis; a fresh and widely embracing harmonisation of our gains is both an intellectual and a spiritual necessity of the future. But just as the past syntheses have taken those which preceded them for their starting-point, so also must that of the future, to be on firm ground, proceed from what the great bodies of realised spiritual thought and experience in the past have given.”²² Sri Aurobindo Integral Yoga proposes a Sadhaka¹ to have a full account of Spiritual history of earth which is ‘a constant development of a divine purpose, not a book that is closed, the lines of which have to be constantly repeated.’²³ This account also includes knowledge on the limited vision of modern Science,²² long practice of self-disciplines of traditional Shastra of the Veda, the Upanishad and the Gita²⁰ subordinated by the long practice of the methods of Raja Yoga, Hatha Yoga and Tantra. This study of full account also includes Spiritual rise and Spiritual fall of human consciousness, conquest of difficulties,35 and study of the limitations and immense possibilities of traditional and integral Sadhakas. Those who are fit for the Supramental world for them the knowledge of the Spiritual history of the earth will knock at their door. King Aswapati was able to receive such knowledge and by this experience his position in the existence became greater than God. (Refer this line of Savitri, “All that the Gods have learned are there self-known.” Savitri-74) A complete knowledge on traditional schools of Yoga preconditions total knowledge from within and without on the Spiritual history of Earth. The full knowledge of history of earth can be traced from within by ascending to a higher state of Consciousness40 and it can be traced from without by detailed study and practice of ancient Shastras. An in-depth knowledge on Sri Aurobindo’s Teachings is developed by rigorous practice of traditional schools of Yoga and restatement of Spiritual history of earth. So, a thorough knowledge on Sri Aurobindo preconditions thorough knowledge on traditional schools of Yoga. The Mother’s Teachings is identified as restatement of Sri Aurobindo’s Teachings. So a thorough knowledge on The Mother’s Teachings preconditions thorough knowledge on Sri Aurobindo’s Teachings. The Mother’s Work rests on the thorough knowledge on Her Teachings or detailed knowledge²¹ on the movement of Her comprehensive Consciousness. The Mother observed, “But the difficulty is to find the “some one” who knows Sri Aurobindo thoroughly…(and subsequently) who is capable of receiving His inspirations directly…capable of understanding Sri Aurobindo’s inspiration and transmitting it…and has at the same time very strong character… (and if possible) to have His genius… For years I have been looking for that man, without finding him.”¹⁹ Evolution is a global process. Each species reproduces itself endlessly to rediscover in itself the missing link24 and men are the first sons of nature, who aspire to reach the highest through the organised faculty of purified mind³² 32 and intellect. The individual’s sense of responsibility to the requirement of his evolutionary need can be visualised by dissecting his present faculties and their collaboration in the destined journey from the suffocation of ignorance, falsehood, suffering and death to the ascending stairs of Knowledge, Truth, Ananda and Immortality. If man’s sole objective is to generate more and more wealth, procreation of a family and maintenance of it through out the life and enjoy life with the existing faculty of instincts then we have to be rest satisfied with the arrested development of the species. Or else we have to evolve another formula of self development, which our ancient Seers and subsequent Spiritual disciplines have proposed, that can truly liberate us to its extreme end of integral satisfaction. Fulfillment of life does not ask to possess more and more of what we have and of what we enjoy but to rediscover in ourselves the all-inclusive totality and possession of all that is eternal, infinite and true. ¹²³⁴⁵⁶⁷⁸⁹¹⁰ The Importance of Shastras, Gurus, Avataras and the Divine Mother: - “One must first find one’s soul, this is absolutely indispensable, and identify oneself with it. Later one can come to the transformation. Sri Aurobindo has written somewhere: “Our Yoga begins where the others end.” Usually yoga leads precisely to this identification, this union with the Divine — that is why it is called “yoga”. And when people reach this, well, they are at the end of their path and are satisfied. But Sri Aurobindo has written: we begin when they finish; you have found the Divine but instead of sitting down in contemplation and waiting for the Divine to take you out of your body which has become useless, on the contrary, with this consciousness you turn to the body and to life and begin the work of transformation — which is very hard labour. It’s here that he compares it with cutting one’s way through a virgin forest; because as nobody has done it before, one must make one’s path where there was none. But to try to do this without having the indispensable directive of the union with the Divine within, within one’s soul, is childishness.”³³ The Mother Shastra: Scriptures are generally secret knowledge descended from above. They are vast records of Spiritual experiences that our ancient Rishis and later Seers have witnessed. Our ancient Scriptures are great in their wisdom. Great pasts always help mankind to arrive at a greater future and dawn succeeds dawn. Mankind shall arrive at its greatest wisdom when it will be able to recover from its lost totality fulfilling all the past promises. Our ancient Seers had foreseen the ultimate future of mankind in the culmination and possession of God, Light, Freedom, Bliss and Immortality. The importance of reference to the Scriptures were felt because the secret formula of Soul’s ascent were recorded there and these Seers were masters in discovering new heights in Soul’s ascent and arrived at corresponding new siddhis . Each proposed a new path and they are quite essential while tracing one’s own path and each siddhi is a step required in the integral development. So the perfection is to be sought through ascent of thousands of manifold paths leading to the one Divine and the corresponding return of the same Divinity in to multiplicities of the material life. The popular tendency of human mind to attain the Divine through the path of the shortest of the shortcuts is henceforward not considered from our subject of scrutiny. Guru: “The Teacher of the integral Yoga will follow as far as he may the method of the Teacher within us. He will lead the disciple through the nature of the disciple. Teaching, example, influence,—these are the three instruments of the Guru. But the wise Teacher will not seek to impose himself or his opinions on the passive acceptance of the receptive mind; he will throw in only what is productive and sure as a seed which will grow under the divine fostering within. He will seek to awaken much more than to instruct; he will aim at the growth of the faculties and the experiences by a natural process and free expansion. He will give a method as an aid, as a utilisable device, not as an imperative formula or a fixed routine. And he will be on his guard against any turning of the means into a limitation, against the mechanising of process. His whole business is to awaken the divine light and set working the divine force of which he himself is only a means and an aid, a body or a channel. ” 66-67 Guru is an intermediary destined to lead aspirant Souls towards the Supreme and his physical presence is a rare opportunity in the life of disciples. ‘The divine soul reproduces itself in similar liberated souls as the animal reproduces itself in similar bodies. Therefore, whenever even a single soul is liberated, there is a tendency to an extension and even to an outburst of the same divine self-consciousness in other individual souls of our terrestrial humanity…’2 In this integral Yoga, The Mother and Sri Aurobindo are identified as physical embodiment of the Divine, symbol of comprehensive movement of Consciousness, the Primary Source of our Spiritual and Material Life, dual Avatar and a special manifestation of Supreme Guru, Parameswar. Integral Teacher is a symbol of movement of Psychic and Spiritual Consciousness leading it to still higher planes of Consciousness, one Soul centre of the multiple or universal Divine, the secondary Source, Spiritual fosterer of twice-born Souls and his task is to strengthen the contact of twice-born Souls with the primary Source, who is at once Transcendent, Universal and Individual Psychic Being. Avatara: Avataras descend on earth equipped with the delegated power from the Supreme, when humanity suffers a crisis in Consciousness and lead humanity to the next step of the ladder in the evolutionary ascent. Avatara’s main work is to reveal in man His Divine nature, madbhava and show Divine work, which becomes a means of rebirth of divinities in man. His other mission is restoration of good, dharma by destruction of the evil as did Sri Rama and Sri Krishna or He may represent Himself as divine messenger preaching the gospel of love and peace as did Buddha, Christ and Sri Chaitanya. Avatara’s birth brings an opportunity in each individual formation of human species to repeat His Spiritual experiences and elevate to His Spiritual status. ‘Islam was a return towards sensation, beauty, and harmony in the form, and legitimization of sensations and joy in beauty.’3 ‘Mahomed, as we know, only developed the existing social, religious and administrative customs of the Arab people in to a new system dictated to him often in trance, in which he passed from his conscient into superconscient self, by the Divinity to his secret intuitive mind.’3 Christ came to show the earth that how sorrow and suffering4 can be means of redemption. The purpose behind Sri Rama’s Avatarahood was to establish on earth Rama rajya, the kingdom of sattwic man by destruction of asuric forces, Ravana; whereas His predecessors, the Dwarf, Bamana and Parsuram were Avataras representing tamasic and rajasic aspect of man respectively in the manifestation. The successive Avataras after Sri Rama were from trigunatita planes of consciousness representing different hierarchies; Buddha was from illumined mind, Sri Chaitanya41 was from spiritual-psychic plane, Sri Ramakrishna was from intuitive mind and Sri Krishna was from Overmind plane of consciousness. They came to lead the human souls to Divine height, trigunatita chetana and established the passage to the kingdom of God in heaven and a dynasty of self-ruling kings on earth, Dharma-rajya. Buddhistic Nirvana is the disintegration of samskara and Vedantic Nirvana is the abolition of samskara and one can do all action while remaining in this state of absolute peace and freedom. Samskara is here the accumulated past Karma of this life as well as that of past lives stored in our chitta or in the Subconscient Sheath and this samskara clouds the Soul which we mistake for our Self. Buddha’s Nirvana is the supreme liberation but that liberation is negative, as that Divine state does not return upon earth positively to complete the evolution. He was horrified by the suffering, impermanence, decay of all things and concluded that the disappearance of creation is the true remedy. Sri Krishna represents complete divine manhood leading the race towards Divine Love and Divine Ananda culminating in Jivanmukta State. To grow in Krishna Consciousness is to feel His presence, enter Spiritual relation with Him by union in Soul and know Him as a Friend, Lover, Father, Mother, Play-mate, Guide and Teacher. ‘And in the Gita he speaks of this human world as a transient and sorrowful affair and, in spite of his gospel of divine action, seems almost to admit that to leave it is after all the best solution.’5 The Gita remained silent about the total solution of all problems of existence. Kalki (His coming is symbolic and His action has already begun), the last Avatara will complete the work that Sri Krishna began and correct what Buddha and Sri Krishna left, by bringing the Divine upon earth and destroying the opposing asuric forces. The Kingdom of God on earth, Deva-rajya is the last promise of future Avataras and Vibhutis in order to complete the work of evolution. After Buddha those who dominated Indian spirituality were Shankara, Sri Chaitanya and Sri Ramakrishna. Shankara’s main realisation was Brahma satyam Jagat mithya, the Divine alone is truth and all the rest are illusion, maya. He, like Buddha further confirmed that work has to be renounced in order to attain the Brahman and all the ascetic movements after Buddha and its theory of inaction have left India weaker, added to it the lure of Sannyasa isolated the best souls of the then time from the main streams of life and society; whereas Shankara’s predecessor Sri Krishna confirmed that all work, sarva karmani is an indispensable means for continuation of earth life and attaining Brahma Nirvana. India failed to pursue the spirit of The Gita and its method of integral development through Jnana, Bhakti, gospel of Divine action, surrender and equality in the subsequent period of human history resulting in a tamasic decline of a race. ‘The main work of Sri Chaitanya was to establish the type of a Spiritual and Psychic bhakti and love in the emotional vital part of man, preparing the vital in us in that way to turn towards the Divine—at any rate, to fix that possibility in the earth-nature.’6 His mission was to show the secret principle of Bhakta becoming Bhagawan by possession of the Godhead into a human vessel. ‘Ramakrishna’s Yoga was also turned only to an inner realisation of the inner Divine, --nothing less, but also nothing more.’7 Sri Ramakrishna, like Shankara succeeded in generating thousands of perfect Sannyasis, because sannayasa has been widely preached and numerously practiced. Earth shall move forward in order to create thousands of perfect Janaka, who symbolize a dynasty of self-ruling universalised Kings and Karma Yogis. These strong and liberated Souls will not wear the garb and outer token of world shunning Sannyasis who are preoccupied with individual liberation in heaven; for these Janakas wear the garb of the world and they will liberate earth through movement of universal Consciousness. If humanity fails to reach a favorable atmosphere for substantial change in the present discord and disharmony then ‘Kalki’s sword alone can purify the earth of the burden of an obstinately asuric humanity. Or the Mother revealed in the Kali’s laughter and death dance shall capture an unquiet earth and mankind will be deprived of Krishna’s Ananda. The choice depends on the species itself; for as it sows, so shall it reap the fruit of its Karma.’8 Kalki’s destruction can be avoided if earth consents to become pure, liberating itself from the clutch of Adam and Eve, who symbolize bondage through physical passion. A pure earth can become a play field of Krishna and Kali where God is revealed as “happiest boy and strongest girl of the crowd”9 bringing down the Supreme’s Love and the Kingdom of God on earth. The earliest school of Indian seers, the Vedic Rishis sought after physical immortality. They proposed double movement of ascent of the Soul in to the Divine height and descent of Divine Shakti into the triple world of mind, life and body in order to reestablish in these domains the lost Divinity. They failed to achieve their goal as the quest was exclusive, which may be analyzed in the following manner; (1) humanity in its collectivity was not ready for such transformation as human evolution in that period was in a formative stage and was far from being matured; (2) their quest for Immortality was individualistic in nature oblivious of a certain amount of collective universal evolution, (3) immortality has to be sought in the transcendence after the universalisation of individual Consciousness, as Sri Aurobindo proposes.37 But the Vedic seers escaped into Transcendent Consciousness from individual Consciousness by bypassing the process of Universalisation; (4) they made little attempt to accelerate the universal evolution and the common humanity of the then time were left in deep darkness, tamas and ignorance. In the subsequent Spiritual quests, in the post Vedic era, the ascent of Soul into Divine height found its predominance and the importance was confined in the merger of Soul in the Divine state by exclusive samadhi in this life and return of the Soul into Divine state in the after life; and the corresponding descent of these Divinities in to the material life was left into oblivion. Hence material life was left neglected and the gap between Matter and the Spirit grew resulting in an irreconcilable gulf and bankruptcy of material opulence. The Divine Mother: In Indian spiritual history the Ishwari aspect of the Divine found its predominance in Tantra. The Divine Mother’s role in our total development has been identified by the saying, ‘How shall he attain to Krishna who has never worshipped Kali?’29 Intimacy with the Divine Mother is felt indispensable in the life of Her children as Her supreme touch protects and nourishes the pure and virgin stuff of our mind, life and body. She is concerned with the total care of Her children and She pursues in each successive life the leading of the children towards their supreme Goal. The supreme task of the Divine Mother is to liberate our nature from the bondage of fixed destiny, narrow creeds, established habits and indispensable Laws, leading us to a higher Spiritual destiny, absolute freedom from habits, transformation of Nature and a Deathless state. She is the author of earth’s high change and Her single perfection can save the earth from intimidating doom. Her ultimate mission is ‘to stay the wheels of doom’10 so that the ‘doom may be left to sleep…for all time.’11 Earth’s Spiritual history saw Her long and endless struggle and suffering, and earth shall wait to see with intense gratitude Her final victory. Superseding the Spiritual Predecessors: - Sri Aurobindo was asked by one of His disciples whether He and the Mother were Avataras on earth. Sri Aurobindo’s reply was clear that they came to earth not as Avataras.12 But a study of Them reveals that the above reply was His greatness and humbleness, and They had far exceeded the limits of the Avataras. After landing on Indian soil Sri Aurobindo’s first major Spiritual realisation was Immutable Brahman, which gave a strong feeling that the Divine alone is truth and all the rest were illusion, Brahma Satyam Jagat Mithya. He superseded Shankara with the arrival of His second major realisation at Alipore Jail of Basudev Sarvamiti, which gave a strong sense that this world as well as the Brahman were real and true and this world is as real as the Brahman. Before His arrival at Pondicherry He had already realised the Inner Divine, which was the main objective of Sri Ramakrishna’s Yoga, He went beyond Buddha in the sense that His realisation of Supreme had the capacity of return positively to complete the evolution. He had already realised the Psychic Bhakti as Sri Chaitanya had and was in the process of bringing the Divine Love to the triple world of mind, life and body. At Pondicherry, He concentrated for first sixteen years from 1910 to1926 on difficult side of sadhana related with thirty-five (28+7) siddhis and number of sub-siddhis covering a whole range of Yoga of self-perfection. On 24th November, 1926 He attained along with The Mother, the Overmental siddhi, the highest Divine realisation descended to earth through Sri Krishna. Sri Krishna supports evolution through multiple concentration or Overmind leading it towards Ananda. None of the past attempts to unite with the Divine satisfied Sri Aurobindo; He wanted something more, something more comprehensive. After 1926, He concentrated for about twenty-four years for bringing down the Supramental, the integral concentration that will complete earth’s evolution. Before this, the evolutionary urges that were active for accelerating the earth’s evolution were (1) exclusive concentration, (2) essential concentration and (3) multiple concentration. The above three concentrations, will not be able to resolve the fundamental problems of existence. Supramental concentration puts a big pressure on humanity (and also on the animal and plant kingdoms) in order to transcend its limitations. But the present humanity will fail to understand its all-inclusive benefits due to their confinement within the boundaries of exclusive concentration. This last century had witnessed the burst of genius under the pressure of this new concentration, which had never been witnessed throughout the millennium. But man’s possibility of uniting with Him is open through ever exceeding hierarchies of Consciousness and he has to decide whether he has to remain satisfied with the existing faculties or to explore deeper realms of Consciousness. Sri Aurobindo confirmed that a comprehensive solution of all problems of existence is possible including the quest of the Vedic Rishis connected with the physical Immortality. Immortality is the final victory and perfection of Spirit over material substance. Here, this quest for immortality is not exclusive in nature but a part of the all-inclusive totality and it can continue in three steps:- (1) accessibility, (2) purification and (3) perfection of all the intermediate planes (Inconscient sheath, Subconscient Sheath, subtle physical, subtle vital, subtle mental, Psychic, Spiritual, Universal sheaths) of Consciousness. Accessibility to these intermediate planes of Consciousness is possible by partial opening of Psychic and Spiritual being which is again possible by quieting the surface mind, surface vital and surface physical instincts and habits. The purification and perfection of these planes of Consciousness are possible by Psychic influence and descent of divinities from the Spiritual plane of consciousness. A similar account of The Mother’s Spiritual experiences can be recorded. Truckloads of Spiritual experiences dumped over Her head right from the age of four.38 Later on She said that She was forced to refer to Scriptures only to confirm and understand Her own Spiritual experiences. When Sri Aurobindo left His body in 1950, a major part of His accumulated Spiritual force was transferred to The Mother’s body and the rest dispersed into the subtle physical. The Mother continued the work that Sri Aurobindo left for the next twenty-three years. On 29th February, 1956 another major siddhi in Sri Aurobindo’s Yoga came when the much awaited Supramental force entered the Earth’s domain through the Mother’s intervention in the subtle physical and was swallowed by the hunger of the Inconscient world. Previously the action of this force on earth was routed through the universalized Consciousness of The Mother and Sri Aurobindo. From this day onwards The Mother entered into a new domain of Cellular transformation, most rare in earth’s Spiritual history (some southern saints like Thirumoolar and Ramalingam were aware of Cellular transformation but their quest was individualistic or not universalized.). The Cellular transformation is the behavior of cells of the body, which began to undulate in between the old existing mechanical concentration and a new immortal principle. The cells underwent a training of constitutional change in order to hold the higher intensities of Supramental force. The transition between attachment to the old way of cells living and adopting a new principle is the most difficult issue before mankind that humanity has to face and pursue. Since the Mother left at this transition, the further future exploration shall wait the arrival (or they may be present in earth’s atmosphere) of strong and capable souls. The Mother confirmed that Her Yoga of cellular transformation can be followed by every body13 unconsciously and it is not the privilege of a few exceptional Souls, since the constitution of the cells of Her body is as inert and unconscious as that of others and from a positive point of view this new Consciousness is highly contagious in its nature and one can hardly escape from its Influence. The next difficult task of Mother Nature related to the multiplication of individual Cellular transformation may be understood in The Mother’s language, “If, for any reason this body (The Mother’s body) becomes unusable, the universal Mother will again start manifesting in hundreds of individualities according to their capacity and receptivity, each one being a partial manifestation of the Universal Consciousness.”39 The Mother probably kept a tremendous hope that Her future generation will be born with substantial Spiritual force or born with new material substance or the new Consciousness will contagiously spread over the material substance and it will be easy for them to trace the path and they will cover and spread over the whole of humanity. Sri Aurobindo was absolutely against any propaganda and advertisement34 of His Teachings as that is foreign to the free and dominant functioning of the new Consciousness and He knew that those strong Souls who will pursue His Yoga are destined for it and they are very few in numbers in the present scenario and in future they will spread to cover the whole of humanity. He was also against the generation of thousands of disciples and devotees; for He knew that they will not be sincere enough to universalise and transcendentalise their Consciousness, rather they will ruin and corrupt His action by institutionalization and secterianization.14 His Teachings may dilute through religious movements of ambitious Devotees. Transforming the human destiny is the subject of concentration and perfection of a single individual or few individuals or it is the responsibility of Supramental Concentration and this inner movement is inconsistent with the organised mass movement. Mass association is effective only in religious, political and national movements because their objective is narrow and localised. Or those Spiritual masters or Religious Teachers who are destined for Divine work through essential and multiple concentration may rely on organized mass movement, lokasangraha. The Mother was equally not interested in any action that will lead to name and fame36 and from study we have understood that the name and fame arrest the consciousness in rajasic plane. Sri Aurobindo was not interested to become a Guru and in His earlier Spiritual life He was even against the doctrine of guruhood, guruvad. Later He became Guru as it was destined for Him and He accepted people to live with Him out of His compassion and compulsion of the surrounding world. Gradually the number grew and His house expanded into an Ashram. Those who are ready to become the Mother’s children, which means those who are simple, truthful, not ambitious, there is substantial thirst to grow, ready to serve and surrender before the Divine by giving up ego, they are accepted as His disciples. The Mother defined that those who offer their soul, life, work and wealth entirely to the Divine are Her true children. For Sri Aurobindo, the Guru is an aid and helper and not an indispensable means for self-development and in His Yoga the Supreme Divine above or the inner Divine Guru in the heart will replace a necessity and subordination of physical Guru. In integral Yoga, if a Sadhaka is having Spiritual fosterer within as Psychic being and without as living Spiritual Teacher then that is identified as exceptional privilege.30 Those who ‘follow the true Guide within and without will discover the spiritual law and reach the goal of the Yoga’30 Sri Aurobindo confirms in The Synthesis of Yoga that a 'strong (man) but crude vital natures'42 cannot become the true leader of men. Those who are in a preliminary stage not open to the Divine directly, as Sri Aurobindo proposes, can turn towards The Mother’s subtle-physical help through consecrated action and consecrated Bhakti;43 for She had the exceptional privilege of direct contact with the Divine from Her birth. Through Avatar’s Influence one can transcend his lower Nature and transform his ordinary action to Divine action. In His Ashram the relationship between Bhakta and Bhagawan, Guru and Shishya, Lover and Beloved has transformed into an ecstatic play field of The Mother and Child. The main contribution of Sri Aurobindo to earth’s Spiritual history is the bringing down the Divine to the material plane or bringing down the Supramental concentration, the comprehensive and strong Spiritual force through which humanity will be able to eliminate four fundamental problems of existence:- Ignorance, Suffering, Falsehood and Death. The pressure of this Integral concentration is all-pervasive and it leaves no corner of earth untouched from the domain of its self-growth. His mission was ‘not to create mathas, ascetics and Sannyasis; but to call back the souls of the strong to the Lila of Krishna and Kali.’18 This means the Psychic heart Centre will be a playfield of Paramatma Satyavan and Para-prakriti Savitri and thus the God’s Supramental door opens. The Mother’s main contribution was to lead a step ahead in commencing a Cellular transformation in an individual vessel. Bearing earth’s pain in a single body and bearing the weight of the Eternal and Infinite in a death bound finite body is the secret behind Her earthly life. Other Avataras never suffered a physical pain to such an extent because Their objectives were not in bringing down the Divine into a mortal vessel. She created a new history in the management of the Ashram and Auroville, where all the aspect of life were included for a Divine purpose, inspiring millions to restructure and strengthen their social infrastructure and transform them into Divine community. The task before the next evolutionary pioneers is to understand and catch the threads of the Cellular transformation and Subconscient transformation. The All-inclusive Totality:- “Among thousands of men one here and there strives after perfection, and of those who strive and attain to perfection one here and there knows Me integrally in all the principles of my existence, samagram-mam.” Gita-7.3 “A radical and total change of consciousness is not only the whole meaning but, in an increasing force and by progressive stages, the whole method of the integral Yoga.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-187 The Mother said, “for Sri Aurobindo, the goal was perfection. Perfection not in the sense of a summit but of an all-inclusive totality in which everything is represented, has a place. And I saw that this Perfection would come—must come-in stages. He announced something the realisation of which will stretch over thousands of years. So it must come in stages.”15 Clarifying more on it the Mother said, “We thirst for perfection, not this human perfection which is the perfection of the ego and bars the way to the Divine Perfection, but the ONE perfection which has the power to manifest upon Earth the eternal Truth.”16 Sri Aurobindo declared that it is difficult for Him (also for The Mother) to pursue the Yoga that He has evolved; for ‘The only real difficulty which took decades of spiritual effort to work out towards completeness was to apply spiritual knowledge utterly to the world…’17 More reasons behind the difficulties are:- Firstly, the extent of transformation required in the mind, vital, body, inconscient self, subliminal self and universal self is so colossal in nature, the extent of revolt and opposition from the dark domain towards any change is so great that one life span is now too small for completion of such exercise. Secondly, He saw that the progress in Yoga during the last twelve years of the forty years concentrated sadhana at Pondicherry, was not as intended by Him and He felt the work has to be accelerated in the subtle physical and that is possible by leaving the existing body. Thirdly, He saw that the surrounding world was not ready to bear the massive descent of the Supramental force and the revolt and opposition of the surrounding people was disturbing and as a remedy the exercise of accelerating the universal evolution in the individual body must continue. Fourthly, the Yogi-disciples trained by Him were far behind in Yogic perfection of His demand and were not ready to share the Spiritual burden of the Master or as described in Savitri, ‘A distance severed her from those most close.’26 Fifthly, He saw the constitution of the cells of His physical substance are not plastic enough to bear this higher intensities of Supramental force. He felt the constitution of cells of the Mother’s body were supple and plastic enough to continue this exercise and He decided to accelerate this work from subtle physical by leaving the body and helping The Mother from beyond. The Mother observed, “He (Sri Aurobindo) himself has a greater action, a greater power of action now than when he was in his body. Besides, that’s why he left-because it had to be done that way... It’s very tangible, you know. His action has become very tangible. Of course, it isn’t something mental at all. It is from another region. But it isn’t ethereal or-it’s tangible. I could almost say material."27 The Last twelve years in the life of both Sri Aurobindo and The Mother which passed in extreme suffering, remind us of Their bearing the Earth’s burden that has to be exhausted in an individual (or dual) body for the purpose of acceleration of universal evolution. They never came to achieve the goal but to help humanity to enter another domain of growth. They never searched individual immortality in the Himalayan gorge, as with that achievement humanity would not have been benefited; for in this transformation action even the most deprived one will also have to grow and participate to the extent of his capacity and he too is a part and beneficiary of total growth. They never came to confine Their action within the boundaries of Their Ashram and disciples, rather they accepted each member of the Ashram as a specimen for resolving the world problems. An innumerable account of Their Spiritual experiences are left lying before the next generation for further exploration. This will be useful for them those who are sincere, those who believe that the possession of constantly growing Divine is the object of life and before Its Presence all the separtive identity is meaningless. Yoga through Fourfold Concentration and Fourfold Cognition: - “By energism of consciousness (or Tapas or Concentration) Brahman is massed; from that Matter is born and from Matter Life and Mind and the worlds.” Mundaka Upanishad-I.1.8 “We are each of us a dynamo into which waves of that energy have been generated and stored, and are being perpetually conserved, used up and replenished. The same force which moves in the star and the planet, moves in us, and all our thought and action are merely its play and born of the complexity of its functionings. There are processes by which man can increase his capacity as an adhara. There are other processes by which he can clear of obstructions the channel of communication between himself and the universal energy and bring greater and greater stores of it pouring into his soul and brain and body. This continual improvement of the adhara and increase in quantity and complexity of action of the informing energy, is the whole aim of evolution.”31 Sri Aurobindo The Upanishad said that out of tremendous concentration of will heat is generated, which sets the whole being into fire. This concentration is Tapas, which is always present in the manifestation as the inherent power of consciousness and from the pressure of this Tapas Matter has evolved and from Matter, mind, life, and other intermediary worlds:- subliminal Self, inconscient Self and universal Self have evolved. In the progressive evolution this concentration works in four distinct manners in order to evolve four cognitive aspect, which is the subject of our study. The supreme integrality of the Absolute constitutes all these four states of concentration and cognition. Through development of these faculties we can know directly the past, present and future of earth which lies hidden in our Subconscient, Subliminal and Superconscient Sheaths. This knowledge of three times was earlier identified by Seers as trikaladristi. Through development of this triple time faculty, earth’s Spiritual history can be traced directly. Through development of Essential, Multiple and Integral concentration, earth’s Spiritual history can be traced from within and through development of exclusive concentration it can be traced from without. Both are needed for complete understanding and cognition. 1: Exclusive Concentration and Separative Knowledge by indirect contact:- “The student life was framed to lay the groundwork of what the man had to know, do and be. It gave a thorough training in the necessary arts, sciences, branches of knowledge, but it was still more insistent on the discipline of the ethical nature and in earlier days contained as an indispensable factor a grounding in the Vedic formula of spiritual knowledge. In these earlier days this training was given in suitable surroundings far away from the life of cities and the teacher was one who had himself passed through the round of this circle of living and, very usually, even, one who had arrived at some remarkable realisation of spiritual knowledge. But subsequently education became more intellectual and mundane; it was imparted in cities and universities and aimed less at an inner preparation of character and knowledge and more at instruction and the training of the intelligence.”25 Sri Aurobindo The scope of exclusive concentration is confined within the boundaries of ignorance. We understand ignorance as part knowledge or limited knowledge in which mind is separated from the source of knowledge, is oblivious of totality and is narrow and rigid and opposes all harmonious working of the Supreme force. Our forgetfulness of the totality of existence and concentration on an exclusive object is the cause of Ignorance. For clarity we have defined here briefly our totality of existence: - (1) Surface physical self or sthula sarira:- this constitute our surface mind, life, body and desire soul regarding which we remain aware and delude it as our whole of identity; (2) Subliminal self or Sukhma sarira:- we are ignorant of a vast domain of our inner mind, inner life, subtle body and inner Psychic being. This sukhma sarira holds the sthula sarira and it survives after dissolution of sthula sarira; all transformation action of higher possibility takes shape in this domain. Subliminal Self is the meeting ground of all other Selves and all our past, present and future coexist here; (3) Inconscient Sheath (ancient scriptures divide this self into fourteen hells):- we are ignorant of a vast dark and nether domain from which Matter has evolved and this is also the home of all unconsciousness, disharmony and discord like death, disease, accident and past samskara; Subconscient is a world of double twilight, which exists above the Inconscient sheath, (4) Universal Sheath:- we are ignorant of our universal Self through which we enter relation with the universe and become identified with it; (5) Superconscient Self or karana sarira:- we are ignorant of our causal body which holds both our sukhma sarira and our sthula sarira. This is the world of all higher Divine hierarchies from which all the Divine possibilities descend to the material domain. These divine hierarchies are:- higher mind, illumined mind, intuitive mind, overmind and the mind of light; (6) Supreme self or Paramatma:- we are ignorant of our Sachchidananda consciousness, which is the source of all other selves including the Supramental. Yoga through exclusive concentration means quieting the surface physical self and entry in to subliminal self, leading one to a state of self-realisation. This may be practiced by the methods proposed by different Yogic schools and instructions issued by the scriptures. All our scientific research and their inventions, literary creations, work that brings name and fame and success, work related with philanthropy come under the purview of exclusive concentration. With the evolution of mind man has been bestowed with this faculty of exclusive concentration for solution of all problems. We get the knowledge of ourselves and the surrounding world with the help of our sense organs, mind and intellect. This cognition is Separative Knowledge by Indirect Contact. All diagnostic instruments invented by science fall within this range of cognition. Since this concentration and cognition lie within the boundaries of ignorance, so it fails to give a true and real picture of the world and fails to face and solve the whole problem of existence. The attempt of medical science to eliminate disease and death from earth can not succeed unless they go beyond this gross world and the range of exclusive concentration. 2) Essential Concentration and Separative Knowledge by Direct Contact:- “As much use as there is in a well with water in flood on every side, so much is there in all the Vedas (Scriptures) for the Brahmin who has Knowledge.” The Gita-2.46 Essential concentration resumes action with the opening of the passage to Psychic Self. A vast domain of inner mind, inner life, subtle physical and inner Psychic being is made accessible. Then a conscious movement begins to undulate in between the Inconscient self and Superconscient self and the Divine Force, Knowledge and Light etc. from Superconscient self will invade the inconscient self, universal self, subliminal self and surface physical self for the purpose of purification and transformation of these domains. When our sense organs, mind and intellect receive their inspiration from the vast reservoir of Psychic self, then that cognition is Separative Knowledge by Direct Contact. All scientific discoveries and all success stories in the life of individuals find their source of knowledge from this domain, while at the same time they, by their limitation of ignorance live in the boundaries of exclusive concentration. When our centre of living is changed from surface physical self to the Subliminal and Psychic self, which is a world of truth, knowledge and new creation, which is also a world of meeting place of all other selves for the purpose of transformation, then the essential concentration finds its predominance in life. This concentration is a sole indwelling or an entire absorption in the essence of its own being and undulates in between the discord of inconscient self and the silence and harmony of Superconscient self. Essential concentration culminates in the universalization of individual consciousness. 3) Multiple Concentration and Knowledge by Direct contact:- “After many births of preparation, a Jnana Yogi with strong foundation of Karma and Bhakti Yoga, attains My Purushottama or Supramental state of Consciousness. He also realises the intermediate stair that all this existence is Divine, the Cosmic Consciousness, Vasudevah sarvamiti. Such great Soul or integral Yogi is very rare.” The Gita-7.19 Multiple concentration resumes action after the universalization of the individual consciousness. The subliminal self or the sukhma sarira that surrounds the gross body grows by loss of ego and descent of Superconscient divine forces. When this sukhma sarira grows to the proportion of earth, then a Yogi attains universalization. After this realisation of universal Self, one feels the universe within and there is free flow of universal energy into the individual vessel. Sri Aurobindo had this realisation of universal self at Alipore jail and He took around eighteen years, from 1908 to 1926 to exhaust all the siddhis in this domain and reached the final Overmental siddhi. A Guru can protect and guide all his disciples through the intervention of this concentration. Sri Aurobindo’s help was not confined to His disciples alone, His action was global; for instance during world war-II, He sent thousands of His emanations at a time, who materialized in the war field and extended His physical help to those who were in danger. He even applied His Overmental Spiritual force against the Nazis in order to change the course of world event. The Godhead of The Gita presided over the whole war of Kurukshetra through intervention of this concentration. Multiple world problems are resolved at a time by intervention of this concentration. Knowledge by direct contact is the whole range of knowledge covering the past, present and future, which is available in the subliminal Self. In the subliminal self there is a whole range of inner sight, inner hearing, inner taste, inner touch and smell which far exceed the limit of outer sense organs and the contact with truth of things is more intense, real and profound. But this knowledge has its source in the superconscient self and it suffers some error due to presence of some impurity in the surface part of subliminal self, that is close to gross physical. The foreknowledge of the war at Kurukshetra to the Divine Teacher is an example of this knowledge and He saw through His Divine eye all the happenings of the Kurukshetra before the war and the same capacity of vision was also offered to Arjuna and Sanjaya in the war field. After universalization of individual consciousness, acceleration of universal evolution in an individual body is possible by invasion of Superconscient divinities in to the universal self and the most difficult task in the Integral Yoga is to clean the world debris of impurities in the form of Subconscient ignorance, falsehood, suffering and death in an individual body. 4) Integral Concentration and Knowledge by Identity:- Integral concentration resumes action after the universalization and Overmentalization of the individual consciousness. Overmind is the world of great Gods and the divine Creators. It is also the world of Universal Divine Mother and Her four-fold Spiritual Mother Powers, who as creatrix Mother of the gross world, transforms the divided and many-sided play of the Truth. This power is not sufficient to overcome the Ignorance at its root, as it is itself under the law of Ignorance. Integral Concentration is the total Consciousness of Sachchidananda, the Supramental Concentration. This concentration is comprehensive, aware of the totality, total being and total becoming of the manifestation. When this Concentration intervenes it leaves no problem untouched and unsolved; it resolves all problem of existence. This Concentration establishes the Law of Immortality, Harmony, Knowledge, Ananda and Truth in the mortal vessel. This Concentration or Tapas has ability to penetrate into the innermost domain of the universal physical and universal inconscient Sheaths. Its movement is not from Inconscience to some imperfect light of Superconscient self, which is the essence behind essential concentration, but movement which begins from Truth to greater Truth, from illumination to boundless luminousness. Sri Aurobindo took eighteen years to transcend the boundaries of multiple concentration, though He was in touch with Supramental right from the beginning of Pondicherry life.28 When the Supramental began to descend, He observed that this force is not stabilizing in the mind center and transformation of mind was not possible. With the arrival of The Mother, She asked Sri Aurobindo to bring the Supramental down to the vital and physical centres because mind is penetrated in the vital and physical substance in the form of vital mind and physical mind, and without the transformation of vital mind and physical mind the stabilisation of Supramental in the mind is not possible. But during those eighteen years of sadhana from 1908 to 1926 covering a whole range of Yoga of Self-perfection, He felt the concreteness of this new Consciousness in earth’s atmosphere, whose intervention is felt essential and He knew that He was destined for this work. After 1926, He devoted a period of twenty-four years of exploring the different hierarchies of Supramental Kingdom and bringing down these divinities into mind, vital, body, subliminal self, universal self, Subconscient self and inconscient self. Transforming the universal Inconscient is a long difficult and painful task; for the roots of all problems are ingrained here. The major difficulty is that mind, life and body are finite substance and are having their respective limitations in bearing the weight of the Infinite, which is the nature of Supramental force, becomes a real practical problem. In order to bring down the higher intensities of Supramental force, the mind, vital and body must be prepared enough to hold them or else it will cause imbalance in the normal functioning of the system. The normal biological functioning of the body and the Supramental invasion cannot go together because of the disparity and the crushing of the finite substance by the infinite force; this interpenetration will continue until the material life will attain a new state of Divine equilibrium. The task of bringing down infinite God into a limited death bound vessel is a real, painful and radical adventure never witnessed by human history. Knowledge by identity is the comprehensive knowledge and is revealed during complete union with the Supreme Sachchidananda. This cognition is absolutely free from all error, all ignorance and is fully aware of the totality of existence. The past, present and future coexists in its vast domain of Integral Knowledge. All problems of existence can be resolved with the intervention of this Concentration and Cognition but mankind may have to wait and strive for a few hundred years in order to work out the world riddle. The Task of the next Evolutionary Pioneers: - “The lack of the earth’s receptivity and the behavior of Sri Aurobindo’s disciples are largely responsible for what happened to his body. But one thing is certain: the great misfortune that has just beset us in no way affects the truth of his teaching. All he said is perfectly true and remains so. Time and the course of events will make this abundantly clear.” The Mother Feb-1951/Mother’s Agenda-Vol-1/P: 27, The first task of the pioneers of evolution will be to assimilate the contribution of their predecessors and draw Spiritual help from them in their evolutionary ascent. The next task is that they must be pure and virgin enough to establish the Soul’s supremacy, followed by Divine’s supremacy over mind, life, body and the surrounding world and must be capable to transcendentalize, universalize and overmentalize their individual consciousness. These strong men are not the emotional children of the Divine Mother and they dare to prepare themselves to share the Spiritual burden of the Guru , which is of the nature of purification of universal Subconscient and Inconscient. They or the New consciousness will capture the whole gamut of human institutions like Politics, Economics, Science, Technology, Sociology, Religion, Literature, Schools, Colleges, Industries, Farmlands and Hospitals in order to generate a pressure and compel them in their extreme self-development. Sri Aurobindo’s Yoga on earth will succeed if few³⁴ young aspirants universalize their individual separative identity through a long movement of Consciousness between the Psychic and Spiritual planes. OM TAT SAT References: - ¹²³⁴⁵⁶⁷⁸⁹¹⁰ 1: “What is aimed at by us is a spiritual truth as the basis of life, the first words of which are (1) surrender and (2) union with the Divine and (3) transcendence of ego. So long as that basis is not established, a Sadhaka is only an ignorant and imperfect human being struggling with the evils of the lower Nature.” Sri Aurobindo/The Mother’s Agenda-4/p-422, “There are three main possibilities for the sadhak — (1) To wait on the Grace and rely on the Divine. (2) To do everything himself like the full Adwaitin and the Buddhist. (3) To take the middle path, go forward by aspiration and rejection etc. helped by the Force.” CWSA-29/Letters on Yoga-II/p-171, "The Sadhaka has not only to think and know but to see and feel concretely and intensely even in the moment of the working and in its initiation and whole process that his works are not his at all, but are coming through him from the Supreme Existence. He must be always aware of a Force, a Presence, a Will that acts through his individual nature." SABCL-20/217, CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-229, “Especially, in proportion as the partial lights of the mind become transformed into lights of gnosis, in whatever slighter or greater degree that may happen, we feel it as a transformation of our mentality into his and more and more he (Divine) becomes the thinker and seer in us. We cease to think and see for ourselves, but think only what he wills to think for us and see only what he sees for us. And then the teacher is fulfilled in the lover; he lays hands on all our mental being to embrace and possess, to enjoy and use it.” CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-603, 2. Life Divine-40, 3. The Mother’s Agenda/Vol8/260, SABCL/Vol-15/p-425 4: “A Church is an organised religious community and religion, if anything in the world, ought to be subjective; for its very reason for existence — where it is not merely an ethical creed with a supernatural authority — is to find and realise the soul. Yet religious history has been almost entirely, except in the time of the founders and their immediate successors, an insistence on things objective, rites, ceremonies, authority, church governments, dogmas, forms of belief. Witness the whole external religious history of Europe, that strange sacrilegious tragi-comedy of discords, sanguinary disputations, “religious” wars, persecutions, State churches and all else that is the very negation of the spiritual life. It is only recently that men have begun seriously to consider what Christianity, Catholicism, Islam really mean and are in their soul, that is to say, in their very reality and essence.” CWSA-25/Human Cycle/p-38, 5. SABCL/Vol-26/119, 6. SABCL/ Vol-22/420, 7. SABCL/Vol-26/119, 8. The Mother’s Agenda/Vol-13, 9. SABCL/Vol-17/137, 10. Savitri-19, 11. Savitri-420, 12. SABCL/Vol-24/p-448, “(Q) Since you and the Mother were on earth constantly from the beginning what was the need for Avataras coming down here one after another? (Ans.)We were not on earth as Avataras. 15 December 1935 (Q) You say that you both were not on earth as Avatars and yet you were carrying on the evolution. Since the Divine Himself was on the earth carrying on the evolution, what was the necessity for the coming down of the Avatars who are portions of Himself? (Ans.) The Avatar is necessary when a special work is to be done and in crises of the evolution. The Avatar is a special manifestation, while for the rest of the time it is the Divine working within the ordinary human limits as a Vibhuti. 18 December 1935” CWSA-32/The Mother with Letters on the Mother/p-91, 13. “No, no, no. If it has been done in one body, it can be done in all bodies… But since it's taking place in one body, it can take place in all bodies! I am not made of anything different from others. The difference is the consciousness, that's all. It's made of exactly the same thing, with the same elements, I eat the same things, and it was made in just the same way.” The Mother’s Agenda/Vol-8/p-377-378, “The feeling is rather one of vibrations gathered together and coagulated somewhere – and even at that, there's a very supple inner play, for it spreads out like this (Mother makes a gesture of diffusion or expansion all around her) through a sort of subtilization or etherization. And it's limitless – how could it have any limits! It goes like this (same radiating gesture) – these same vibrations are everywhere, in all bodies and all things. What people call this body is merely the result of a willed concentration organized in a specific way; that's how it spontaneously feels, all the time (not that it's observing itself, but if something forces it to observe itself, that's what it spontaneously feels). And the delimitation that exists in all beings, and which WAS in this body (was it this body?... Haven't the cells changed?... I don't know), which once existed in what people call this body, has completely disappeared. Before (thirty years or so ago), it used to feel like something separate moving among other separate things – that's all gone.” The Mother’s Agenda- August 14, 1962, 14. “Sri Aurobindo was very, very conscious of this general confusion, and so he didn’t much like … he wanted absolutely no propaganda, but he also didn’t much like attempts to “explain things” to people and make them “understand,” because he very well knew how useless it is. He very, very often said it to me: no propaganda whatsoever, of course, and above all, above all, no attempt to make people understand: the maximum effect one can obtain is the effect of the Consciousness at work in the world (universal gesture), because in everyone it produces the utmost the person can do – the utmost of what he can understand, he understands through the influence of the pressure of the Consciousness. As soon as words intervene, the whole mind makes a mess of it.”The Mother’s Agenda/Vol-10/p-60, 15. The Mother’s Agenda/Vol-4/p-101, 16. The Mother’s Agenda/Vol-2/p-394, 17. SABCL/Vol-26/86, 18: "There is another point. You sent a message about an “Aurobindo Math” which seemed to show you had caught the contagion which rages in Bengal. You must understand that my mission is not to create maths, ascetics and Sannyasis; but to call back the souls of the strong to the Lila of Krishna & Kali . That is my teaching, as you can see from the Review, and my name must never be connected with monastic forms or the monastic ideal. Every ascetic movement since the time of Buddha has left India weaker and for a very obvious reason. Renunciation of life is one thing, to make life itself, national, individual, world-life greater & more divine is another. You cannot enforce one ideal on the country without weakening the other. You cannot take away the best souls from life & yet leave life stronger & greater. Renunciation of ego, acceptance of God in life is the Yoga I teach, — no other renunciation." SABCL/Vol-17/157, CWSA-36/ Autobiographical Note/p-222, “When will the world change into the model of heaven? When all mankind becomes boys and girls together with God revealed as Krishna and Kali, the happiest boy and strongest girl of the crowd, playing together in the gardens of Paradise. The Semitic Eden was well enough, but Adam and Eve were too grown up and its God Himself too old and stern and solemn for the offer of the Serpent to be resisted.” Sri Aurobindo/TMCW-10/On Thoughts and Aphorisms/p-344, 19: “But the difficulty is to find the “some one” who knows Sri Aurobindo thoroughly…(and subsequently) who is capable of receiving His inspirations directly…capable of understanding Sri Aurobindo’s inspiration and transmitting it…and has at the same time very strong character… (and if possible) to have His genius… For years I have been looking for that man, without finding him.” The Mother/The Mother’s Agenda-8/175, The Mother’s Agenda-2/206, 20: “His Yoga may be governed for a long time by one Scripture or by several successively, — if it is in the line of the great Hindu tradition, by the Gita, for example, the Upanishads, the Veda. Or it may be a good part of his development to include in its material a richly varied experience of the truths of many Scriptures and make the future opulent with all that is best in the past.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga-p-55, “I may say that the way of the Gita is itself a part of the Yoga here and those who have followed it, to begin with or as a first stage, have a stronger basis than others for this Yoga. To look down on it therefore as something separate and inferior is not a right standpoint… I suggested the Gita method for you because the opening which is necessary for the Yoga here seems to be too difficult for you. If you made a less strenuous demand upon yourself, there might be a greater chance.” CWSA-29/Letters on Yoga-II/p-445-446, 21: “To be a Yogi, a Sannyasi, a Tapaswi is not the object here. The object is transformation, and the transformation can only be done by a force infinitely greater than your own; it can only be done by being truly like a child in the hands of the Divine Mother.” 7 June 1928/ CWSA-32/The Mother and Letters on the Mother/p-142-143, “Everyone who is turned to the Mother is doing my Yoga. It is a great mistake to suppose that one can “do” the Purna Yoga i.e. carry out and fulfil all the sides of the Yoga by one’s own effort. No human being can do that. What one has to do is to put oneself in the Mother’s hands and open oneself to her by service, by bhakti, by aspiration; then the Mother by her light and force works in him so that the sadhana is done. It is a mistake also to have the ambition to be a big Purna Yogi or a supramental being and ask oneself how far have I got towards that. The right attitude is to be devoted and given to the Mother and to wish to be whatever she wants you to be. The rest is for the Mother to decide and do in you.” April 1929/CWSA-32/The Mother and Letters on the Mother/p-151-152, 22: CWSA-19/Essays on the Gita/p-10-11, “As in Science, so in metaphysical thought, that general and ultimate solution is likely to be the best which includes and accounts for all so that each truth of experience takes its place in the whole: that knowledge is likely to be the highest knowledge which illumines, integralises, harmonises the significance of all knowledge and accounts for, finds the basic and, one might almost say, the justifying reason of our ignorance and illusion while it cures them; this is the supreme experience which gathers together all experience in the truth of a supreme and all-reconciling oneness. Illusionism unifies by elimination; it deprives all knowledge and experience, except the one supreme merger, of reality and significance.” CWSA-21/The Life Divine-485, “Therefore the age of intuitive knowledge, represented by early Vedantic thinking of the Upanishads, had to give place to the age of rational knowledge, inspired Scriptures made room for metaphysical philosophy, even as afterwards metaphysical philosophy had to give place to experimental Science.” CWSA/21/The Life Divine-74, 23: “I regard the spiritual history of mankind and especially of India as a constant development of a divine purpose, not a book that is closed, the lines of which have to be constantly repeated. Even the Upanishads and the Gita were not final though everything may be there in seed. In this development the recent spiritual history of India is a very important stage and the names I mentioned [Ramakrishna and Vivekananda] had a special prominence in my thought at the time — they seemed to me to indicate the lines from which the future spiritual development had most directly to proceed, not staying but passing on. I do not know that I would put my meaning exactly in the language you suggest. I may say that it is far from my purpose to propagate any religion new or old for humanity in the future. A way to be opened that is still blocked, not a religion to be founded, is my conception of the matter.” CWSA-28/Letters on Yoga-I/p-411, 24: ‘As it is, the physical body is really only a very disfigured shadow of the eternal life of the Self, but this physical body is capable of a progressive development; the physical substance evolves through each individual formation, and one day, it will be capable of bridging the gap between the physical life as we know it and the Supramental life that will manifest.’ The Mother/The Mother’s Agenda/Vol-1/page-251, 25: “The Indian system did not entirely leave this difficult growth to the individual’s unaided inner initiative. It supplied him with a framework; it gave him a scale and gradation for his life which could be made into a kind of ladder rising in that sense. This high convenience was the object of the four Asramas. Life was divided into four natural periods and each of them marked out a stage in the working out of this cultural idea of living. There was the period of the (1) student, (2) the period of the householder, (3) the period of the recluse or forest-dweller, (4) the period of the free supersocial man, parivrajaka. (1) The student life was framed to lay the groundwork of what the man had to know, do and be. It gave a thorough training in the necessary arts, sciences, branches of knowledge, but it was still more insistent on the discipline of the ethical nature and in earlier days contained as an indispensable factor a grounding in the Vedic formula of spiritual knowledge. In these earlier days this training was given in suitable surroundings far away from the life of cities and the teacher was one who had himself passed through the round of this circle of living and, very usually, even, one who had arrived at some remarkable realisation of spiritual knowledge. But subsequently education became more intellectual and mundane; it was imparted in cities and universities and aimed less at an inner preparation of character and knowledge and more at instruction and the training of the intelligence. But in the beginning the Aryan man was really prepared in some degree for the four great objects of his life, artha, kama, dharma, moksa. (2) Entering into the householder stage to live out his knowledge, he was able to serve there the three first human objects; he satisfied his natural being and its interests and desire to take the joy of life, he paid his debt to the society and its demands and by the way he discharged his life functions he prepared himself for the last greatest purpose of his existence. (3) In the third stage he retired to the forest and worked out in a certain seclusion the truth of his spirit. He lived in a broad freedom from the stricter social bonds; but if he so willed, gathering the young around him or receiving the inquirer and seeker, he could leave his knowledge to the new rising generation as an educator or a spiritual teacher. (4) In the last stage of life he was free to throw off every remaining tie and to wander over the world in an extreme spiritual detachment from all the forms of social life, satisfying only the barest necessities, communing with the universal spirit, making his soul ready for eternity. This circle was not obligatory on all. The great majority never went beyond the two first stages; many passed away in the vanaprastha or forest stage. Only the rare few made the last extreme venture and took the life of the wandering recluse. But this profoundly conceived cycle gave a scheme which kept the full course of the human spirit in its view; it could be taken advantage of by all according to their actual growth and in its fullness by those who were sufficiently developed in their present birth to complete the circle. ” CWSA-20/The Renaissance in India/p-174 to 176 26: Savitri-366 27: Dec-20/1972/The Mother’s Agenda/Vol-13/P-326-328, 28: “(Satprem) What about Sri Aurobindo's experience at Alipore, then? You know, that well-known experience when he saw Narayana in the prisoners, Narayana in the guards, Narayana everywhere?... (The Mother replied) That is the Supreme. Oneness. (Satprem) Is it a supramental experience or.... (The Mother replied) It is supramental. (Satprem)Supramental? (The Mother replied) Yes, the supramental experience. He called it Narayana because he was Indian. (Satprem) It's supramental, not overmental? (The Mother replied) No, no… (Satprem) Anyway, the important thing is what you told me: the experience at Alipore is supramental. (The Mother replied) Oh, yes! He used the word Narayana because he hadn't yet developed his own terminology; but he isn't referring to the gods: it's the supramental experience.” The Mother’s Agenda-September 26, 1962, 29: SABCL/Vol-17/146, 30: “This will be to him his exceeding good fortune if he can meet one who has realised or is becoming That which he seeks for and can by opening to it in this vessel of its manifestation himself realise it.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-130, "Two rules alone there are that will diminish the difficulty and obviate the danger. One must reject all that comes from the ego, from vital desire, from the mere mind and its presumptuous reasoning incompetence, all that ministers to these agents of the Ignorance. One must learn to hear and follow the voice of the inmost soul, the direction of the Guru, the command of the Master, the working of the Divine Mother. Whoever clings to the desires and weaknesses of the flesh, the cravings and passions of the vital in its turbulent ignorance, the dictates of his personal mind unsilenced and unillumined by a greater knowledge, cannot find the true inner law and is heaping obstacles in the way of the divine fulfilment. Whoever is able to detect and renounce those obscuring agencies and to discern and follow the true Guide within and without will discover the spiritual law and reach the goal of the Yoga... A radical and total change of consciousness is not only the whole meaning but, in an increasing force and by progressive stages, the whole method of the integral Yoga." CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-187, 31: “The ancient Aryans knew that man was not separate from the universe, but only a homogeneous part of it, as a wave is part of the ocean. An infinite energy, Prakriti, Maya or Shakti, pervades the world, pours itself into every name and form, and the clod, the plant, the insect, the animal, the man are, in their phenomenal existence, merely more or less efficient adharas of this Energy. We are each of us a dynamo into which waves of that energy have been generated and stored, and are being perpetually conserved, used up and replenished. The same force which moves in the star and the planet, moves in us, and all our thought and action are merely its play and born of the complexity of its functionings. There are processes by which man can increase his capacity as an adhara. There are other processes by which he can clear of obstructions the channel of communication between himself and the universal energy and bring greater and greater stores of it pouring into his soul and brain and body. This continual improvement of the adhara and increase in quantity and complexity of action of the informing energy, is the whole aim of evolution. When that energy is the highest in kind and the fullest in amount of which the human adhara is capable, and the adhara itself is trained utterly to bear the inrush and play of the energy, then is a man siddha, the fulfilled or perfect man, his evolution is over and he has completed in the individual that utmost development which the mass of humanity is labouring towards through the ages.” CWSA-1/Early Cultural Writings/p-370, 32: “We may say that here in India the reign of Intuition came first, intellectual Mind developing afterwards in the later philosophy and science. But in fact the mass of men at the time, it is quite evident, lived entirely on the material plane, worshipped the Godheads of material nature, sought from them entirely material objects. The effort of the Vedic mystics revealed to them the things behind through a power of inner sight and hearing and experience which was confined to a limited number of seers and sages and kept carefully secret from the mass of humanity secrecy was always insisted on by the mystics. We may very well attribute this flowering of intuition on the spiritual plane to a rapid reemergence of the essential gains brought down from a previous cycle. If we analyse the spiritual history of India we shall find that after reaching this height there was a descent which attempted to take up each lower degree of the already evolved consciousness and link it to the spiritual at the summit. The Vedic age was followed by a great outburst of intellectual philosophy which yet took spiritual truth as its basis and tried to reach it anew, not through a direct intuitive or occult process as did the Vedic seers, but by the power of the mind’s reflective, speculative, logical thought; at the same time processes of Yoga were developed which used the thinking mind as a means of arriving at spiritual realisation, spiritualising this mind itself at the same time. Then followed an era of the development of philosophies and Yoga processes which more and more used the emotional and aesthetic being as the means of spiritual realisation and spiritualised the emotional level in man through the heart and feeling. This was accompanied by Tantric and other processes which took up the mental will, the life-will, the life of sensations and made them at once the instruments and the field of spiritualisation. In Hathayoga and in the various attempts at divinisation of the body there is also a line of endeavour which attempted to arrive at the same achievement with regard to living matter; but this still awaits the discovery of the true characteristic method and power of spirit in the body. We may say therefore that the universal Consciousness after its descent into Matter has conducted the evolution there along two lines, one of ascent to the discovery of the self and spirit, the other of descent through the already evolved levels of mind, life and body so as to bring down the spiritual consciousness into these also and to fulfil thereby some secret intention in the creation of the material universe. Our Yoga is in its principle a taking up and summarising and completing of this process, an endeavour to rise to the highest possible supramental level and bring down its consciousness and powers into mind, life and body.” CWSA-28/Letters on Yoga-I/p-267-268, 33: TMCW-7/Questions and Answers-1955/p-350-351, 34: “Otherwise what will be ultimately accomplished is an achievement by the few initiating a new order of beings, while humanity will have passed sentence of unfitness on itself and may fall back into an evolutionary decline or a stationary immobility; for it is the constants up ward effort (of the few) that has kept humanity alive and maintained for it, Its plays in the front of creation.” CWSA-22/The Life Divine/p-752, “I do not want hundreds of thousands of disciples. It will be enough if I can get a hundred complete men, purified of petty egoism, who will be the instruments of God.” Sri Aurobindo/Champaklal Speaks-191-192, “That is exactly what Sri Aurobindo wanted and attempted; he used to say, “If I can find a hundred people, it will be enough for my purpose.” The Mother’s Agenda-5/p-195, “Even if one person could put himself faithfully at the disposal of the Truth, he could change the country and the world.” The Mother’s Agenda-10/p-148/19th April-1969, “The Psychic transformation and the first stages of the spiritual transformation are well within our conception; their perfection would be the perfection, wholeness, consummated unity of a knowledge and experience which is already part of things realised, though only by a small number of human beings. But the supramental change in its process carries us into less explored regions; it initiates a vision of heights of consciousness which have indeed been glimpsed and visited, but have yet to be discovered and mapped in their completeness.” CWSA-22/The Life Divine/p-953, “But the real soul, the real psychic entity which for the most part we see little of and only a small minority in mankind has developed, is an instrument of pure love, joy and the luminous reaching out to fusion and unity with God and our fellow-creatures. This psychic entity is covered up by the play of the mentalised Prana or desire-mind which we mistake for the soul; the emotional mind is unable to mirror the real soul in us, the Divine in our hearts, and is obliged instead to mirror the desire-mind.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-351“I don’t believe in advertisement except for books etc., and in propaganda except for politics and patent medicines. But for serious work it is a poison. It means either a stunt or a boom—and stunts and booms exhaust the thing they carry on their crest and leave it lifeless and broken high and dry on shores of nowhere or it means a movement. A movement in the case of work like mine means the founding of a school or a sect or some damned nonsense. It means that hundreds and thousands of useless people join in and corrupt the work or reduce it to pompous farce from which the Truth that was coming down recedes into secrecy and silence. It is what has happened to the ‘religions’ and the reason of their failure.” 02.10.1934, SABCL/26/p-375, 35: “…but the healing by faith in the cells is an actual fact and a law of Nature and has been demonstrated often enough even apart from Yoga. The way to get faith and everything else is to insist on having them and refuse to flag or despair or give up until one has them — it is the way by which everything has been got since this difficult world began to have thinking and aspiring creatures upon it. It is to open always, always to the Light and turn one’s back on the darkness. It is to refuse the voices that cry persistently, “You cannot, you shall not, you are incapable, you are the puppet of a dream” — for these are the enemy voices, they cut one off from the result that was coming by their strident clamour and then triumphantly point to the barrenness of result as a proof of their thesis. The difficulty of the endeavour is a known thing, but the difficult is not the impossible — it is the difficult that has always been accomplished and the conquest of difficulties makes up all that is valuable in the earth’s history. In the spiritual endeavour also it shall be so.” CWSA-29/Letters on Yoga-II/p-100, 36: “They had wanted to give the Nobel prize to Sri Aurobindo, but he left the year before the decision was to be made. And as they don't give the prize to "dead" people, he never got it. Then they wanted to transfer it to me, and I wrote this note, because the last thing I want is name and fame. That's all there was to it. They didn't give a peace prize that year… I believe the whole affair is now buried and forgotten.” The Mother’s Agenda- May 15, 1962 37: “Here the Yoga of self-perfection coincides with the Yogas of knowledge, works and devotion; for it is impossible to change the human nature into the divine or to make it an instrument of the divine knowledge, will and joy of existence, unless there is a union with the supreme Being, Consciousness and Bliss and a unity with its universal Self in all things and beings. A wholly separative possession of the divine nature by the human individual, as distinct from a self-withdrawn absorption in it, is not possible.” CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga-622, “The individual must be the instrument and first field of the transformation; but an isolated individual transformation is not enough and may not be wholly feasible. Even when achieved, the individual change will have a permanent and cosmic significance only if the individual becomes a centre and a sign for the establishment of the supramental Consciousness-Force as an overtly operative power in the terrestrial workings of Nature, — in the same way in which thinking Mind has been established through the human evolution as an overtly operative power in Life and Matter. This would mean the appearance in the evolution of a gnostic being or Purusha and a gnostic Prakriti, a gnostic Nature. There must be an emergent supramental Consciousness- Force liberated and active within the terrestrial whole and an organised supramental instrumentation of the Spirit in the life and the body, — for the body consciousness also must become sufficiently awake to be a fit instrument of the workings of the new supramental Force and its new order. Till then any intermediate change could be only partial or insecure; an overmind or intuitive instrumentation of Nature could be developed, but it would be a luminous formation imposed on a fundamental and environmental Inconscience. A supramental principle and its cosmic operation once established permanently on its own basis, the intervening powers of Overmind and spiritual Mind could found themselves securely upon it and reach their own perfection; they would become in the earth-existence a hierarchy of states of consciousness rising out of Mind and physical life to the supreme spiritual level.” CWSA-22/The Life Divine/p-997-998, "A perfect self- expression of the spirit is the object of our terrestrial existence. This cannot be achieved if we have not grown conscious of the supreme Reality; for it is only by the touch of the Absolute that we can arrive at our own absolute. But neither can it be done to the exclusion of the cosmic Reality: we must become universal, for without an opening into universality the individual remains incomplete. The individual separating himself from the All to reach the Highest, loses himself in the supreme heights; including in himself the cosmic consciousness, he recovers his wholeness of self and still keeps his supreme gain of transcendence; he fulfils it and himself in the cosmic completeness. A realised unity of the transcendent, the universal and the individual is an indispensable condition for the fullness of the self-expressing spirit: for the universe is the field of its totality of self-expression, while it is through the individual that its evolutionary self-unfolding here comes to its acme." CWSA-22/The Life Divine/p-706, "But this experience with X was really interesting. I learned many things that day, many things ... If you concentrate long enough on any one point, you discover the Infinite (and in his own experience he found the infinite), what could be called your own Infinite. But this is not what WE want, not this; what we want is the direct and integral contact between the manifested universe and the Infinite out of which this universe has emerged. So then it is no longer an individual or personal contact with the Infinite, it’s a total contact. And Sri Aurobindo insists on this, he says that it’s absolutely impossible to have the transformation (not the contact, but the supramental transformation) without becoming universalized – that is the first condition. You cannot become supramental before being universal. And to be universal means to accept everything, be everything, become everything – really to accept everything. And as for all those who are shut up in a system, even if it belongs to the highest regions of thought, it is not THAT." The Mother's Agenda/20.09.1960, "He must accept everything, but cling to nothing, be repelled by nothing however imperfect or however subversive of fixed notions, but also allow nothing to lay hold on him to the detriment of the free working of the Truth-Spirit. This equality of the intelligence is an essential condition for rising to the higher supramental and spiritual knowledge." CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-718, 38: “I began my sadhana at birth, without knowing that I was doing it. I have continued it throughout my whole life, which means for almost eighty years (even though for perhaps the first three or four years of my life it was only something stirring about in unconsciousness). But I began a deliberate, conscious sadhana at about the age of twenty-two or twenty-three, upon prepared ground. I am now more than eighty years old: I have thought of nothing but That, I have wanted nothing but That, I had no other interest in life, and not for a single minute have I ever forgotten that it was THAT that I wanted. There were not periods of remembering and forgetting: it was continuous, unceasing, day and night, from the age of twenty-four – and I had this experience for the first time about a week ago! So, I say that people who are in a hurry, people who are impatient, are arrogant fools.” The Mother's Agenda/01.05.1958, "Since my earliest childhood, experiences have come like that: something massive takes hold of you and you don’t need to believe or disbelieve, know or not know—bam! There’s nothing to say; you are facing a fact... Once, during those last difficult years, Sri Aurobindo told me that this was precisely what gave me my advantage and why (how to put it?) there were greater possibilities that I would go right to the end ." The Mother's Agenda/01.05.1958, “When I was five years old...well I began with a consciousness. Of course I had no idea what it was. But my first experience was of the consciousness here (gesture above the head), which I felt like a Light and a Force; and I felt it there at the age of five. It was very pleasant sensation. I would sit in a little armchair made especially for me, all alone in my room, and I had a very pleasant feeling of something very strong, very luminous, and it was here (above the head) .... Then I would pull it down, for it was...it was truly my raison d’être.” The Mother’s Agenda, July 25, 1962, 39: The Mother’s Agenda-11/p-346, “And if you do not want your body to fail you, avoid wasting your energies in useless agitation. Whatever you do, do it in a quiet and composed poise. In peace and silence is the greatest strength.” The Mother’s Agenda-8/p-365, 40: "In one chapter of The Synthesis of Yoga, Sri Aurobindo says that there is a state of consciousness in which all is from all eternity –everything, without exception, that is to be manifested here… Q:- In detail? In a certain state of consciousness (I no longer remember what he calls it—I think it’s in the ‘Yoga of Self-Perfection’), one is perfectly identified with the Supreme, not in his static but in his dynamic aspect, the state of becoming. In this state, everything is already there from all eternity, even though here it gives us the impression of a becoming. And Sri Aurobindo says that if you are capable of maintaining this state, then you know everything: all that has been, all that is and all that will be –in an absolutely simultaneous way… But you must have a firm head on your shoulders! Reading some of these chapters in ‘Self-Perfection,’ I thought it would be better if it didn’t fall into just anyone’s hands…Anyway, in this state the feeling of uncertainty completely disappears (he explains it very well)." The Mother/The Mother’s Agenda/Vol.-2/p-170 “Admitted through a curtain of bright mind That hangs between our thoughts and absolute sight, He found the occult cave, the mystic door Near to the well of vision in the soul, And entered where the Wings of Glory brood In the silent space where all is for ever known.” Savitri-74 “There in a hidden chamber closed and mute Are kept the record graphs of the cosmic scribe, And there the tables of the sacred Law, There is the Book of Being’s index page; The text and glossary of the Vedic truth Are there; the rhythms and metres of the stars Significant of the movements of our fate: The symbol powers of number and of form, And the secret code of the history of the world And Nature’s correspondence with the soul Are written in the mystic heart of Life.” Savitri-74 “Out of the depths the world’s buried secret rose; He read the original ukase kept back In the locked archives of the spirit’s crypt, And saw the signature and fiery seal Of Wisdom on the dim Power’s hooded work Who builds in Ignorance the steps of Light.” Savitri-75-76, 41: “When I said, “Why not an unconscious Avatar?” I was taking your statement (not mine) that Rama was unconscious and how could there be an unconscious Avatar. My own view is that Rama was not blind, not unconscious of his Avatarhood, only uncommunicative about it. But I said that even taking your statement to be correct, the objection was not insuperable. I instanced the case of Chaitanya and the others, because there the facts are hardly disputable. Chaitanya for the first part of his life was simply Nimai Pandit and had no consciousness of being anything else. Then he had his conversion and became the bhakta, Chaitanya . This bhakta at times seemed to be possessed by the presence of Krishna, knew himself to be Krishna, spoke, moved and appeared with the light of the Godhead — none around him could think of or see him as anything else when he was in this glorified and transfigured condition. But from that he fell back to the ordinary consciousness of the bhakta and, as I have read in his biography, refused then to consider himself as anything more. These, I think, are the facts. Well then, what do they signify? Was he only Nimai Pandit at first? It is quite conceivable that he was so and the descent of the Godhead into him only took place after his conversion and spiritual change. But also afterwards when he was in his normal bhakta-consciousness, was he then no longer the Avatar? An intermittent Avatarhood? Krishna coming down for an afternoon call into Chaitanya and then going up again till the time came for the next visit? I find it difficult to believe in this phenomenon. The rational explanation is that in the phenomenon of Avatarhood there is a Consciousness behind, at first veiled or sometimes perhaps only half-veiled, which is that of the Godhead and a frontal consciousness, human or apparently human or at any rate with all the appearance of terrestriality, which is the instrumental Personality. In that case, it is possible that the secret Consciousness was all along there, but waited to manifest until after the conversion; and it manifested intermittently because the main work of Chaitanya was to establish the type of a spiritual and psychic bhakti and love in the emotional vital part of man, preparing the vital in us in that way to turn towards the Divine — at any rate, to fix that possibility in the earth-nature. It was not that there had not been the emotional type of bhakti before; but the completeness of it, the e´lan, the vital’s rapture in it had never manifested as it manifested in Chaitanya. But for that work it would never have done if he had always been in the Krishna consciousness; he would have been the Lord to whom all gave bhakti, but not the supreme example of the divine ecstatic bhakta. At the same time the occasional manifestation showed who he was and at the same time evidenced the mystic law of the Immanence.” CWSA-28/Letters on Yoga-I/p- 496-497, 42: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-249 43: "This Yoga (Integral Yoga) too is not a Yoga of knowledge alone — knowledge is one of its means, but its base being self-offering, surrender, bhakti, it is based on the heart and nothing can be eventually done without this base. There are plenty of people here who do or have done Japa and base themselves on bhakti, very few comparatively who have done the “head” meditation; love and bhakti and works are usually the base — how many can proceed by knowledge? Only the few." CWSA-29/Letters on Yoga-II/p-226-227 Download this WEB PAGE as a PDF file: “ The supramental word manifests inwardly with a light, a power, a rhythm of thought and a rhythm of inner sound that make it the natural and living body of the supramental thought and vision and it pours into the language, even though the same as that of mental speech, another than the limited intellectual, emotional or sensational significance. It is formed and heard in the intuitive mind or supermind and need not at first except in certain highly gifted souls come out easily into speech and writing, but that too can be freely done when the physical consciousness and its organs have been made ready, and this is a part of the needed fullness and power of the integral perfection.” Sri Aurobindo CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-837

Integral Transformtion “Our soul is not the overt guide and master of our thought and acts; it has to rely on the mental, vital, physical instruments for self-expression and is constantly overpowered by our mind and life-force: but if once it can succeed in remaining in constant communion with its own larger occult reality, --and this can only happen when we go deep into our subliminal parts, --it is no longer dependent, it can become powerful and sovereign, armed with an intrinsic spiritual perception of the truth of things and a spontaneous discernment which separates that truth from the falsehood of the Ignorance and Inconscience, distinguishes the divine and the undivine in the manifestation and so can be the luminous leader of our other parts of nature. It is indeed when this happens that there can be the turning-point towards an integral transformation and an integral knowledge.”⁴⁵ Sri Aurobindo “If the control of that highest spiritual being is to be brought into our waking life, there must be a conscious heightening and widening into immense ranges of new being, new consciousness, new potentialities of action, a taking up—as integral as possible—of our present being, consciousness, activities and a transmutation of them into divine values which would effect a transfiguration of our human existence. For wherever a radical transition has to be made, there is always this triple movement—ascent, widening of field and base, integration –in Nature’s method of self-transcendence.”⁴⁶ Sri Aurobindo “But since the integral transformation must embrace fully the dynamic being and take up into it the life of action and the world-self outside us, this completer change is demanded of the evolving nature.”⁴⁷ Sri Aurobindo “A complete and radical change can only be brought about by bringing in persistently the spiritual light and intimate experience of the spiritual truth, power, bliss into the recalcitrant elements until they too recognise that their own way of fulfilment lies there, that they are themselves a diminished power of the spirit and can recover by this new way of being their own truth and integral nature. This illumination is constantly opposed by the Forces of the lower nature and still more by the adverse Forces that live and reign by the world’s imperfections and have laid down their formidable foundation on the black rock of the Inconscience.”⁴⁸ Sri Aurobindo “The animal in us, — the infernal also, — has its lair of retreat in the dense jungle of the subconscience. To penetrate there, to bring in light and establish a control, is indispensable for the completeness of any higher life, for any integral transformation of the nature.”⁴⁹ Sri Aurobindo The Integral Transformation Miraculous realisations do occur intermittently due to intervention of Divine Grace but they do not last long. Those who are open towards Modern Science or slow evolutionary change, in them the Divine force works sometimes, produces fantastic miraculous results related with new discovery but it does not recur or repeat at will. ‘The doors of light are sealed to common mind.’³² It is only when one purifies intellect with the aid of subjective enquiry related with unveiling the secret truth behind material existence then through that exercise one is established in subtle physical consciousness which no longer undulates in between surface and inner consciousness; then, one arrives at more established intuitive consciousness with full mastery of how to use the Divine Force at will. Man can do miracles if his mind can receive brief God’s light, if his will can be made one with God’s Will for a brief period, if his thought can echo briefly the thoughts of God and if the force in him can be driven briefly by the God’s Force. One can repeat this experience of God’s invasion and transformation of Nature at will like a chemistry experiment and this intermitent invasion can be established as constant descent of Divine Force in the long run and it can bring lasting change or we understand the Divine Force will penetrate Matter to remould it as more conscious, suppler and more perfect a vessel. If the intensity of this descent of Divine Force is heightened, by discovering the movement of Consciousness between higher and lower ranges, then that will bring a constitutional change of material substance. To become an indispensable part and portion of this vast plastic change is the evolution of new Supra-physical Science, to which modern Science can provide a sufficient base and foundation. The earth being’s heavenward growth began with the ‘first descent’² of Divine force or with the pouring in of ‘God’s first delight’³ or ‘the first world-creating Bliss’²³ which repeats itself in some best moments and its intensity grows in proportion till ‘his soul’s first release from Ignorance and his mind and body’s first spiritual change’⁴ and this transforming process further continues until he shall arrive at ‘Time’s golden best’⁵ or the ‘earth’s last salvation.’⁶ Each repetition of ‘new descent’²⁴ in earth’s Spiritual history supports the miracle of change, and this change enlarges gradually the capacity of earth being which ultimately grows to the measure of holding the weight of the Infinite. A slow and long change is recommended for the recalcitrant gross physical substance by the intervention of Divine force; whereas swift and sure change can be expected from other higher worlds or subtle sheaths in the descending hierarchies. When the human vessel, adhara , is ready, the shaping God’s tremendous touch becomes more and more bearable to the mortal nerves and the strength of the subtle body and causal body grows mightier. There are mysterious conditions of Soul awareness, when satisfied pave the passage of the Divine Descent. When the threads of these mysterious conditions are rightly caught and atmospheres are created to return to these conditions often, then we fulfil the normal condition of our growth. Man receives flashes of extraordinary Spiritual experiences in order to generate faith and persistent effort through which humanity will arrive at established Divine Consciousness whose working in the cells of the body will bring material transformation. The Divine Grace: - “This “state of grace” is often prepared by a long tapasya or purification in which nothing decisive seems to happen, only touches or glimpses or passing experiences at the most, and it (decisive change) comes suddenly without warning.”⁴³ Sri Aurobindo "It is when all appears to be lost that all can be saved when one has lost trust in one’s personal power, one must have faith in the Divine Grace."²¹ The Mother “And it seems to me it occurs often enough – much more often than people think. For example every time an illness is cured, every time an accident is avoided, every time a catastrophe, even a global one, is avoided, all that is always the intervention of the Vibration of Harmony into the vibration of Disorder, allowing Disorder to cease. So the people, the faithful, who always say, "Through the Divine Grace this has happened," aren't so wrong.”³⁶ The Mother “The Grace is always there, eternally present and active, but Sri Aurobindo says that it is extremely difficult for us to be in a condition to receive it, keep it and make use of what it gives us. Sri Aurobindo even says that it is more difficult than to drink from the cup of the gods who are immortal. To receive the divine grace, not only must one have a great aspiration, but also a sincere humility and an absolute trust.”⁴² The Mother A Grace dependent life and added to it an arduous tapasya are the acceptable conditions of our self-growth. What we achieve with ease with the intervention of Divine Grace or The Mother’s Power, the same status we attain with much difficulty through arduous tapasya. When both conditions are successfully combined²² and one is complementary in the development of the other, and then we are on the right path towards our difficult goal. The intensity of Divine Grace acting upon a human vessel in this birth is dependent on his formation of a subtle and causal body in past births. The subtle body develops by the movement of consciousness between the surface consciousness of the three Gunas and the inner and higher Psychic and Spiritual planes. Similarly, the causal body grows by movement of Consciousness from Supramental/Bliss Self to Inconscient/Subconscient Self. So before participating in the above movements, the higher Selves of True Physical, True Vital, True Mental, Psychic, Spiritual, Supramental and Bliss Self must open gradually through concentration and consecration. When any of the four conditions is satisfied, the Divine Grace will intervene: 1) Divine Grace begins to intervene with the practice of partial self-giving. This part surrender is extended to the mind, vital and body or extended to sattwic, rajasic and tamasic mind. Through this practice/personal effort, the Psychic Being in the heart and the Spiritual being above the head open and they multiply the intensity of spontaneous self-surrender. A prolonged movement between the Psychic and the Spiritual Being opens the door of the Supramental Being. It is only in the Supramental Consciousness that the total surrender to the Divine and His Shakti is realised. The more complete this self-giving grows, supported by faith and sincerity, the greater will be the Grace and Protection. 2) An exclusive self-opening to the Divine Influence and not any other inferior influence through an unfailing aspiration of the Psychic Being that calls from below can call down Divine Grace. When aspiration is dead or we fail to look into our Souls or we live in ordinary consciousness, during that period also a part of our being grows towards Light. Yet there is a passage to the godhead which none can see. An unknown Presence moulds our oblivious clay. Even in the aimlessness of life a Divine change or a magic will is worked out unconsciously. Always a heavenly truth broods in life’s depths and in her obscurest member burns that fire. Even nescient, null, her sleep creates a world. When most unseen, most mightily the Divine Shakti acts. If this exclusive Spiritual Presence and opening is available in the form of external contact with the Avatara , then it is an exceptional privilege in the life of an aspirant Soul. His ‘word, command, Adesha , presence, touch, guidance’³³ can also be visited through activation of Spiritualised Psychic Consciousness. 3) The intervention of Divine Grace asks for a constant and integral choice of Truth. Supreme Grace will act only in the conditions of the Light and the Love. There are some descended mighty Words whose repetition, concentration, contemplation and meditation can incarnate the highest truth and an unseen Divine link that joins the parted sphere. A prayer, a master act, a king's idea can link man’s strength to a transcendent Force and can change the course of things, and then miracles are made the common rule. ‘Even the body will awake and unite at last its consciousness subliminal no longer to the Supramental superconscious Force, feel all her powers permeating from above and below and around it and thrill to a supreme Love and Ananda .’¹⁹ 4) Divine Grace will not act in the conditions laid upon it by Falsehood and Ignorance. A constant and integral rejection of falsehood is indispensable. ‘Heaven’s wiser love rejects mortal’s prayer;’³⁴ because the human prayer is not free from fear, desire and blind hope. All prayers must be free from the three above-mentioned limitations and one must repeat great Names in order to liberate the physical and vital mind rising from the dark inconscient sheath and call down the invisible Presence and lost lucent immensities. The dark invisible forces have locked the doors of God with keys of creed and shut out by the fixed Law His tireless Grace. Sometimes our prayers sink in the resisting Night oppressed by a thousand forces that deny and it seems too weak to climb to the Supreme. The decisive and radical change in the life of a Sadhak is possible only after long Tapasya ⁴³ and through a sudden inrush of vast Divine Grace. The Mother’s Truth and Love Force supported by human endeavour, abhyasa , renunciation, vairagya, askesis, long tapasya , and consecration, yajna , ‘can alone rend the lid and tear the covering and shape the vessel and bring down into this world of obscurity and falsehood and death and suffering Truth and Light and Life divine and the immortal’s Ananda .’²⁰ The Revolt against Transformation or Nature’s Refusal to Change: - “Hard is it to persuade earth nature’s change” Savitri-7 “But still no great transforming light came down And no revealing rapture touched her fall.” Savitri-134 “Astir, vibrant, hungering, she groped for mind; Then slowly sense quivered and thought peered out; She forced the reluctant mould to grow aware.” Savitri-157 “Our instruments have not that greater light, (of Jnana Yoga) Our will tunes not with the eternal Will, (of Karma Yoga) Our heart’s sight is too blind and passionate.” (of Bhakti Yoga) Savitri-161 “Against all higher truth their stuff rebels;” Savitri-163 “This was the law of things none dreamed to change:” Savitri-228 “Abhorring change as an audacious sin,” Savitri-245 “Immutable laws man has no right to change,” Savitri-246 “A firm shape of Nature never to be changed,” Savitri-246 “And human mind must abdicate in Light Or die like a moth in the naked blaze of Truth, He stood compelled to a tremendous choice.” Savitri-306 “In man a dim disturbing somewhat lives; It knows but turns away from divine Light” Savitri-366 “A power is in thee that thou knowest not; Thou art a vessel of the imprisoned spark.” Savitri-453 “And feels the cold rigid limbs of lifeless Law.” Savitri-457 (Death said) “Where Nature changes not, man cannot change:” Savitri-643 (Death said) “Dream not to change the world that God has planned, Strive not to alter his eternal law.” Savitri-647 (Savitri said) “Vain the soul’s hope if changeless Law is all:” Savitri-651 (Death said) “Even God himself obeys the Laws he made: The Law abides and never can it change, The Person is a bubble on Time’s sea.” Savitri-654 When our development is arrested or when we are under the pigmy law of physical mind, then we fail to trace a passage from surface physical Self to subliminal Self. During that period, we live permanently in the surface mind, surface vital and the gross body. Our gross body is bound in a tamasic state of inertia; vital being is bound in the rajasic plane of desire and sense pleasure and mental being is bound in limited happiness and narrowness. The Law of Ignorance, the Law of Suffering, the Law of Falsehood and Law of the Death are the principal energies of the Inconscient world who rule the outer nature of the surface life. These Laws are strongly established in our outer nature. To remain entangled permanently in their clutch is the cause of our stagnancy, decay and death. The Mother has demonstrated in detail, ‘of how absolutely closed the world is to the higher Influence: all that comes down to the world, the minute it touches it, is twisted. Twisted, distorted beyond recognition.’³⁰ As a remedy, we have to strive patiently and discover a passage to higher worlds or higher states of Consciousness and permit their influence to overrule the very slow, very heavy and very obstinate surface mind, life and body. With more and more working of the Divine force through our instrumental opening, the law of fixed nature is shifted to the law of dynamic Divine Nature. Thus, Matter is moulded by the conscious contact of a higher Spiritual Force superseding the earlier changeless fixed Law. So the real threat to our life is from everything that does not want to transform. If our existing nature is unwilling to change, then we have to go through a brutal experience of monstrous catastrophe and our escape from change may mean several more successive births of repetitive training. So, in this life, if our Nature is not ready to exhaust the earthly desire, ego and attachment, then we have to exhaust them through the experience of next successive births. Tardy Transformation or Slow Change through Exclusive Concentration on outer Nature: - “Assured of the Apocalypse to be, It reckons not the moments and the hours; Great, patient, calm it sees the centuries pass, Awaiting the slow miracle of our change In the sure deliberate process of world-force And the long march of all-revealing Time.” Savitri-48 “A slow reversal’s movement then took place:” Savitri-101 “In this slow ascension he must follow her pace” Savitri-135 “Then slowly it gathers mass, looks up at Light.” Savitri-140 “Planned so to start her slow aeonic game.” Savitri-141 “And a slow unmasking of the spirit in things,” Savitri-154 “Then slowly sense quivered and thought peered out; She forced the reluctant mould to grow aware.” Savitri-157 “The long slow process of the patient Power.” Savitri-223 “She forced on life a slow and faltering pace;” Savitri-223 “Only a slow advance the earth can bear.” Savitri-244 “For the slow-paced omniscient purpose live.” Savitri-336 “In him (man) the Earth-Mother sees draw near the change” Savitri-340 “He sees the long results of an all-wise Force” Savitri-457 “Slowly the light grows greater in the East, Slowly the world progresses on God’s road.” Savitri-510 “Thus slowly I (Mother of Light ) lift man’s soul nearer the Light. But human mind clings to its ignorance And to its littleness the human heart And to its right to grief the earthly life.” Savitri-516 “Imposing on the slow reluctant years The flaming will that reigns beyond the stars,” Savitri-588 “Be still and tardy in the slow wise world.” Savitri-651 “And the slow evolution’s sluggard steps,” Savitri-693 A slow evolution binds our Soul and Nature to a strange, uneasy compromise and leads us towards an inevitable doom or through slow ascension, we must grow in light and force and rise at last to a higher Spiritual destiny. It limits the mental activities to immediate practical problems and immediate tangible results and learns by failure and progresses by fall. Slow change is generally experienced when our centre of living begins to undulate in between the surface physical Self and the subliminal Self. Or when there is a rift created in the surface physical Sheath, either through violent aspiration or through consecration or through purification of the being, a contact is made with our inner Self and Truth vibration infiltrates into the falsehood, resulting in a slow change of nature. Like individual evolution in Ignorance, the collective evolution of earth is also a slow process through long ordeal or a slow labour of mind or confident steps through Nature’s slow great hands and it cannot bear the intense original flame of the Supreme and earth sinks down into mire with the weight of the Infinite. As long as ‘A Nature hostile to the Mother-Force’⁷ or ‘A Nature that denied the eternal Truth,’⁸ to wait for a slow miracle of change is a safe passage or it is better to live for the slow paced omniscient purpose and force the reluctant mould to grow conscious of its Source. It is only impatience towards time that would make splendid haste on Fate’s slow road. Then, with the long-slow infiltration of Truth vibration we reach a point where ‘Nature’s plastic and protean change’⁹ is realised or ‘Matter (becomes) plastic (and passive) to spiritual light’¹⁰ and dull earth is changed to sudden rapture. Then the outer limiting nature is lifted by a happier breath and is ready to be exposed towards high change, total change and instantaneous change demanded by the all-shaping Fire. Exclusive concentration is defined as the complete absorption in the active Prakriti or outer nature by an entire separation from the true Self. This ordinary surface consciousness is full of grating, friction, perpetual disorder which causes ageing and decay of the cells of the body. Exclusive concentration is also the special boon offered to mind by the indwelling Deity to work out slow evolution in the Ignorance and mind walks lamely on this earth with slow footsteps. When this concentration is rightly utilised through its reverse movement in discovering inner being and following its intimations, we ascend in the stairs of Consciousness in order to discover the subliminal Self and essential Concentration. Transformation of human nature by brief Divine Touch: “Time’s message of brief light was not for her.” Savitri-6 “A wider consciousness opens then its doors; Invading from spiritual silences A ray of the timeless Glory stoops awhile (Supramental invasion) To commune with our seized illumined clay And leaves its huge white stamp upon our lives.” (Transformation of Nature) Savitri-47-48 “When life had stopped its beats, death broke not in; He dared to live when breath and thought were still. Thus could he step into that magic place Which few can even glimpse with hurried glance Lifted for a moment from mind’s laboured works And the poverty of Nature’s earthly sight.” Savitri-74 “There he could enter, there awhile abide.” Savitri-91 “Our secret breath of untried mightier force, The lurking sun of an instant’s inner sight, Its fine suggestions are a covert fount For our iridescent rich imaginings Touching things common with transfiguring hues Till even earth’s mud grows rich and warm with the skies And a glory gleams from the soul’s decadence.” Savitri-106-107 “Even in the littleness of our mortal state, Even in this prison-house of outer form, A brilliant passage for the infallible Flame Is driven through gross walls of nerve and brain, A Splendour presses or a Power breaks through, Earth’s great dull barrier (physical mind) is removed awhile, The inconscient seal is lifted from our eyes And we grow vessels of creative might.” Savitri-108 “The spirit in a finite ignorant world Must rescue so its prisoned consciousness Forced out in little jets at quivering points From the Inconscient’s sealed infinitude. Then slowly it gathers mass, looks up at Light.” Savitri-140 “A new life dawns, he looks out from vistas wide; The Spirit’s breath moves him but soon retires: His strength was not made to hold that puissant guest.” Savitri-165 “In this investiture of fleshly life A soul that is a spark of God survives And sometimes it breaks through the sordid screen And kindles a fire that makes us half-divine.” Savitri-169 “It (child Soul) can only near and touch, it cannot hold;” Savitri-179 “Only they knew what Mind could take and build Out of the secret Supermind’s huge store.” Savitri-187 “There all could enter but none stay for long.” Savitri-206 “A little gift comes from the Immensitudes, But measureless to life its gain of joy;” Savitri-237 “A half-intuition purpled in its sense; It threw the lightning’s fork and hit the unseen. Savitri-249 “A free and divine incident no more At each moment willed or adventure of the soul, It lengthened a fate-bound mysterious chain, A line foreseen of an immutable plan, One step more in Necessity’s long march.” Savitri-267 “Awakened by the touch of the Unseen, Deserting the boundary of things achieved, Aspired the strong discoverer, tireless Thought, Revealing at each step a luminous world.” Savitri-277 “The light his soul had brought his mind has lost; All he has learned is soon again in doubt; A sun to him seems the shadow of his thoughts, Then all is shadow again and nothing true:” Savitri-337 “His transience trembles with the Eternal’s touch,” Savitri-339 “Earth keeps for man some short and perfect hours” Savitri-421 “A glimpse or flashes came, the Presence was hid.” Savitri-470 “Even in the tracts of sleep is scant repose; He mocks life’s steps in strange subconscient dreams, He strays in a subtle realm of symbol scenes, His night with thin-air visions and dim forms He packs or peoples with slight drifting shapes And only a moment spends in silent Self.” Savitri-479 “The genius too receives from some high fount Concealed in a supernal secrecy The work that gives him an immortal name.” Savitri-542 “Night felt assailed her heavy sombre reign; The splendour of some bright eternity Threatened with this faint beam of wandering Truth (Subconscient transformation) Her empire of the everlasting Nought.” Savitri-585 “There man can visit but there he cannot live.” Savitri-659 “A changed earth-nature felt the breath of peace.” Savitri-672 “Heaven’s light visits sometimes the mind of earth; Its thoughts burn in her sky like lonely stars; In her heart there move celestial seekings soft And beautiful like fluttering wings of birds, Visions of joy that she can never win Traverse the fading mirror of her dreams. Faint seeds of light and bliss bear sorrowful flowers,” Savitri-688 Savitri book confirms that all can open themselves towards a brief touch of Divine Force and receive its Grace and this helps in the flowering of existing life immensely. This brief touch can be repeated with our awareness and its intensity can be multiplied by purification and transformation of our untransformed vessel. The Life Divine confirms that Intuition is a flash of lightening⁴¹ and ‘the limitation of the Intuition as compared with the Supermind is that it sees things by flashes, point by point, not as a whole.’⁴ ¹ What we regard as genius in human beings is those of us who are open in their being to these higher intimations…so the more one can be open to these higher planes of consciousness and receive these inspirations without sullying them with their physical mind, the greater is the ability to manifest new and greater Truths or ‘thought fulfilled by some great word’… (Savitri-573) It shows that anyone can be a genius if they can open themselves to these higher planes. Before one is established in higher planes of Psychic and Spiritual Consciousness, his consciousness will undulate between gunas and gunatita state and this will lead to brief Spiritual experience and a brief divine manifestation. After Savitri was established in the Supramental Consciousness of ‘endless lights,’ ‘Her being’s spaces quivered with its touch.’³⁸ During Savitri’s journey with Death in the Inconscient plane, it is described her contact with bright eternity will threaten the darkness of the inconscient sheath with ‘faint beam of wandering truth.’³⁹ A touch of brief Divine Force cannot transform life, it can only give birth to new manifestations, new hope and joy. Or what the Death God said to moderate humanity, ‘Accept the brief light that falls upon thy days.’⁴⁰ The above Soul slaying truth is met by The Mother’s Soul saving truth, which gives us this hope that ‘One moment of conscious communion with the Divine can shatter all resistance, however powerful it may be.’⁵⁰ “But the supramental change in its process carries us into less explored regions; it initiates a vision of heights of consciousness which have indeed been glimpsed and visited, but have yet to be discovered and mapped in their completeness.”⁵⁴ Uninterrupted Psychic Transformation or Constant Change through Essential Concentration: - “In hands sustained by a transfiguring Might He caught up lightly like a giant’s bow Left slumbering in a sealed and secret cave The powers that sleep unused in man within.” Savitri-26 “A constant lodging in the Eternal’s realm,” Savitri-36 “Apotheosised, transfigured by wisdom’s touch, Her days became a luminous sacrifice; An immortal moth in happy and endless fire, She burned in his sweet intolerable blaze.” Savitri-125 “Or Beauty’s touch transfiguring heart and sense,” Saviri-195 “A greater Mind may see a greater Truth, Or we may find when all the rest has failed Hid in ourselves the key of perfect change.” Savitri-256 “Makes ever new her body to his eyes,” Savitri-275 “Into a constant heaven felt always here.” Savitri-277 “Ever they change and changing ever grow,” Savitri-294 “Towards the end which ever begins again,” Savitri-295 “There substance was a resonant harp of self, A net for constant lightnings of the spirit,” Savitri-328-29 “And keeps for ever new, yet still the same,” Savitri-351 “Earth must transform herself and equal Heaven Or Heaven descend into earth’s mortal state. But for such vast spiritual change to be, Out of the mystic cavern in man’s heart The heavenly Psyche must put off her veil And step into common nature’s crowded rooms And stand uncovered in that nature’s front And rule its thoughts and fill the body and life.” Savitri-486 “A divine Puissance then takes Nature’s place And pushes the movements of our body and mind; Possessor of our passionate hopes and dreams, The beloved despot of our thoughts and acts, She streams into us with her unbound force, Into mortal limbs the Immortal’s rapture and power. An inner law of beauty shapes our lives;” Savitri-530 “Although her kingdom of marvellous change within Remained unspoken in her secret breast, All that lived round her felt its magic’s charm: The trees’ rustling voices told it to the winds, Flowers spoke in ardent hues an unknown joy, The birds’ carolling became a canticle, The beasts forgot their strife and lived at ease.” Savitri-532 “A thaumaturgist sat in her heart’s deep, Compelled the forward stride, the upward look, Till wonder leaped into the illumined breast And life grew marvellous with transfiguring hope.” Savitri-539 “To first desire and her white soul transfigured,” Savitri-604 Our subtle body is gradually formed and takes concrete form around the Psychic being in successive lives. When our subtle body is sufficiently solidified around the Psychic being through successive Soul births or we throw our waking mind into a state of passivity which liberates the subliminal Self and we shift our centre of living permanently from the surface mind or surface physical self to the inner mind, inner life, subtle body and inner Psychic being; it is there we experience a constant change of ceaseless miraculous progress in our different subtle sheaths and the gross physical sheath experiences a constant breaking of the thought, life and action of the bound Nature or Divine Shakti endlessly unfolds the endless truth in our subtle body. This ‘persistent thrill of a transfiguring touch’³⁵ to change inert black Subconscient is due to the constant inter-penetration of Superconscient force through descending layers of multiple subtle worlds or due to intermittent lightning stroke of the highest Spirit. Therefore, the surface Nature receiving intimations from inner beings is not sufficient transformation and one must cease to be surface personality and become the true Psychic Personality. It exposes every movement, every nook and corner of Nature, thought, will and emotion to the Truth Light. Thus, Nature prepares for every kind of Spiritual experience. The Psychic training is the energising of the Psychic sheath in the heart by opening the Psychic being and leading towards the emergence of new faculty of law of consecration, awareness of the true motive of life, knowledge of the past, present and future, limitless expansion of Consciousness to arrive at universality. Psychic opening draws one towards the immortal life, ever progressive change, unbroken continuity in the world of forms, meets the Immanent God dwelling in each form. The true Psychic Soul is the flame of the Godhead, always alight within us, inextinguishable even by that dense unconsciousness which obscures our outward life. It is the flame born out of the luminous Divine inhabitant of the Ignorance, grows in it till it is able to turn the being towards the Knowledge of Self and the Divine, towards the supreme Truth, the supreme Good, the Divine heights and largeness. Our true Soul is a pure power of light, love, joy, beauty and harmony. It is the individual Soul, the Chaitya Purusha , supporting Mind, Life and Body and standing behind the subtle mental, vital and physical being, watching and profiting by their development in us. This inmost Psychic entity puts forward a Psychic personality which flowers as the saint, the sage and the seer and it changes, grows and develops from life to life; for this is also the traveller from birth to death and from death to birth and our nature is its manifold changing robe. Essential concentration is defined as the entire self-absorption in the Self of being for unfolding of many miracled Consciousness and these experiences keep ever new the thrill that created this world. It is also exclusive in nature, but this concentration is more dynamic and less fragmentary. Through the essential concentration, the opening towards Truth-Light is easily accessible. The Sun of Supramental light falls indirectly on the subtle body, passing through intermediary sheaths of over mind, intuitive mind, illumined mind and higher mind or Supramental light falls indirectly on the gross body after passing through the seven subtle sheaths of ‘seven immortal earths’³¹ of which the first three are subtle mind, subtle vital and subtle physical. Essential concentration helps in building the subtle body from its fluid state to a concrete state around the Psychic Being and universalises the subtle body. The Great Spiritual Transformation or High Intense Change due to Multiple Concentration: - “Spiritual that can make all things divine.” Savitri-16 “Always the power poured back like sudden rain, Or slowly in his breast a presence grew; It clambered back to some remembered height Or soared above the peak from which it fell.” Savitri-35 “In moments when the inner lamps are lit (Psychic being) And the life’s cherished guests are left outside, Our spirit sits alone and speaks to its gulfs. (Spiritual being) A wider consciousness opens then its doors; Invading from spiritual silences A ray of the timeless Glory stoops awhile To commune with our seized illumined clay And leaves its huge white stamp upon our lives.” Savitri-47-48 “These signs are native to a larger self That lives within us by ourselves unseen; Only sometimes a holier influence comes, A tide of mightier surgings bears our lives And a diviner Presence moves the soul; Or through the earthly coverings something breaks, A grace and beauty of spiritual light, The murmuring tongue of a celestial fire.” Savitri-48 “And earth grow unexpectedly divine.” Savitri-55 “The Maker shall recast us and impose A plan of godhead on the mortal’s mould Lifting our finite minds to his infinite, Touching the moment with eternity. This transfiguration is earth’s due to heaven:” Savitri-67 “Mind can suspend or change earth’s concrete law.” Savitri-84 “There in the slumber of the cosmic Will He saw the secret key of Nature’s change.” Savitri-231 “Transfigured were the fixed schemes of reasoning Thought.” Savitri-232 “His gates to the world were swept with seas of light.” Savitri-236 “A Being lived, a Presence and a Power, A single Person who was himself and all And cherished Nature’s sweet and dangerous throbs Transfigured into beats divine and pure.” Savitri-291 “Out of the neutral silence of his soul He passed to its fields of puissance and of calm And saw the Powers that stand above the world, (the various Emanations of the Divine Mother) Traversed the realms of the supreme Idea And sought the summit of created things And the almighty source of cosmic change.” Savitri-298 “And one great act unlock the doors of Fate.” Savitri-345 “One shall descend and break the iron Law, Change Nature’s doom by lone Spirit’s power.” Savitri-346 “Your life a changeful mould for growing gods… Authors of earth’s high change, to you it is given” Savitri-370 “Her spirit stretched measureless in strength divine,” Savitri-473 “The Immobile stands behind each daily act, A background of the movement and the scene, Upholding creation on its might and calm And change on the Immutable’s deathless poise.” Savitri-662 “Yet felt in her illimitable change.” Savitri-715 “What high change is in thee, O Savitri? Bright” Savitri-718 In this Spiritual evolution, each Soul has to find his own Spiritual way and has to come out of this inferior existence of the three gunas . Slow change cannot change ordinary destiny into Spiritual destiny and in the Spiritual path one has to accomplish much that has still to be done, consciousness has to be heightened and widened immeasurably and there must be self-affirmation of Spirit in the material life. Spiritual change invites the descent of higher Light, Knowledge, Love, Power, Force and Purity into the lower recesses of subtle mind, subtle life and subtle body. This Spiritual transformation complements the Psychic transformation of Nature and helps build the subliminal sheaths and opens the passage for causal body formation. Complete Spiritual transformation is gained by a permanent ascent of Soul to the highest Consciousness and a permanent descent of the Divine Shakti into the lower nature. With the expansion of subtle physical, subtle vital and subtle mental sheath, the consciousness is universalised and one feels the whole universe is within him and enters the greater creation, action and ananda of universal proportion. This global consciousness includes coexistence of both static being of Purusha and dynamic action of Prakriti, the soul and its instruments, the Self and the dynamisms of the Self-Power, atmashakti: it can then embrace its manifestation with a larger Consciousness free from the previous Nature’s limitation and oblivion of the indwelling Spirit. Multiple Concentration is a greater concentration or self-absorption in the universalised body for greater world action. It functions within the boundaries of Ignorance and its workings of the highest Divine faculties are exclusive in nature in order to create global over mental awareness. In the Cosmic Consciousness, the multiple concentrations become active and all contraries are here true and retain their unity and harmony. In this Consciousness, one feels the universe as his body, life as his drama of vast universal stage, mind as a single innumerable look upon himself and all that he becomes, Soul as the living body of God. The Divine Love, Ananda, Peace, Knowledge, Will, Power and Truth from the Overmental plane work separately on the earth nature in order to transform it. Whereas in Integral concentration the above mentioned Divine faculties coexist and the original Divine formula of Existence, Consciousness and Bliss cannot be separated from its integral functioning. So we conclude that great transformations are merely the results of a change of higher states of Consciousness. Here the cells experience themselves as eternal and everlasting, live in an inner peace and harmony and feel free from all kinds of disorder and friction that causes wear and tear. Comprehensive Supramental Transformation or Total Change through Integral Concentration: - “It bore the stroke of That which kills and saves” (Savitri’s heart bore the stroke of Supramental energy that slayed falsehood and saved the truth.) Savitri-20 “All the world’s values changed heightening life’s aim;” Savitri-42 “All’s miracle here and can by miracle change.” Savitri-85 “Where all seems sure and, even when changed, the same,” Savitri-69 “And when that greater Self comes sea-like down To fill this image of our transience, All shall be captured by delight transformed.” Savitri-171 “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 “And the almighty source of cosmic change.” Savitri-298 “All he had been and all towards which he grew Must now be left behind or else transform Into a self of That which has no name.” Savitri-307 “A Power that lives upon the heights must act, Bring into life’s closed room the Immortal’s air And fill the finite with the Infinite.” Savitri-316 “All that denies must be torn out and slain And crushed the many longings for whose sake We lose the One for whom our lives were made.” (All that denies Supramental energy and many longings of desires must be slain if we do not want to lose the One Divine.) Savitri-316 “Their tread one day shall change the suffering earth” Savitri-344 “All underwent a high celestial change:” Savitri-529 “A Force descended trailing endless lights; Linking Time’s seconds to infinity, Illimitably it girt the earth and her: It sank into her soul and she was changed.” Savitri-573 “Thou shalt bear all things that all things may change,” Savitri-700 “The supermind shall be his nature’s fount, The Eternal’s truth shall mould his thoughts and acts, The Eternal’s truth shall be his light and guide. All then shall change, a magic order come Overtopping this mechanical universe.” Savitri-706 In most individuals, the causal body is not yet formed and like the subtle body, this causal body takes shape with great difficulty from its crude or fluid state to its concrete shape through prolonged infiltration of Divine Force from Supreme Self to the Superconscient Self and the Subliminal Self. The causal body is the source and it holds both the subtle and gross bodies. The formation of a causal body begins with the individual whose subtle body is sufficiently developed and universalised. When the individual’s centre of living begins to undulate between Spiritual Self and Supramental Self, during that period the experience of ‘comprehensive change’ is generally realised. When the centre of living is permanently shifted from the Spiritual Self to the Supramental Self, one is established in Integral Concentration or what we call as Supramental Consciousness. In the Integral Concentration, there is coexistence of the four orders of changes, which are constant change, high change, total change and instantaneous change. Total change is the Soul and Nature’s climb towards God’s identity and it is the consequence of swift transformation through many-sided infiltrations of Divine force to the mind, life, body, Subconscient and Inconscient. The four active parts of Nature that need transformation are ‘the understanding, the heart, the prana and the body.’⁵³ When one lives in the causal body, the consciousness is elevated to the stage of integral concentration, and the comprehensive transformation resumes action. The triple formula of the comprehensive Supermind is, “Brahman is in all things, all things are in Brahman , all things are Brahman .”¹¹ The three poises of Supermind is, “the first founds the inalienable unity of things, the second modifies that unity so as to support the manifestation of the Many in One and One in Many; the third further modifies so as to support the evolution of diversified individuality which by the action of Ignorance, becomes in us at a lower level the illusion of the separate ego.”¹² “The Self becoming all existences is the basis of our oneness with all; the self-containing all existences is the basis of our oneness in difference; the Self inhabiting all is the basis of our individuality in the universal.”¹³ Integral concentration is comprehensive because due to its intervention, transformation action simultaneously takes place in Supreme self, Superconscient self, Universal self, Subliminal self, Surface physical self, Subconscient self and Inconscient self and all these worlds were colonies possessed by the Divine Mother for Her Divine action. ‘An ocean of untrembling virgin fire’¹⁴ from the Supreme self invades all the above worlds, and that is why a total change expected is practicable due to its all-inclusive concentration. An integral concentration is the basis of an entire harmonisation of life through the total transformation, unification, integration of the Being and Nature and there would be no further need of a slow evolution counting many millennia for each step, the halting and difficult evolution operated by Nature in the past in the unconscious creatures of the Ignorance. Instantaneous Total Change and Cellular Transformation: - “Then came the abrupt transcendent miracle:” Savitri-25 “Achieve perfection by the magic throb” Savitri-112 “And could in a moment dangerously change.” Savitri-206 “It saw unrealised aims as instant fate And chose the precipice for its leap to heaven.” Savitri-248 “And the world change with the beauty of a smile.” Savitri-290 “Even a brief nearness has reshaped my life” Savitri-406 “Because of change within me by thy look.” Savitri-408 “Then with a magic transformation’s speed They rushed into each other and grew one” Savitri-527 “One whom her (Savitri’s) soul had faced as Death and Night A sum of all sweetness gathered into his limbs And blinded her heart to the beauty of the suns. Transfigured was the formidable shape.” Savitri-678-79 “And this the magic of our golden change,” Savitri-724 “If even one very small aggregate of cells could succeed in having the complete experience of transformation right to the end, that would be more effective than great upheavals – much, much more effective. But it's more difficult. Much more difficult. And it doesn't cause big dazzling "events"…”³⁷ The Mother “With a bit of reflection it's easy to understand: if it were a question of stopping something and starting something ELSE, it might be done rather rapidly. But to keep a body alive (to keep it functioning) and AT THE SAME TIME have enough of a new functioning so that it stays alive, and then a transformation – that makes a very difficult combination to realize. I am fully aware of it, fully aware ... of the immense amount of time that's needed for this to be done without catastrophe. Above all, of course, when we come to the heart: to replace the heart with the center of Power, a formidable, dynamic power! (Mother laughs) At what precise MOMENT are you going to eliminate the circulation and throw in the Force! It is ... it's difficult.”⁴⁴ The Mother Cellular transformation begins when the consciousness begins to undulate in between the causal body and gross body or there is intermingling of Supramental Consciousness and Earth Consciousness, where the body learns the lesson to change the state of living from ordinary imperfect mortal state to immutable imperishable perfect state, instantly giving the impression of coexistence of perfection and imperfection. In integral concentration or when the body’s ‘entire consciousness is exclusively centred on the Divine, it no longer feels its suffering;’²⁶ cells are completely free from the mortal law of death, decay, disease, accident and disharmony. The cells’ age-long habit to cling to mortal law or ‘DOUBT in the cells’²⁷ towards Divine Presence through physical mind is the cause of all physical disorder and is the chief obstacle to the permeation of Supramental force. The constitutional change of cells by transformation of the physical mind or infusing into them the certitude of the Divine, leads them instantly to a deathless harmony and order. This transformation is considered the ‘last and mightiest’¹ ⁵ where ‘even the life of flesh and nerve was changed.’¹⁵ The ideal attitude towards Time is to develop endless patience, which draws one towards ‘Truth’s last epitome’⁵ where the change expected is an abrupt transcendent miracle. Here one arrives at the brink of vertical time, where the law of horizontal time and the law of gradual slow evolutionary change are superseded. To the ordinary consciousness, time is horizontal and it moves everything towards slow change. This slow change binds the Soul and is the cause of our inevitable doom. With the growth of consciousness, one becomes quiet and still within, time goes faster and at the highest consciousness of Integral concentration one feels the natural need of silence and contemplative immobility. One enters a Timeless state where everything exists in all eternity and one can live indefinitely without the friction of time. It is only in this vertical time, the change expected is no longer gradual, but it is radical, instantaneous and irreversible. The problem could disappear as pointed out by the Mother , “If the supreme Consciousness truly took possession of the cells and made them live, act, move, like that, so they had the sense of the Omnipotence taking hold of them... This seems to be the only solution.”²⁹ Subconscient and Inconscient Transformation: “The persistent thrill of a transfiguring touch Persuaded the inert black quietude And beauty and wonder disturbed the fields of God.” Savitri-3 “A lightning from the heights on our abyss.” Savitri-14 “With the Light that dwells near the dark end of things,” Savitri-60 “For the key is hid and by the Inconscient kept; The secret God beneath the threshold dwells.” Savitri-68 “The secret crawl of consciousness to light Through a fertile slime of lust and battening sense, Beneath the body’s crust of thickened self A tardy fervent working in the dark, The turbid yeast of Nature’s passionate change, Ferment of the soul’s creation out of mire.” Savitri-138 “A cave of darkness guards the eternal Light.” Savitri-305 “Threatened with this faint beam of wandering Truth” (Threatened falsehood with) Savitri-585 “Its faint infiltration drilled the blind deaf mass;” Savitri-601 “A mystic slow transfiguration works.” Savitri-632 “I quiver no more with the assault of grief; A mighty calmness seated deep within Has occupied my body and my sense: It takes the world’s grief and transmutes to strength, It makes the world’s joy one with the joy of God. My love eternal sits throned on God’s calm; For Love must soar beyond the very heavens And find its secret sense ineffable; It must change its human ways to ways divine, Yet keep its sovereignty of earthly bliss.” Savitri-633 “It (Supramentalised Psychic Being) sees and feels the one Heart beat in all, It feels the high Transcendent’s sunlike hands, It sees the cosmic Spirit at its work; In the dim Night it lies alone with God.” Savitri-635 If we recognise the Subconscient transformation, we have to accept the discords of existence in the line as indicated in the Gita. "The discords of the worlds are God’s discords and it is only by accepting and proceeding through them that we can arrive at the greater concords of his supreme harmony, the summits and thrilled vastnesses of his transcendent and his cosmic Ananda.”⁵¹ The Mother also confirms, ‘"Surely you could not believe that sadhana could be done without facing some difficulties. As your aspiration is sincere, whatever was in the subconscient standing in the way of the Divine Realisation, has come to the surface in order to be transformed. There is nothing there to make you sad or depressed — on the contrary you ought to rejoice at these occasions to make progress and never forget to lean for support and help on my love, force and blessings.”⁵² The objective of integral Yoga is to establish the flashes and short-lived revelation of the Divine Presence, Divine Consciousness, Divine Wisdom, Divine Peace, Divine Love, Ananda, and Beauty through Subconscient transformation. The Divine Will is advancing step by step through continuous slow infiltration of Divine Force to realise this established end. If a conscious individual knows how to move the Consciousness which may be either Divine Will or Knowledge or Love, he can experience the Divine descent freely in the jail, forest, crowd, war field, mart, work field, ‘wayside act’ and common day-today life without interruption. Finally, any occasion and not limiting oneself to any specialised self-discipline can be utilised as a means of movement of this Divine Consciousness. Recapitulation: “In the final analysis, everything obviously depends upon the Supreme Will because, if one looks deeply enough into the question, every physical laws and resistances are nothing for Him. But this kind of direct intervention takes place only at the extreme limit; if His Will is to be expressed in opposition, as it were, to the whole set of laws governing the Manifestation —well, that only comes… at the very last second. Sri Aurobindo has expressed this so well in Savitri , so well! At least three times in the book He has expressed this Will that abolishes all established laws, all of them, and all the consequences of these laws (of rigidity), the whole formidable colossus of the Manifestation, so that in the face of it all, That can express itself—and this takes place at the very last… ‘second’ (Probably the Mother means this line from Savitri: “To conquer or fail on a last desperate verge,” Savitri-461) so to speak, at the extreme limit of possibility.”¹ The Mother The intervention of this Supreme Will, generally takes place when the following four conditions co-exist, which is the normal state of Integral concentration. The first condition of absolute surrender gives us the right to live in His absolute Supramental and Bliss Presence. The second condition of exclusive self-opening towards His supreme Influence draws our cells towards supreme Ananda and life towards the all-containing and all-ruling consciousness. The third condition is of continuous and automatic acceptance of the Truth or Truth-Light that can strike earth’s massive roots of Inconscient trance and awaken in them the miracle of Divine Presence. This Truth shall be the leader of life and overrules the thought, speech, act and our individual fixed destiny. The fourth is that of continuous and automatic rejection and destruction of falsehood that is invading from the surrounding world and the Inconscient world in order to cloud the true state. This rejection of falsehood is Psychic and Spiritual action and destruction of falsehood is Supramental action. This is actually a war against everything, every law, every habit; that is already established in earth nature. The cells of the body aspire desperately for the truth and they cry out, “Ah, no! We have had enough of this Falsehood, enough, enough, enough! – the Truth, the Truth, the Truth...”²⁵ In exclusive concentration, essential concentration and multiple concentration we can concentrate in any one of the above four faculties to the exclusion of others, yet their degrees and intensities of concentration vary and intensify with the evolution of higher faculties of concentration. Each concentration brings down Divine grace and prepares the field of descent of Supreme Grace¹⁷ and stabilisation of all-inclusive integral Concentration. When The Mother said, “At least three times in the (Savitri) book Sri Aurobindo has expressed this Will,”¹ this draws our interest to search where actually Sri Aurobindo discussed the issue. The following lines require our attention as these experiences are concerned with earth’s total reversal of the past which “takes place at the very last… ‘second’ so to speak, at the extreme limit of possibility.”¹ “If once it met the intense original Flame, An answering touch might shatter all measures made And earth sink down with the weight of the Infinite.” Savitri-18 “Overpowered were earth and Nature’s obsolete rule; The python coils of the restricting Law Could not restrain the swift arisen God: Abolished were the scripts of destiny.” Savitri-82 “A touch can alter the fixed front of Fate. A sudden turn can come, a road appear. A greater Mind, may see a greater Truth, Or we may find when all the rest has failed Hid in ourselves the key of perfect change.” Savitri-256 “A fiery stillness wakes the slumbering cells, A passion of the flesh becoming spirit, And marvellously is fulfilled at last The miracle for which our life was made.” Savitri-278 “At the head she stands of birth and toil and fate, In their slow round the cycles turn to her call; Alone her hands can change Time’s dragon base... The Might of all that never yet came down...” Savitri-314 “Awake not the immeasurable descent, Speak not my secret name to hostile Time; Man is too weak to bear the Infinite’s weight. Truth born too soon might break the imperfect earth.” Savitri-335 “Omnipotence, girdle with the power of God Movements and moments of a mortal will, Pack with the eternal might one human hour And with one gesture change all future time.” Savitri-345 “A Magician’s formulas have made Matter’s laws... All here can change if the Magician choose. If human will could be made one with God’s, If human thought could echo the thoughts of God, Man might be all-knowing and omnipotent... Then is he a miracle doing miracles.” Savitri-457-58 “All now is changed, yet all is still the same. Lo, we have looked upon the face of God, Our life has opened with divinity. We have borne identity with the Supreme And known his meaning in our mortal lives.” Savitri-719 Our All life is designed for the attainment of the ultimate aim of physical immortality through cellular transformation. There are rare moments in earth’s history, when the fragments of the Supreme Will have intervened in order to destroy old systems and create a new order. We are concerned with universal changes that will sweep ahead the whole race. For such a change to be practicable we have to begin our slow-paced individualised growth from the Subconscient domain. In our search of the mystery of the inner world we come across the miracle of constant change where our true Self becomes the leader of life and it bridges the gulf between the Superconscient Sheath and Inconscient Sheath. In the same inner journey when we arrive at a point where the intensity of the Divine Force, that is constantly descending, becomes high enough to generate the sense of a miracle. This miraculous change is generally noticed in our outer nature. But when the manifold Divine forces capture the body, life and mind from all sides, then we are at the verge of experiencing a total change. This total change is responsible for the entire illumination of the Inconscient Sheath. These are the stages of preparation through which humanity will arrive at the last point where ‘it reaches the miraculous instantaneous of the supreme divine Transformation.’¹⁶ This is the most radical change, which has been envisaged in the integral Yoga. An individual’s destiny is decreed for cellular transformation if he experiences ‘the dire delight that could shatter mortal flesh.’¹⁸ Mere men can open themselves to this high Spiritual law either by evolutionary nisus of Nature or by revolutionary individual effort by developing two faculties patiently without any haste; firstly, one should learn the lesson of bearing firmly the contact of pain and pleasure and arrive at indefinite capacity to endure the physical suffering and secondly the exceeding bliss born out of the touch of the Brahman through annulment of the mind must be repeated to the proportion of full possession of the Brahman , the All Delight. The cellular transformation of one body or The Mother’s body can repeat itself in endless bodies through infiltration of Divine Force ‘all the time, everywhere, in a minuscule, infinitesimal way.’²⁸ This infiltration is a part of Nature’s voluntary general action all over the earth to replace falsehood by Light, in her search for perfection and true solution of the problem of Life. OM TAT SAT References: - 1: The Mother’s Agenda-2/262, 2: “Repeating the marvel of the first descent,” Savitri-14, 3: “A repetition of God’s first delight” Savitri-38, 4: Savitri-44, 5: Savitri-198, 6: Savitri-135, 7: Savitri-225, 8: Savitri-220, 9: Savitri-255, 10: Savitri-329, 11: CWSA-21/The Life Divine/p-139, 12: CWSA-21/The Life Divine/p-145, 13: CWSA-21/The Life Divine/p-154, 14: Savitri-16, 15: Savitri-318, 16: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-68, 17: “But Sri Aurobindo said that if the divine Consciousness, the divine Power, the divine Love, the Truth, were to manifest on earth too rapidly, the earth would be dissolved!” The Mother’s Agenda-8/p-370. 18: Savitri-237, 19: The Mother-57, 20: The Mother-62, 21: The Mother’s Agenda-11/p-62, 22: “This character of our actually realised being and therefore our Yoga imposes on us certain limitations and primary difficulties which can only be overcome by (1) divine help or (2) an arduous practice, and in reality (3) only by the combination of both these aids.” CWSA/23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-392, 23: Savitri-706, 24: “Outlined by the pressure of this new descent” Savitri-354, 25: The Mother’s Agenda-5/p-60, 26: The Mother’s Agenda-5/p-110, 27: The Mother’s Agenda-5/p-116, 28: The Mother’s Agenda-5/p-95, 29: The Mother’s Agenda-5/p-204, 30: The Mother’s Agenda-5/p-207, 31: Savitri-672, 32: Savitri-689, 33: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-879-80, 34: Savitri-456, 35: Savitri-3, 36: The Mother’s Agenda/25.03.1964, 37: The Mother’s Agenda/25th November 1965, 38: Savitri-573, 39: Savitri-585, 40: Savitri-620, 41: “Intuition sees the truth of things by a direct inner contact, not like the ordinary mental intelligence by seeking and reaching out for indirect contacts through the senses etc. But the limitation of the Intuition as compared with the Supermind is that it sees things by flashes, point by point, not as a whole. Also in coming into the mind it gets mixed with the mental movement and forms a kind of intuitive-mind activity which is not the pure truth, but something in between the higher Truth and the mental seeking. It can lead the consciousness through a sort of transitional stage and that is practically its function.” CWSA-28/Letters on Yoga-I/p-159, “If we accept the Vedic image of the Sun of Truth, — an image which in this experience becomes a reality, — we may compare the action of the Higher Mind to a composed and steady sunshine, the energy of the Illumined Mind beyond it to an outpouring of massive lightnings of flaming sun-stuff. Still beyond can be met a yet greater power of the Truth-Force, an intimate and exact Truth-vision, Truth-thought, Truth-sense, Truth-feeling, Truth- action, to which we can give in a special sense the name of Intuition;…” CWSA-21/The Life Divine/p-292, “Intuition especially with its penetrative lightning flashes of truth lighting up local points and stretches of country in our consciousness, which can bring the concealed truth of things nearer to our comprehension, and, by opening ourselves more widely first in the inner being and then as a result in the outer surface self also to the messages of these higher ranges of consciousness, by growing into them, we can become ourselves also intuitive and overmental beings, not limited by the intellect and sense, but capable of a more universal comprehension and a direct touch of truth in its very self and body.” CWSA-21/The Life Divine/p-303, “It is when the consciousness of the subject meets with the conscious- ness in the object, penetrates it and sees, feels or vibrates with the truth of what it contacts, that the intuition leaps out like a spark or lightning-flash from the shock of the meeting; or when the consciousness, even without any such meeting, looks into itself and feels directly and intimately the truth or the truths that are there or so contacts the hidden forces behind appearances, then also there is the outbreak of an intuitive light; or, again, when the consciousness meets the Supreme Reality or the spiritual reality of things and beings and has a contactual union with it, then the spark, the flash or the blaze of intimate truth-perception is lit in its depths.” CWSA-22/The Life Divine/p-981, “…but on that higher level to which it (Intuition) is native its light is unmixed and therefore entirely and purely veridical, and its rays are not separated but connected or massed together in a play of waves of what might almost be called in the Sanskrit poetic figure a sea or mass of “stable lightnings”. When this original or native Intuition begins to descend into us in answer to an ascension of our consciousness to its level or as a result of our finding of a clear way of communication with it, it may continue to come as a play of lightning-flashes, isolated or in constant action; but at this stage the judgment of reason becomes quite inapplicable, it can only act as an observer or registrar under- standing or recording the more luminous intimations, judgments and discriminations of the higher power.” CWSA-22/The Life Divine/p-983, 42: TMCW-16/250, 43: CWSA-29/Letters on Yoga-II/p-195, Sri Ramakrishna’s saying, “With the Guru’s grace all difficulties can disappear in a flash, even as agelong darkness does the moment you strike a match.” (same page of Letters on Yoga) 44: The Mother’s Agenda-03.10.1962, 45: CWSA-21/The Life Divine/p-559, 46: CWSA-22/The Life Divine/p-765-66, 47: CWSA-22/The Life Divine/p-995-996, 48: CWSA-22/The Life Divine/p-970, 49: CWSA-22/The Life Divine/p-763, 50: TMCW-16/Some Answers from the Mother/p-427, 51: CWSA-19/Essays of the Gita/p-382, 52: The Mother/TMCW-vol-14/p-227, 53: “The next necessity of perfection is to raise all the active parts of the human nature to that highest condition and working pitch of their power and capacity, sakti, at which they become capable of being divinised into true instruments of the free, perfect, spiritual and divine action. For practical purposes we may take the understanding, the heart, the prana and the body as the four members of our nature which have thus to be prepared, and we have to find the constituent terms of their perfection. Also there is the dynamical force in us (vırya) of the temperament, character and soul nature, svabhava, which makes the power of our members effective in action and gives them their type and direction; this has to be freed from its limitations, enlarged, rounded so that the whole manhood in us may become the basis of a divine manhood, when the Purusha, the real Man in us, the divine Soul, shall act fully in this human instrument and shine fully through this human vessel. To divinise the perfected nature we have to call in the divine Power or Shakti to replace our limited human energy so that this may be shaped into the image of and filled with the force of a greater infinite energy, daivı prakriti, bhagavatı sakti. This perfection will grow in the measure in which we can surrender ourselves, first, to the guidance and then to the direct action of that Power and of the Master of our being and our works to whom it belongs, and for this purpose faith is the essential, faith is the great motor-power of our being in our aspirations to perfection, — here, a faith in God and the Shakti which shall begin in the heart and understanding, but shall take possession of all our nature, all its consciousness, all its dynamic motive-force. These four things are the essentials of this second element of perfection, the full powers of the members of the instrumental nature, the perfected dynamis of the soul nature, the assumption of them into the action of the divine Power, and a perfect faith in all our members to call and support that assumption, sakti, vırya, daivı prakriti, sraddha.” CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-693-694, 54: CWSA-22/The Life Divine/p-953, Download this WEB PAGE as a PDF file: "In all Yoga there are three essential objects to be attained by the seeker: (1) union or abiding contact with the Divine, (2) liberation of the soul or the Self, the Spirit, and (3) a certain change of the consciousness, the spiritual change. It is this change, which is necessary for reaching the other two objects, necessary at least to a certain degree, that is the cause of most of the struggles and difficulties; for it is not easy to accomplish it; a change of the mind, a change of the heart, a change of the habits of the will is called for and is obstinately resisted by our ignorant nature. In this Yoga a complete transformation of the nature is aimed at because that is necessary for the complete union and the complete liberation not only of the soul and the spirit but of the nature itself. It is also a Yoga of works and of the integral divine life; for that the integral transformation of nature is evidently necessary ; the union with the Divine has to carry with it a full entrance into the divine consciousness and the divine nature; there must be not only sayujya or salokya but sadrisya or, as it is called in the Gita, sadharmya . The full Yoga, Purna Yoga, means a fourfold path, a Yoga of knowledge for the mind, a Yoga of bhakti for the heart, a Yoga of works for the will and a Yoga of perfection for the whole nature. But, ordinarily, if one can follow wholeheartedly any one of these lines, one arrives at the result of all the four. For instance, by bhakti one becomes close to the Divine, becomes intensely aware of Him and arrives at knowledge, for the Divine is the Truth and the Reality; by knowing Him, says the Upanishads , one comes to know all. By bhakti also the will is led into the road of the works of love and the service of the Divine and the government of the nature and its acts by the Divine, and that is Karmayoga. By bhakti also comes spiritual change of the consciousness and the action of the nature which is the first step towards its transformation. So it is with all the other lines of the fourfold path." Sri Aurobindo CWSA-31/Letters on Yoga-IV/p-686-687

The Central Truth of Savitri “Night of April 12-13, 1962. Suddenly in the night I woke up with the full awareness of what we could call the Yoga of the world. The Supreme Love was manifesting through big pulsations, and each pulsation was bringing the world further in its manifestation. It was the formidable pulsations of the eternal, stupendous Love, only Love: each pulsation of the Love was carrying the universe further in its manifestation… All the results of the Falsehood had disappeared: Death was an illusion, Sickness was an illusion, Ignorance was an illusion--- something that had no reality, no existence… Only Love, and Love, and Love, and Love –immense, formidable, stupendous, carrying everything.” ¹ The Mother Om Namo Bhagavateh Sri Matriniketan Ashram 15.09.2005 Adorable Pranab Da, Accept our pranam.... Kindly recollect our very auspicious meeting with you on 4th August (my birth day) and 5th August-2005. We were three (Bikram, S.A. Maa Krishna and B.K.B), and you were happy to receive us without knowing our identity and told us how the name of Berhampur has changed to Brahmapuram... Before our departure on 5th August, incidentally I got an opportunity to read few pages of your book in Garden Guest house library, where you narrated a special chakra in the body and through it one can enter the domain of ‘mind of light’ and also how your father got the Darshan of Sri Aurobindo by escaping from Sri Dilip Kumar Ray’s room. We returned with the feeling that those who lead true life have no pretension. We, along with few inmates are staying in Sri Matriniketan Ashram, 11k.m. away from Brahmapur, in a three acre land, isolated from human habitation, in a lonely place. Along with us there are around ten dedicated members who are helping the Divine work from outside and some of them are preparing to join us. A school is attached to it (The Mother’s Ideal Integral School) with students and teachers coming from nearby locality... We were overwhelmed by your strong personality and received strong gust of The Mother’s Love through you. The cassettes presented by you were music and song of new thrill and will be introduced in the school function. In this letter we pray you to grant your good will and blessing towards us, though you told us, “The Mother alone can give blessings and I can extend my good will”. What we feel that you are no longer different from The Mother and your identity with The Mother is already sustained. Your long physical contact with The Mother and also with Sri Aurobindo, gives us opportunity and strength in our Spiritual journey, and we keep strong hope that you are our inspiration on behalf of The Mother... To be simple, strong, straightforward, all-embracing love and devotion towards the Mother, that is what we can learn from you. To keep in constant touch with you without any motive is a tremendous task before us. Sri Matriniketan Ashram is emerging as a true and rare Divine Centre in south Orissa. I am enclosing two copies of our Journal ‘The Descent’ along with this letter where an attempt has been made towards a comprehensive study on Savitri. Grant your blessings on this new born quarterly magazine, released on each Darshan day, extending our gratitude towards the Lord and The Mother. I had an opportunity of meeting The Mother in Her room thrice during my birth day and my age was 7,8 & 9 (1970,71,72) and I had the memory of seeing you there (if my memory is correct)... But my memory of (Sri) Champaklal calling my name is very clear. In the year 1973, I had come to Pondicherry for my birthday along with my birth mother. During that time the Mother had stopped giving Darshan due to Her ill health. One morning, near Samadhi, we heard a loud conversation between you (in English) and the Mother (in French). We gratefully heard the Mother’s most sweet Divine loving voice and your commanding voice with folded hands and the agony of not seeing Her on my birth day was recompensed. With our deep love and regards. At Their Lotus Feet, Bikram N.B. As a memory of my meeting with the Mother, I am able to save Her hand written Birth day card which reads ‘Bonne Fête La Bikram’ and a laminated preservation of Birthday flower bunch, She gave me. From my little French study I came to know that the French word “La” is feminine and I believe that the Mother has drawn my aspiration towards Savitri’s dream vision of collective living of “the virgin bridals of the dawn.” (Savitri-401) Pranab Kumar Bhattacharya Director Department of Physical Education Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry Dated: 23.09.2005 Dear Bikram bhai, Your letter dated 15.09.2005 along with a copy of “The Descent” (Feb-2005-The Central Truth of Savitri) and the paper of 15.08.2005 (The Descent-August-2005-The Book of Bliss) in hand. I have gone through them and found interesting. Glad to know about your dedication for (the) Mother’s work. Sending Her Ashirvadi (blessings). May She guide you and protect you always. With very best wishes. Yours affectionately “Dada” (Incidentally above two papers of The Descent that received Dada’s SUPPORT and also Sri K. Anurakta’s (our Spiritual Fosterer) Grace, which later transformed into ‘THE DIVINE BLISS’ book which was inaugurated in the World Hindu Wisdom Meet, 2014, at Bali, Indonesia.) The Central Truth of Savitri or The Book of Love “Remembrance was a poignant pang, she felt Each day a golden leaf torn cruelly out From her too slender book of love and joy.” Savitri-469 The Divine Love that has built and sustained the creation, has also the greatest power for physical transformation and those very few, who will be able to receive, hold and canalise the fragments of Divine Love of this universal proportion, for the highest evolutionary leap of the race, must satisfy five conditions; firstly, they must have a strong and balanced body and spontaneous and integral purity in order to bear the intensity of the Supreme Ananda ; secondly, they must totally give up all external pleasure by renouncing all participation in the active life by plunging into a rigorous asceticism² or the askesis of above order can be avoided if the inner illumination and sublimation of the being is sufficient enough to reject automatically all gross and obscure enjoyments; thirdly, in order to arrive at the full possession of the subtle and causal body, the physical organs must be sealed against the disturbance of human sight and sound; or as an alternative the mind has to be drawn inward to the depths by the force of the concentration so that the call of physical things can no longer easily attain to it; fourthly a growth of receptive and collaborative surroundings that include more flowers and plants, less animals, birds and children and less human beings; for plants and animals collaborate more in Supramental action and the small collectivity will be the representative of Spiritual concentration; lastly the above discipline and tapasya must accompany true humility and total dependency on the Divine so as to counter the growth of the ego and the pride. What are Human and Divine Love?: “He (King) felt the beating life in other men Invade him with their happiness and their grief; Their love, their anger, their unspoken hopes Entered in currents or in pouring waves Into the immobile ocean of his calm.” Savitri-27 “It turns in us to finite loves and lusts, The will to conquer and have, to seize and keep, To enlarge life’s room and scope and pleasure’s range, To battle and overcome and make one’s own, The hope to mix one’s joy with others’ joy, A yearning to possess and be possessed, To enjoy and be enjoyed, to feel, to live.” Savitri-139-140 “A fragile human love that could not last,.. Joy that forgot mortality for a while Came, a rare visitor who left betimes, And made all things seem beautiful for an hour, Hopes that soon fade to drab realities And passions that crumble to ashes while they blaze Kindled the common earth with their brief flame. A creature insignificant and small Visited, uplifted by an unknown Power,” Savitri-159 “His little hour is spent in little things. A brief companionship with many jars, A little love and jealousy and hate, A touch of friendship mid indifferent crowds Draw his heart-plan on life’s diminutive map.” Savitri-164 “There was no act, no movement in its Vast:… There was no mind there with its need to know, There was no heart there with its need to love.” Savitri-308 “But vain are human power and human love To break earth’s seal of ignorance and death; ... Man, sole awake in an unconscious world, Aspires in vain to change the cosmic dream.” Savitri-315-316 “Too little the strength that now with us is born, Too faint the light that steals through Nature’s lids, Too scant the joy with which she buys our pain.” Savitri-342 “Or bound by the senses and the longing heart, Adoring with a turbid human love, They could not grasp the mighty spirit she was Or change by closeness to be even as she.” Savitri-363 “No transient earthly love assailed her calm,” Savitri-367 “Only a little lifted is Mind’s screen; The Wise who know see but one half of Truth, The strong climb hardly to a low-peaked height, The hearts that yearn are given one hour to love.” Savitri-372 “Wilt thou not make this mortal bliss thy sphere?” Savitri-408 “Love dies before the lover in our breast: Our joys are perfumes in a brittle vase.” Savitri-433 “Thy mind’s light hides from thee the Eternal’s thought, Thy heart’s hopes hide from thee the Eternal’s will, Earth’s joys shut from thee the Immortal’s bliss.” Savitri-443 “A body seeing the end too soon of joy And the fragile happiness of its mortal love.” Savitri-470 (Death said) “I lay waste human happiness with my breath And slay the will to live, the joy to be” Savitri-535 (Death said) “Your transient loves bind not the eternal gods.” Savitri-581 (Death said) “It (human love) is a passion of thy yearning cells, It is flesh that calls to flesh to serve its lust; It is thy mind that seeks an answering mind And dreams awhile that it has found its mate; It is thy life that asks a human prop To uphold its weakness lonely in the world Or feeds its hunger on another’s life.” Savitri-608 (Death said) “For thy passion was a sensual want refined, A hunger of the body and the heart; Thy want can tire and cease or turn elsewhere.” Savitri-611 (Death said) “Wisdom and love thou claimest as thy right; But knowledge in this world is error’s mate, A brilliant procuress of Nescience, And human love a posturer on earth-stage Who imitates with verve a faery dance. An extract pressed from hard experience, Man’s knowledge casked in the barrels of Memory Has the harsh savour of a mortal draught: A sweet secretion from the erotic glands Flattering and torturing the burning nerves, Love is a honey and poison in the breast Drunk by it as the nectar of the gods.” Savitri-618-619 (Death said) “Love shall bind by thee many gathered hearts. The opposite sweetness in thy days shall meet Of tender service to thy life’s desired And loving empire over all thy loved, Two poles of bliss made one, O Savitri. Return, O child, to thy forsaken earth.” Savitri-637 (Death said) “A transient painting on a holiday’s floor Traced for a moment’s beauty love was made.” (Death speaks of the limitation of human love.) Savitri-637 “And Mind in a half-light moves amid half-truths And the human heart knows only human love And life is a stumbling and imperfect force And the body counts out its precarious days,” Savitri-703 “Without self-giving there is no love; but self-giving is very rare in human love which is full of selfishness and demands.”¹¹⁵ The Mother Human love is defined as an exclusive dual enjoyment and a fragile happiness between the lover and the beloved in their heart’s secret chamber by an entire separation from the World, the Self and the God; whereas in the Divine Love this exclusive enjoyment excludes neither the World, nor the Self, nor the God and could deliver mental, vital and physical love from their utter deficiencies. Human love experiences a joy that forgets death for a brief period or ‘Joy that forgot mortality for a while.’¹⁰⁵ It is a brief sattwic flame that can crumble vital passion to ashes⁹⁷ and a sattwic smile can persuade ‘a dead lacerated heart to live again and feel the hands of calm.’⁹⁷ The heart that yearns human love will be tired within one hour, unable to feel it in a continuous way, whereas Divine love is tireless in its nature and can be experienced through all eternity. The Divine Love needs no human hand to feel and clasp but its mighty touch or vibration can heighten ‘the intimacy of soul with soul’⁹⁹ and prolongs ‘the nearness of soul’s clasp with soul,’¹⁰⁰ yet this subtle physical Divine Love remains untouched, pure and alone. Human relationship has a beginning and an end whereas subtle physical relation continues from birth after birth. Human love dies while the lover is still alive on earth. It has a beginning and an end. It is like the perfume of a brief joy and roadside sweetness that ‘earth-bound hearts would pluck.’¹¹⁹ If Satyavan had lived long, human love would have died in the tired human breast and if he lives for a short period then human love will survive awhile, then it will be replaced by other human admirers. This is the reality of earthly life. Whereas Divine Love lives, nourishes, grows and fulfils life long after the death of the Lover. It awakens the Psychic and Spiritual contacts which are the perennial Source of our existence. This Love is identified as subtle physical Love which has the capacity to bridge earth and heaven. This subtle physical relation exists between the Guru and the Disciple in the Psycho-Spiritual plane and the Guru uplifts, takes care and nourishes the Disciple continuously after his physical departure from the body. With the divine union Soul force increases. Soul force strengthens and densifies the subtle physical sheath. Soul saving Subtle physical love can replace the Soul slaying gross physical love. When Subtle physical love becomes strong, it reconciles the human and divine Love. Thus, divine Love can transform life. The object of human love is meant to procreate children and by their attachment forget Divine and on one fine morning Death abruptly ends all the charm of life. In order to prevent Death from becoming a reality, one must discover his Psychic Being. The Queen, the human mother of Savitri, understands the limitation of human love of Moderate and Spiritual Love of Ascetic/Mayavadin /Illusionist/Nirvanist which do not take care to annul human suffering and miseries. (Queen said to Savitri) “Choose once again and leave this fated head, Death is the gardener of this wonder-tree; Love’s sweetness sleeps in his pale marble hand.” Savitri-431 (Queen said to Savitri) “Here on this mutable and ignorant earth Who is the lover and who is the friend? All passes here, nothing remains the same. None is for any on this transient globe.” Savitri-432-33 (Queen said to Savitri) “Only when thou hast climbed above thy mind And liv’st in the calm vastness of the One Can love be eternal in the eternal Bliss And love divine replace the human tie.” Savitri-434 Human love is experienced by exciting the mind, life and body and in the Divine Love they are silenced. In the Yoga of devotion, the normal emotional human aspect is applied no longer to transient worldly relation, but to the joy of All-Loving, the All-Beautiful and the All-Blissful.³ Human love can least satisfy human emotions because it is not free from desire, fear, reaction, fluctuation and attachment and is helpless to harmonise its myriad deformations and perversions. In human love, (whose essence is Divine Love) this unlimited Divine Love suffers limitation, incomprehension, embarrassment, corruption, degradation and narrowness¹²⁷ and restricts itself to the participation of small happiness, external life’s crude movement and obstinately inferior motives. The Divine Love is entirely motiveless and is possessed by self-existent Bliss. Man can ascend to the stairs of self-existent motiveless enjoyment through four successive stages of devotion. First, he is an arta , who calls the Divine during moments of crisis and distress, unable to possess Him but entirely possessed by forces of Ignorance and powers that labour to debase; secondly, he is an artharthi devotee, who seeks the Divine for personal gains, for the satisfaction of his desire, eager to possess Him but limited in capacity through deceptive instruments; thirdly, he is a jijnasu, the seeker after God knowledge who seeks both to possess and be possessed, to receive and give himself to Him in a limited way and lastly he becomes Jnani, the God-knower who possesses Him utterly and be possessed by Him utterly. The God-knower is also a God lover because by knowledge of His being comes the whole delight and he becomes a living channel of the Supreme's descent and the cells become capable of holding this supreme Vibration. The Nature of Divine Love: “Here with the suddenness divine advents have, Repeating the marvel of the first descent, Changing to rapture the dull earthly round, Love came to her hiding the shadow, Death. Well might he (Divine Love) find in her his perfect shrine.” Savitri-14 “Pure mystic voices in beatitude’s hush Appealed to Love’s immaculate sweetnesses, Calling his (Love’s) honeyed touch to thrill the worlds, His (Love’s) blissful hands to seize on Nature’s limbs, His (Love’s) sweet intolerant might of union To take all beings into his (Love’s) saviour arms, Drawing to his (Love’s) pity the rebel and the waif To force on them the happiness they refuse.” Savitri-123 “He (Divine Love) is still the godhead by which all can change.” Savitri-397 “Rare is the cup fit for love’s nectar wine, As rare the vessel that can hold God’s birth; A soul made ready through a thousand years Is the living mould of a supreme Descent.” Savitri-398 “Then Love shall at last unwounded tread earth’s soil; Man’s mind shall admit the sovereignty of Truth And body bear the immense descent of God.” Savitri-516 “He (Divine Love) labours in the depths, exults on the heights; He (Divine Love) shall remake thy universe, O Death.” Savitri-592 Love offers kinghood: Love links life with past births. Love calls down Power to make a new base of life. A smile of love sanctions the long game of life and the sweetness of a love is oblivious of death. Love can recognise the Souls linked with him from past births. Love is a glory from eternity’s sphere. Earth cannot hold Divine Love; the moment he (Love) descends he is abased and disfigured. Love is the godhead by which all the untransformed Nature can change or Love has transforming Power. Love awaits in the heart as an unopened flower. Love penetrates during our sleep and waking state and gives an unknown charm and thrill. Love seeks himself in many minds, hearts and living creatures. Love can call down visions that can look at the Invisible. Without this Love, life has waited long unfilled. Love can bring a God-like sense. Love seeks his truth not in heaven but on earth. Love is a beautiful slave of God preoccupied in transforming earth-Nature. Love’s mission is deceived by surface mind, life and body. Love’s mission is debased by tamasic, rajasic and sattwic inconscient energies. Love’s nectar wine can be held by very few fit Souls. It asks for a thousand years of conscious sadhana. Supreme Love descends to earth through fit Souls. Those who give birth to Avataras (symbol of Divine Love), they are identified as the virgin Mother, Para-prakriti. Lovers meet each other through different paths by travelling across limitless plains of Time; in this birth they link their past births with their future births. Through their meeting, future Divine Life is built. A Brief Touch of Divine Love: ¹ ⁵³ “The persistent thrill of a transfiguring touch Persuaded the inert black quietude And beauty and wonder disturbed the fields of God.” Savitri-3 “A hurried imperfect glimpse of heavenly things, Guesses and travesties of celestial types.” Savitri-77 “But rarely burns the flame nor burns for long; The joy it calls from those diviner heights Brings brief magnificent reminiscences And high splendid glimpses of interpreting thought, But not the utter vision and delight.” Savitri-112-13 “Absorbed in the present act, the fleeting days, None thought to look beyond the hour’s gains, Or dreamed to make this earth a fairer world, Or felt some touch divine surprise his heart.” Savitri-145 “A quick celestial flash could sometimes come: The illumined soul-ray fell on heart and flesh And touched with semblances of ideal light The stuff of which our earthly dreams are made.” Savitri-159 “Some face of deathless beauty could be caught… Some hue of the Absolute could fall on life, Some glory of knowledge and intuitive sight, Some passion of the rapturous heart of Love.” Savitri-175-176 “A touch supreme surprised his hurrying heart, The clasp was remembered of the Wonderful, And hints leaped down of white beatitudes.” Savitri-237 “This limited being lifted to zenith bliss, Happy to enjoy one touch of things supreme,” Savitri-239 “A splendour sullied by the mortal air, Love passes through his heart, a wandering guest Beauty surrounds him for a magic hour, He has visits of a large revealing joy, Brief widenesses release him from himself, Enticing towards a glory ever in front Hopes of a deathless sweetness lure and leave.” Savitri-340 “Some near approached, were touched, caught fire, then failed, Too great was her demand, too pure her force.” (This line indicates Savitri's virgin Mother status is surrounded by a vast world of humanity with an active lower nature symbolised as harlot Power. It is difficult to bridge the gulf between them.) Savitri-366 “All that the lightning-flash of love reveals… Even a brief nearness has reshaped my life.” Savitri-406 “A little bliss is lent thee from above, A touch divine upon thy human days.” Savitri-451 “Bliss was an incident of a mortal hour, A stranger in the insentient universe.” Savitri-455 “Awhile she moved through a blank tranquillity Of naked Light from an invisible sun, A void that was a bodiless happiness, A blissful vacuum of nameless peace.” Savitri-491 “The prophet moment covered limitless Space And cast into the heart of hurrying Time A diamond light of the Eternal’s peace, A crimson seed of God’s felicity; A glance from the gaze fell of undying Love.” Savitri-712 “Love, in its essence and in its origin, is like a white flame obliterating ALL resistances. You can have the experience yourself: whatever the difficulty in your being, whatever the weight of accumulated mistakes, the ignorance, incapacity, bad will, a single SECOND of this Love – pure, essential, supreme – melts everything in its almighty flame. One single moment and an entire past can vanish. One single TOUCH of That in its essence and the whole burden is consumed.”¹⁰³ The Mother With the increase of purity, a brief touch of Divine Love can flow through human vessels and can bring unimaginable change in the inner subtle physical and outer life. So, before the consciousness is established in the Supramental plane a Sadhaka can aspire for a brief touch of Divine Love and ‘a single SECOND of this Love – pure, essential, supreme – melts everything in its almighty flame. One single moment and an entire past can vanish. One single TOUCH of That in its essence and the whole burden is consumed.’¹⁰³ Savitri book confirms that a brief touch of Divine Love through Satyavan’s Presence is more intense and more fulfilled than the ‘riches of a thousand fortunate years’¹¹¹ of human love and association. Transformation of Human Love into Divine Love: “Its (Divine Love’s) bodies woven by a divine sense Prolonged the nearness of soul’s clasp with soul; Its warm play of external sight and touch Reflected the glow and thrill of the heart’s joy, Mind’s climbing brilliant thoughts, the spirit’s bliss; Life’s rapture kept for ever its flame and cry.” Savitri-329 “I have discovered my glad reality Beyond my body in another’s being: I have found the deep unchanging soul of love... Only now for my soul in Satyavan.” Savitri-435 “Always behind this strange divided life Her spirit like a sea of living fire Possessed her lover and to his body clung, One locked embrace to guard its threatened mate.” Savitri-471 “Yet ever they grew into each other more Until it seemed no power could rend apart, Since even the body’s walls could not divide.” Savitri-473 “Or call into thy chamber the Divine And sit with God tasting a human joy.” Savitri-535 “All our earth starts from mud and ends in sky, And Love that was once an animal’s desire, Then a sweet madness in the rapturous heart, An ardent comradeship in the happy mind, Becomes a wide spiritual yearning’s space. A lonely soul passions for the Alone, The heart that loved man thrills to the love of God, A body is his chamber and his shrine.” Savitri-632 “I (Savitri) quiver no more with the assault of grief; A mighty calmness seated deep within Has occupied my body and my sense: It takes the world’s grief and transmutes to strength, It makes the world’s joy one with the joy of God. My love eternal sits throned on God’s calm; For Love must soar beyond the very heavens And find its secret sense ineffable; It (Love) must change its human ways to ways divine, Yet keep its sovereignty of earthly bliss.” Savitri-633 “My will is greater than thy law, O Death; My love is stronger than the bonds of Fate: Our love is the heavenly seal of the Supreme. I guard that seal against thy rending hands. Love must not cease to live upon the earth; For Love is the bright link twixt earth and heaven, Love is the far Transcendent’s angel here; Love is man’s lien on the Absolute.” Savitri-633 “And all her life was conscious of his life And all her being rejoiced enfolding his.” Savitri-715 “Our love has grown greater by that mighty touch And learned its heavenly significance, Yet nothing is lost of mortal love’s delight.” Savitri-719 “And let me say also that, as regards human love and divine love, I admitted the first as that from which we have to proceed and to arrive at the other, intensifying and transforming into it, not eliminating, human love. Divine Love, in my view of it, is again not something ethereal, cold and far, but a love absolutely intense, intimate and full of unity, closeness and rapture using all the nature for its expression.”¹²⁰ Sri Aurobindo The gulf between human and Divine Love can be bridged by developing subtle physical faculties or subtle physical love which is possible by entering more and more into the waking and non-waking trance of the Psychic and Spiritual plane respectively. Humanity is not aware of a subtle physical love where love continues to nourish and fulfil life after the lover is long dead. Savitri book proposes all (prepared Souls) secretly and symbolically replace human love with subtle physical love which needs no hand to clasp, no feet to move. Subtle physical union keeps the body untouched and pure. It links love with past and future births extending through all life. This imperishable subtle physical love is further complemented and perfected by the touch of subtle vital, subtle mental, Psychic, Spiritual, Universal and Supramental Love. This subtle physical love purifies, transforms and perfects human love. In a collective Divine living, an individual ‘will be identified with the Divine and with others (fellow brothers) only through the divine consciousness and not through the mental nature.’¹⁰⁶ In a Divine Centre, ‘Influence is not the outward authority of the Teacher over his disciple, but the power of his contact, of his presence, of the nearness of his soul to the soul of another, infusing into it, even though in silence, that which he himself is and possesses.’¹¹⁷ For the development of the above Divine faculties, Psychic and Spiritual opening are imperative. A few such examples are presented which can widen our existing understanding: “His (King Aswapati’s) inner self grew near to others’ selves And bore a kinship’s weight, a common tie, Yet stood untouched, king of itself, alone.” Savitri-27 “She meditates upon mighty words and looks On the unseen links that join the parted spheres.” Savitri-85 “A subtle link of union joins all life. Thus all creation is a single chain:” Savitri-110 “At last the struggling Energy can emerge And meet the voiceless Being in wider fields; Then can they see and speak and, breast to breast, In a larger consciousness, a clearer light, The Two embrace and strive and each know each Regarding closer now the playmate’s face.” Savitri-141 “In the communion of two meeting minds (subtle mental union) Thought looked at thought and had no need of speech; Emotion clasped emotion in two hearts, (subtle vital union) They felt each other’s thrill in the flesh and nerves (subtle physical union) Or melted each in each and grew immense (Spiritual union) As when two houses burn and fire joins fire:” (Psychic union) Savitri-186 “Being felt being even when afar And consciousness replied to consciousness. And yet the ultimate oneness was not there. There was a separateness of soul from soul:” Savitri-187 “Thought was not there but a knowledge near and one Seized on all things by a moved identity, A sympathy of self with other selves, The touch of consciousness on consciousness And being’s look on being with inmost gaze And heart laid bare to heart without walls of speech And the unanimity of seeing minds In myriad forms luminous with the one God.” Savitri-292 “Life was not there, but an impassioned force, Finer than fineness, deeper than the deeps, Felt as a subtle and spiritual power, A quivering out from soul to answering soul, A mystic movement, a close influence, A free and happy and intense approach Of being to being with no screen or check, Without which life and love could never have been.” Savitri-292 “There was no cleavage between soul and soul, There was no barrier between world and God. Overpowered were form and memory’s limiting line; The covering mind was seized and torn apart; It was dissolved and now no more could be, The one Consciousness that made the world was seen; All now was luminosity and force.” Savitri-319 “A universal vision that unites, A sympathy of nerve replying to nerve,… A touch that needs not hands to feel, to clasp, Were there the native means of consciousness And heightened the intimacy of soul with soul.” Savitri-325 “Heart feels for heart, limb cries for answering limb; All strives to enforce the unity all is.” Savitri-398 “Amazed by a joy for which they (Savitri & Satyavan) had waited long, The lovers met upon their different paths, Travellers across the limitless plains of Time Together drawn from fate-led journeyings In the self-closed solitude of their human past, To a swift rapturous dream of future joy And the unexpected present of these eyes.” Savitri-399 “Or else she (Savitri) strove even in mortal time To build a little room for timelessness By the deep union of two human lives, Her soul secluded shut into his soul.” Savitri-471 “For when he (Satyavan) wandered in the forest, oft Her (Savitri’s) conscious spirit walked with him and knew His actions as if in herself he moved; He, less aware, thrilled with her from afar.” Savitri-473 “Wordless she travelled in her lover’s steps, Planting her human feet where his had trod, Into the perilous silences beyond.” Savitri-577 ‘The division of our being from the being of others can only be healed (1) by removing the divorce of our nature from the inner soul-reality, (2) by abolishing the veil between our becoming and our self-being, (3) by bridging the remoteness of our individuality in Nature from the Divine being who is the omnipresent Reality in Nature and above Nature.’¹¹² The transformation of transient unstable vital enjoyment of human love into eternal Divine Love is the prerogative of few decreed developed Soul⁹¹ through practice of mutual self-giving, an interfusion of inner substance, vision through identity, by rapturous fusion of ‘two souls into one’¹¹⁴ body of the God followed by similar fusion of two bodies into one Soul of God and its universalisation. The former is the Psychic experience of ‘wedding of the eternal Lord and Spouse’⁵³ or ‘A diarchy of two united souls,’⁹² in waking trance and the latter is its extension of Spiritual experience of ‘A single being in two bodies clasped,’⁹² or ‘A burning of two bodies in one flame’¹⁰⁴ in dream and sleep trance and its further extension in universal plane as ‘Wedded to all he had been, became himself’⁵⁴ or ‘The calm delight that weds one soul to all.’¹⁰² Or in integral Yoga, exclusive Psychic Divine Love begins with the Soul’s union (Jivatma ) with the Divine (Paramatma) and here one could live without the attraction of mental imitations and without the aid of human lover. This Psychic Love cannot keep itself satisfied with the highest intensities of exclusive enjoyment; it calls down entire truth of Divine Love in Spiritual and universal plane in which ‘one could love without return for love’¹ ¹⁶ and it includes all the worlds and worlds beyond to be possessed by the intensities of Supreme Ananda . The nature of the highest Divine Love is all-inclusive, all-embracing, all compassionate, universal, eternal, absolute immobility and unparalleled intensity of absolute vibration. In order to keep Divine Love unalloyed, warm and homogenous vibratory mass it must search truth in close proximity with the Divine union in Personal, Impersonal, Universal and Transcendent planes. When human love transforms into universalised Divine Love, annulling all division and separation of Consciousness, ‘Then shall the business fail of Night and Death.’⁹⁶ The human love, governed by Nature’s law, which has no power to break the earth’s seal of ignorance, incapacity, inertia and death and it can be transformed into all powerful Divine Love, governed by Supernature’s Law, only when the Lover and the Beloved either by the privilege of past birth or by the Tapasya and consecration of present birth open either to their larger, deeper and more plastic Psychic or Spiritual Being. Thus, the depth and sweetness of mortal emotional joy is fulfilled by the emergence of a wider and more complete movement of Divine Love. Those who have received Savitri’s Divine Love for them all earthly joy, heavenly joy and self-existent joy become pale, insufficient and obsolete. Psychic Love is ‘Much sweeter… than any rapture known’¹⁵⁵ and its ‘momentary and escaping thrill’¹⁵⁵ cannot be recompensed by ‘Earth or all-conquering heaven.’¹⁵⁵ Spiritual Love gives the sense of impersonal Love, Peace, Silence, infinite Existence, infinite Consciousness and ‘The Bliss that none can ever hope to taste.’¹⁵ ⁶ Universal Love is ‘A constant touch of sweetness that linked all hearts’¹⁵ ⁷ and “Thrilled with the hidden Transcendent’s joy and peace.’¹⁵ ⁸ Supramental Love turns ‘to the best the worst,’¹⁵ ⁹ heals ‘the bitter cruelties of earth’¹⁵ ⁹ and ‘A joy exceeding earth’s and heaven’s poured down.’¹⁵ ⁹ This Supramental 'Divine Love descends first as something transcendent and universal and out of that transcendence and universality it applies itself to persons according to the Divine Truth and Will, creating a vaster, greater, purer personal love than any the human mind or heart can now imagine .'¹ ⁶ ⁰ The dynamisation of Supramental energy can lead towards entry into the dark Subconscient sheath and discovery of the Subconscient Self, which is identified as another important achievement ‘whose priceless value could have saved the world’¹ ⁶ ¹ and all error and pain ‘became a quivering ecstasy.’¹ ⁶ ² Then subsequently entry into Inconscient sheath and discovery of the Inconscient Self is identified as one of the last and most profound Spiritual experiences, ‘the grand solution’¹ ⁶ ³ in which the height of mortal effort end and in that darkest world ‘A bliss is born that can remake our life.'¹⁶ ⁴ Avenir Light is a clean and stylish font favored by designers. It's easy on the eyes and a great go-to font for titles, paragraphs & more. Sevenfold personal relation with the Divine: “I am the Madran, I am Savitri. (She is both human and Divine, Jivatma and Para-prakriti) All that I was before, I am to thee still, (human and Divine Lover) Close comrade of thy thoughts and hopes and toils, (The Divine Friend and Playmate) All happy contraries I would join for thee. All sweet relations marry in our life; (The Divine Lover and Beloved.) I am thy kingdom even as thou art mine, The sovereign and the slave of thy desire, (The play with Divine Master is possible through slavehood) Thy prone possessor, sister of thy soul (brotherhood is a derivative of the original personality of Divine Fatherhood.) And mother of thy wants; thou art my world, (The Divine Mother of all-life.) The earth I need, the heaven my thoughts desire, (The Wisdom of Divine Teacher.) The world I inhabit and the god I adore.” Savitri-719-20 Savitri book projects Avataras as brother Souls and slave of all humanity, where Savitri became the Mother of Satyavan’s ‘natural brothers’¹⁰⁷ and ‘She made herself the diligent serf of all.’¹⁰⁹ And, also Divine asks Savitri to take care of earth creatures and further directed her, ‘Thou shalt not shrink from any brother soul.’¹⁰⁸ Since only in the Divine, human emotion can find its real and utter satisfaction, therefore all the life of the Soul is satisfied by the seven-fold personal relation with the divine Beloved and the joy of these relations due to their self-existent motiveless nature, purifies the emotional mind and enhances its capacity to hold more Ananda. A similar fulfilment is demanded of our universal and impersonal part through universal and impersonal union with the Divine. These relationships are not imaginations of mind or illusions but Spiritual facts and the intensity of these relations can multiply in the process of Yoga and ultimately the lover does not seek heaven or liberation from birth or any other thing, but to lose himself eternally in the sole clasp of the Divine Beloved. A Sadhaka of integral Yoga has to realise the World-existence as Lila, Divine Play and he has to become a woman and paramour in Consciousness in order to enter right relation with the Divine Beloved, he has to become the slave and servant in order to enter relation with the Divine Master, he has to become a supple and plastic child with full of joy in order to become a playmate of the Divine Mother and Divine Father, he has to become a student and disciple in order to enter right relation with the Divine Teacher, he has to become a friend and playmate in order to enter relation with his Divine Friend and Playmate. Through intensification of these seven-fold personal relations with the Divine, the Godhead breaks out from a human mould and the Soul of man becomes eternally young, perpetually inexhaustible, creating and re-creating Himself in himself for the pure bliss of that self-creation and self-representation and thus the Divine becomes the Play, the Player and the Playground. As long as the lower Nature in man is active or he is under the subjection of physical (tamasic) mind and vital (rajasic) mind, his godward possibility is seriously restricted and he searches for an outward divisible human love to make up his emotional deficiencies. 1) Discipleship to God the Guru : “He comes unseen into our darker parts And, curtained by the darkness, does his work, A subtle and all-knowing guest and guide, Till they too feel the need and will to change.” Savitri-35 “Or listens following a bodiless Guide” Savitri-80 “Awake with a cry and stir of numberless souls, Arisen from the breast of some deep Infinite, Smiling like a new-born child at love and hope, In her nature housing the Immortal’s power, In her bosom bearing the eternal Will, No guide she needed but her luminous heart:” Savitri-128 “The unfelt Self within who is the guide, The unknown Self above who is the goal.” Savitri-168 “Guide of the traveller of the unseen paths,” Savitri-295 “Young grave disciples fashioned by their touch,” Savitri-382 “And how shall the end be vain when God is guide?” Savitri-339 “They moved unable to forego her light, Desiring they clutched at her with outstretched hands Or followed stumbling in the paths she (Savitri ) made.” Savitri-363 “She (Savitri) walked in their front towards a greater light, Their leader and queen over their hearts and souls,” Savitri-363 “She (Savitri) held their hands, she chose for them their paths: They were moved by her towards great unknown things,” Savitri-364 “Thy soul has strength and needs no other guide” Savitri-374 “One force shall be your mover and your guide, One light shall be around you and within; Hand in strong hand confront Heaven’s question, life:” Savitri-374-375 “A way proposed by an unerring Guide.” Savitri-378 “A ray from self’s solitude of light the guide;” Savitri-460 “All stumbled on behind a stumbling Guide, Yet every stumble is a needed pace On unknown routes to an unknowable goal.” Savitri-625 “The mortal (Savitri ) led, the god (Death ) and spirit (Satyavan ) obeyed And she behind was leader of their march And they in front were followers of her will.” Savitri-639, “Only in an uplifting hour of stress Men answer to the touch of greater things: Or, raised by some strong hand to breathe heaven-air, They slide back to the mud from which they climbed;” Savitri-689 “One cannot imagine –one cannot imagine what a grace it is to have someone in whose hands you can place yourself entirely! By whom you can let yourself be guided without having the need to seek. I had that, I was very, very conscious of it as long as Sri Aurobindo was there. And when he left his body, it was a dreadful collapse...One cannot imagine. Someone you can refer to with the certainty that what he says will be the truth.”⁷² The Mother In traditional Yoga, the Guru strengthens and illumines the practice of written truth, Shastra . In integral Yoga, Guru is an Influence who can purify the subtle body and can call down Divine Presence. The Spiritual Presence of a living Guru is a special privilege in the life of a seeker. Since integral Yoga accepts the Yoga of Knowledge, it has the need of the Divine¹³¹ as All-Wise Guru. Integral Yoga identifies physical Guru as a Spiritual Influence, who is extended Psychically as the inner Guide in the heart, Master of Yoga, the Lord, Light, Enjoyer and Goal of all sacrifice and effort, Spiritually as the Guide above the head, universally as the World-teacher, Jagat Guru , Supramentally¹³ ¹ as the Supreme Mother and the Supreme Lord. The Master of our Yoga is the Parameshwara of the Vedantic teaching, the Parameshwari of the synthetic Yoga of Tantra, Purushottama of the Gita, Moksha of the Adwaitin, Sajujya Mukti of the Jnana Yoga, Samipya or Salokya Mukti of the Bhakti Yoga , Sadharmya or Sadrisya Mukti of Karma Yoga, the supreme Soul and the supreme Shakti. We have to pursue Him and realise Him integrally in all His names and forms and qualities and not to remain satisfied with His one form that has most touched our inner being; we have to know and possess Him integrally, samagram mam,4 in all the world and planes of Consciousness. The greatest Guru can no longer confine himself to teaching and example, but rather he withdraws from these two important activities to plunge himself into deep Divinities and from that depth pours down his Influence,¹ ¹⁷ Presence, Power, Light, Peace and Love to all those who are receptive around him. His touch is like the artist moulding the clay of our mind, life and body. He leads us to knowledge at every step and kindles the inner light and vision. When we cease to think and see for ourselves and think what he wills to think and see for us, then the Guru is fulfilled in his disciples and we enjoy his embrace and possession. 2) Sonship to God the Father: “A greater sonship was his divine right.” Savitri-22 (Satyavan said) “Descend. Let thy journey cease, come down to us. Close is my father’s creepered hermitage Screened by the tall ranks of these silent kings, Sung to by voices of the hue-robed choirs Whose chants repeat transcribed in music’s notes The passionate coloured lettering of the boughs And fill the hours with their melodious cry.” Savitri-402 (Savitri said) “Father and king, I have carried out thy will. One whom I sought I found in distant lands; I have obeyed my heart, I have heard its call. On the borders of a dreaming wilderness Mid Shalwa’s giant hills and brooding woods In his thatched hermitage Dyumatsena dwells, Blind, exiled, outcast, once a mighty king. The son of Dyumatsena, Satyavan, I have met on the wild forest’s lonely verge. My father, I have chosen. This is done.” Savitri-424 “All of his speeding days that he could spare From labour in the forest hewing wood And hunting food in the wild sylvan glades And service to his father’s sightless life He gave to her and helped to increase the hours By the nearness of his presence and his clasp, And lavish softness of heart-seeking words And the close beating felt of heart on heart.” Savitri-472 “Each soul is the great Father’s crucified Son,” Savitri-500 “Her mortal ego perished in God’s night. Only a body was left, the ego’s shell… The individual die, the cosmos pass; These gone, the transcendental grew a myth, The Holy Ghost without the Father and Son, Or, a substratum of what once had been, Being that never willed to bear a world Restored to its original loneliness, Impassive, sole, silent, intangible.” Savitri-552 (Death’s boon offered to Savitri) “Indulgent to the dreams my touch shall break, I yield to his blind father’s longing heart Kingdom and power and friends and greatness lost And royal trappings for his peaceful age, The pallid pomps of man’s declining days, The silvered decadent glories of life’s fall.” Savitri-589 ‘I am the father of the universe,’ pita hamasya jagat ,⁵ thus declared the Gita in its various relations with the devotees. Son-ship to God the Father is acceptable in integral Yoga, as it rests on the foundation of the Vedanta. The four main Upanishads, from which integral Yoga draws sustenance are the gospel of the Divine Life and Divine Work from Isha Upanishad , the gospel of Eternal Bliss from Taittiriya Upanishad , the gospel of Divine Knowledge and self-surrender from Kena Upanishad and working of the Self in the world as creator and master of evolution and the creator Brahman is identified as Consciousness from Aitareya Upanishad. From a Spiritual point of view the Divine Father, Paramatma is the liberator of the Soul, Jivatma and the eternal relation between Nara and Narayana, the human Soul and the Divine Father is fulfilled by their merger and oneness. From a human point of view, life begins from the mother’s love, which liberates the child from a helpless state to arrive at the father’s love, which liberates the child from all other dependencies and influences, to stand alone and independent. But when one discharges the responsibility of fatherhood to God, then He lifts the child Soul to immeasurable and unimaginable heights. The faculty of Divine Fatherhood is observed in King Aswapati in his relation with his Divine daughter Savitri , to whom he called down to earth through his long askesis, tapasya . As Father and Guru , he was aware of Savitri’s mission on earth, which she would accomplish by the help of her second Self, Satyavan . King Aswapati made her aware that her unknown Lover waits for her in the unknown breast of earth and he will ‘give voice to what in’⁸⁸ her is mute and ‘He shall walk’⁸⁸ with her until her body’s end. The King further wanted to know from the heavenly sage Narad, whether her daughter could ‘pour the nectar of sorrowless life’⁸⁹ on her surrounding earth and ‘Heal with her bliss the tired breast of earth.’⁸⁹ He wished for her daughter, ‘glad and griefless days’⁸⁹ and unwounded mortal life. To this question of the King, Narad hinted that each great Soul has to go through fire test, agni parikha, and she ‘must cross on the stones of suffering to its goal’⁹⁰ of Bliss state. 3) Tenderness to God the Mother: “As if a childlike finger laid on a cheek Reminded of the endless need in things The heedless Mother of the universe, An infant longing clutched the sombre Vast.” Savitri-2 “Apart, living within, all lives she bore; Aloof, she carried in herself the world: Her dread was one with the great cosmic dread, Her strength was founded on the cosmic mights; The universal Mother’s love was hers.” Savitri-9 “A Godhead stands behind the brute machine. This truth broke in in a triumph of fire; A victory was won for God in man, The deity revealed its hidden face. The great World-Mother now in her arose:” Savitri-21 “His soul breaks out to join the Oversoul, His life is oceaned by that superlife. He has drunk from the breasts of the Mother of the worlds; A topless Supernature fills his frame:” Savitri-24 “A seeker of hidden meanings in life’s forms, Of the great Mother’s wide uncharted will And the rude enigma of her terrestrial ways He is the explorer and the mariner On a secret inner ocean without bourne: He is the adventurer and cosmologist Of a magic earth’s obscure geography.” Savitri-69 “The eternal Goddess moved in her cosmic house Sporting with God as a Mother with her child:” Savitri-327 “The Ancient Mother clutched her child to her breast Pressing her close in her environing arms, As if earth ever the same could for ever keep The living spirit and body in her clasp, As if death were not there nor end nor change.” Savitri-551 “You are the Mother’s child and the Mother’s love to her children is without limit and she bears patiently with the defects of their nature. Try to be the true child of the Mother : it is there within you, but your outward mind is occupied by little futile things and too often in a violent fuss over them.”⁷³ Sri Aurobindo Traditional Tantra aims at the Spiritual conversion of the whole nature in which liberation, cosmic action, full perfection and enjoyment of Spiritual powers are unified. It includes Hathayoga for perfection of the physical sheath or gross body by concentration on the concealed Divinity in the physical substance and perfection of vital sheath by opening of six energy centres from bottom in ascending order to unite with the Brahman; stresses on Raja Yogic purification, meditation and concentration for perfection of Mental sheath and Psychic sheath which includes perfection of subtle body; directs the emotional and aesthetic powers in the heart Godward through Bhakti Yoga for purity, intensity, infinite passion of God-possession; clings to Jnana Yoga for purification and perfection of ethical and intellectual power directing them towards the Divine oneness; adheres to Karma Yoga for purification and joy of Divine union through action. Integral Yoga accepts the Divine as the Creatrix Mother and almighty Occultist. It differs from traditional Tantra in the sense that it no longer initiates Yoga by dynamising the divinity concealed in the body and vital as ‘soul in the Body’ and ‘soul in the Vital’; rather it begins by activating the ‘soul in Mind’ and opening itself first towards higher Mental or Spiritual faculties and directing these forces as descending Shakti towards opening of Soul in the body and Soul in the vital and purification and liberation of mind, life and body. In traditional schools, the exclusive worship of the Divine Mother for all attainment gets momentum in Tantra . The Tantric Yoga differs from Integral Tantra Yoga in the sense that the Tantric perfection of suddhi, siddhi, mukti and bhukti are universalised in integral Yoga as All-Purification, All-Perfection, All-Liberation and All-Delight and the worship of the personal Mother is realised in Her Individual, Universal and Transcendent form for ‘the divine fulfilment of life.’¹³² In traditional Tantra , the Divine Mother is the giver of the four boons of artha, opulence, kama , pure enjoyment, dharma, the Law of life and Mokhya , liberation; the same boon is transformed in integral Tantra Yoga of (1) conquest of all the money power of the earth for the Divine, (2) all delight born out of integral union with the Divine, (3) the Divine Law born out of Divine Will, Knowledge and Love whose outward and external form is the norms of Integral Yoga and the (4) liberation of Soul, universalisation of Soul, transformation of whole individual Nature and individual becoming the centre of world transformation. In integral Yoga, the Divine Mother’s aspect of Dharma, Kama, Mokhya and Artha can also be extended as Yoga Shakti, Prema Shakti, Jnana Shakti and Artha Shakti. The four Divine faculties, chatvaro manabastatha ,⁷⁸ of Wisdom, Power, Harmony and Perfection, hinted in the Gita as highest secrets, rahasyam uttamam ,⁶ are developed in integral Yoga by practice of four Spiritual disciplines of Yoga of Knowledge, Yoga of Self-Perfection, Yoga of Devotion and Yoga of Work respectively which will culminate in possession of the four Divine Shaktis of Maheswari, Mahakali, Mahalakshmi and Mahasaraswati respectively. All possible Spiritual experiences are captured in the wide boundary of integral Yoga and in an attempt to constantly fill ourselves with more experiences, we have identified sixty-four Spiritual and Psychic siddhis and eighteen Supramental siddhis, where the former are exclusive in nature and are related to heightening of individual capacity to its utmost degree and the latter are all-inclusive in nature and have universal repercussions. The first siddhi, with which integral Yoga begins its great enduring journey, is the discovery of the secret woodland in the lotus of the heart where the magic flute of the Eternal Lover is ever heard and the shrine is purified for the wide range play of the Jivatma and Paramatma, Shakti and Shiva and Radha and Krishna. The fullness of such experience comes when the flute of the Lover is echoed in the world and the world beyond. The Mother’s Prema Shakti is entrusted with the four specific mission of (1) strengthening the virgin Power, Para-prakriti , by eliminating the opposing and Soul Slaying harlot power, Apara-prakriti; (2) ‘stay the wheels of Doom’⁵⁵ , (3) ‘break or trample the iron Law’⁵⁶ and (4) ‘call high destiny down’⁵⁷ for the individual, collectivity and the race. She rebuilds Her creation through manifold Divine faculties and the most frontally present faculties are the fourfold Love force, that of Psychic, Spiritual, Universal and Supramental Love. The first three are derived from the Supramental Love that is an all-inclusive and comprehensive Supreme vibration that spreads over all the planes of consciousness with intensest Ananda; it excludes no mortal joy but fulfils it utterly. She liberates the human Soul from the lure of the four exclusive enjoyments, that of the lure of separative egoistic happiness, the lure of joy and laughter of the Soul, the lure of individual happiness in the heavens beyond and the lure of self-absorbed bliss in the impersonal Infinity. These four exclusive enjoyments of escapist traditional Spirituality are transcended in integral Yoga and Savitri declares firmly that a joy becomes imperfect if it is not shared by the whole of the living and non-living creatures. All the discord of life will be resolved through the possession of the all-inclusive Divine in humanity. Since Knowledge is the fundamental determinant of the Chit- aspect of Supreme Sachchidananda , the Divine Mother as Jnana Shakti comes third in the executive order of Her Divine manifestation. She exposes us to four worlds or selves hinted in the Mandukya Upanishad as Waking Self, Dream Self, Sleep Self and the Self of Turiya. These Selves are the constitution of the external world or the gross body of the Divine, the subtle body, the causal body and the Supreme self, which is the origin of all these selves. In Integral Yoga these selves are extensively experienced as Inconscient self, Surface physical self, Subliminal self, Superconscient self, Universal self and Supreme Self. In order to access these selves, a fourfold concentration and fourfold cognition are developed that are (1) Exclusive concentration and Separative Knowledge by indirect contact, (2) Essential concentration and Separative Knowledge by Direct contact, (3) Multiple concentration and Knowledge by Direct contact and (4) Integral Concentration and the Knowledge by Identity. The development of these concentrations and cognitions liberate us from the sevenfold ignorance hinted in Akhupanishad and Mahopanishad and the nature of the ignorance are extensively experienced as Original ignorance, Cosmic ignorance, Egoistic ignorance, Temporal ignorance, Psychological ignorance, Constitutional ignorance and Practical ignorance and the emergence into sevenfold Knowledge, maharsaya sapta purbe ,⁷⁸ is the total Knowledge. The sevenfold (or eight) cosmic existence hinted in the Rig Veda are identified as matter, vital, soul and mind of lower hemisphere and Supermind, Bliss, Consciousness and Existence of higher hemisphere; the ascension of lower hemisphere into the higher hemisphere and descent of the higher hemisphere in to the lower hemisphere are the double movements, directed towards resolving four fundamental problems of existence, that of Ignorance, Suffering, Falsehood and Death. The double movement of ascent and descent is possible by rending¹⁰¹ the veil between the (higher) Mind and Supermind, and that is the condition of the Divine Life in humanity. Since Artha Shakti , Money power is an important power for perfection of the material and vital world, which is the derivative of Existence-aspect or Sat-aspect of Sachchidananda , so it is treated as the fourth or last executive Power of the Divine Mother that at present is shifted into the hands of Asuric forces. When the first three Powers are active on earth’s atmosphere then Artha Shakti will be automatically restored back into the hands of the Divine Mother or on the base of the victory of these triple powers, an individual can rightly handle money for a Divine purpose. When we are able to master the above four faculties, the Divine Mother is satisfied and we enjoy her visible Presence and the status of the Soul’s eternal childhood. 4) Clasp of the hand of the Divine Friend: “Looking for the golden Hand that never came, The advent for which all creation waits, The beautiful visage of Eternity That shall appear upon the roads of Time.” Savitri-199-200 “Offspring of the gulfs, agents of the shadowy Force, Haters of light, intolerant of peace, Aping to the thought the shining Friend and Guide, Opposing in the heart the eternal Will, They veil the occult uplifting Harmonist.” Savitri-225 “A light was with him (King), an invisible hand Was laid upon the error and the pain Till it became a quivering ecstasy, The shock of sweetness of an arm’s embrace.” Savitri-231 “He (King Aswapati) communed with the incommunicable; Beings of wider consciousness were his friends, Forms of a larger subtler make drew near; The Gods conversed with him behind Life’s veil.” Savitri-301 “A friend and yet too great wholly to know, She (Savitri) walked in their front towards a greater light, Their leader and queen over their hearts and souls, One close to their bosoms, yet divine and far.” Savitri-363 “I know that mighty gods are friends of earth.” Savitri-400 “All underwent a high celestial change: Breaking the black Inconscient’s blind mute wall, Effacing the circles of the Ignorance, Powers and divinities burst flaming forth; Each part of the being trembling with delight Lay overwhelmed with tides of happiness And saw her hand in every circumstance And felt her touch in every limb and cell.” Savitri-529 “In the slow process of the evolving spirit, In the brief stade between a death and birth A first perfection’s stage is reached at last; Out of the wood and stone of our nature’s stuff A temple is shaped where the high gods could live.” Savitri-531 “Now has a strong desire seized all my heart To go with Satyavan holding his hand Into the life that he has loved and touch Herbs he has trod and know the forest flowers And hear at ease the birds and the scurrying life That starts and ceases, rich far rustle of boughs And all the mystic whispering of the woods.” Savitri-562 “Then the doomed husband and the woman who knew Went with linked hands into that solemn world.” Savitri-562 “Then hand in hand they left that solemn place Full now of mute unusual memories, To the green distance of their sylvan home Returning slowly through the forest’s heart.” Savitri-721 “Drawn by white manes upon a high-roofed car In flare of the unsteady torches went With linked hands Satyavan and Savitri, Hearing a marriage march and nuptial hymn, Where waited them the many-voiced human world.” Savitri-724 The Gita declared that the Divine is the friend, sakha , helper, saviour of all creatures, suhrdam sarvabhutanam .⁷⁹ He is the charioteer, pilot of our ways, the defender from enemies, fighter in the battle and friend during our difficulties. He is the comrade, playmate of the game of living and the eternal companion and holds our hand in successive lives. His embraces and His blows are equally well intentioned for our Soul’s perfection. These contradictions lead to a greater intimacy with Him. 5) Laughter and sport with our comrade boy, Play-fellow: “Her playmate in the sempiternal spheres” Savitri-16 “Only by him they are, his breath is their life; An unseen Presence moulds the oblivious clay. A playmate in the mighty Mother’s game, One came upon the dubious whirling globe To hide from her pursuit in force and form.” Savitri-60 “An Infant nursed on Nature’s covert breast, An Infant playing in the magic woods, Fluting to rapture by the spirit’s streams, Awaits the hour when we shall turn to his call.” Savitri-169 “As if reversing a deformation’s spell, Released from the black magic of the Night, Renouncing servitude to the dim Abyss, It shall learn at last who lived within unseen, And seized with marvel in the adoring heart To the enthroned Child-Godhead kneel aware, Trembling with beauty and delight and love.” Savitri-171 “Playmates of youthful Nature and child God,” Savitri-266 “Unsolved the riddle of the unfinished Play; The cosmic Player laughs within his mask, And still the last inviolate secret hides Behind the human glory of a Form, Behind the gold eidolon of a Name.” Savitri-311 “Love dwells in us like an unopened flower Awaiting a rapid moment of the soul, Or he (love) roams in his charmed sleep mid thoughts and things; The child-god is at play, he seeks himself In many hearts and minds and living forms:” Savitri-398 “A visioned spell pursued my boyhood’s hours… An early child-god took my hand that held, Moved, guided by the seeking of his touch,” Savitri-404 “His bliss laughs to us or it calls concealed Like a far-heard unseen entrancing flute From moonlit branches in the throbbing woods, Tempting our angry search and passionate pain.” Savitri-614 He is the child born to our desire that we cherish and rear. His joy and laughter lure our Soul to enter an eternal game and develop our Psychic being. He nourishes our maternal and paternal faculties of love and care. He plays with everything and with the smallest things. He takes nothing seriously and takes delight in everything. The child God leading our soul in joy and laughter is profoundly developed in the life story of Sri Krishna. All is united in that deepest many-sided Divine relation and we enjoyed the ‘intimacy of infant God.’⁵⁸ The child God seeks himself in many longing hearts, mind and body and thus feels in his universalised body the existence of this whole creation. 6) Blissful servitude to God the Master: “Although she drives him on her fancy's roads, At play with him as with her child or slave, To freedom and the Eternal's mastery And immortality's stand above the world, She moves her seeming puppet of an hour.” Savitri-65 “He makes of her his moment passion's serf: To obey she feigns, she follows her creature's lead: For him she was made, lives only for his use. But conquering her, then is he most her slave; He is her dependent, all his means are hers; Nothing without her he can, she rules him still.” Savitri-65 “The master of existence lurks in us And plays at hide-and-seek with his own Force; In Nature's instrument loiters secret God.” Savitri-66 “The Master of the worlds self-made her slave Is the executor of her fantasies: She has canalised the seas of omnipotence; She has limited by her laws the Illimitable.” Savitri-121 “Strength was the slave of calm spiritual law,” Savitri-124 “She made herself the diligent serf of all,” Savitri-470 “Accepting cosmos, binds himself Nature’s serf Till he becomes her freedom—or God’s slave.” Savitri-542 “Thy servitudes (slaves) on earth are greater, King, Than all the glorious liberties of heaven.” Savitri-686, “For ever love, O beautiful slave of God!” Savitri-702 Since integral Yoga accepts the Yoga of Works, it has the need of the Divine as the all-Powerful Master, the Lord, the Doer, and the cosmic Worker, who does all work tirelessly to prepare this fragile human mud-engine for heaven’s use. Thus, Divine demands subordination and service from men and insists to do the work of all types, sarvakarmani, ⁸⁰ in the material world, and the Mother stresses, “Work, even manual work, is indispensable to the inner discovery. If one does not work, if one does not put one’s consciousness into matter, it will never develop.”⁷⁴ One should wish to live through action ‘a hundred years’⁸¹ and enjoy in the body the Divine self-fulfilment. Service to the Divine is offered through seven ascending steps. First, the devotee becomes dasya of the servant, God’s servant, who feigns obedience and yet moves by the impulse of his own free will and desire; this is the lowest stage of relation where mere obedience with fear, separation and distance from the Master predominates; secondly, he becomes the dasya of the lover, God’s lover, whose disobedience is overruled by the power of love; in this state all distance, separation, all awe, fear and mere obedience disappears in the oneness of the Beloved; thirdly, he becomes the dasya of the yantra, God’s living and loving instrument with higher stage of self-surrender, who does not obey, but moves to His will as the string replies to the finger of the musician; fourthly he becomes the dasya of the slave, the slave of God, rejoices in His possession and moves helplessly by His Divine Will; fifthly, he becomes dasya of the child, God’s child, where the God is revealed as the Mother and the slave becomes the king child, no longer a separate being, servant, instrument and slave, but a part and portion of Her eternal Consciousness and force, put out from Her for the play and yet always safe in Her. Sixthly, he becomes Vibhuti , the increasing manifestation of the Divine, the Ishwara, ‘which is indeed present in all, even in the weakest or most clouded living being.’⁸² He becomes one with the Divine Ananda , Will, Action and Knowledge. Here the complete joy is manifested by the fusion of Shakti with Ishwara. And beyond the Consciousness of Vibhuti, there exists the seventh state, that of the consciousness of the Avatara, the Supreme Himself assuming a human name and form enters the Lila of the greatest world action. This increasing slavehood of an integral Yogi reduces the gulf created between swift Spiritual evolution of the developed Soul and the slow evolution of the developing Soul. 7) Rapturous love of our divine Paramour: “Our error crucifies Reality To force its birth and divine body here, Compelling, incarnate in a human form And breathing in limbs that one can touch and clasp, Its Knowledge to rescue an ancient Ignorance, Its saviour light the inconscient universe.” Savitri-170-71 “Her eternal Lover is her action’s cause; For him she leaped forth from the unseen Vasts To move here in a stark unconscious world.” Savitri-181 “Or from the gold eye of her paramour” Savitri-349 “An incense floated in the quivering air, A mystic happiness trembled in the breast As if the invisible Beloved had come Assuming the sudden loveliness of a face And close glad hands could seize his fugitive feet And the world change with the beauty of a smile.” Savitri-290 “After all was given she demanded still; Even by his strong embrace unsatisfied, She longed to cry, “O tender Satyavan, O lover of my soul, give more, give more Of love while yet thou canst, to her thou lov’st. Imprint thyself for every nerve to keep That thrills to thee the message of my heart.” Savitri-471 “The Lover winds around his play mate’s limb, Choosing his (Spirit’s) tyranny, crushed in his embrace? To seize him better with her (Matter’s) boundless heart She (Matter) accepts the limiting circle of his (Spirit’s) arms, Bows full of bliss beneath his mastering hands And laughs in his rich constraints, most bound, most free.” Savitri-653 In the traditional Bhakti Yoga, the relation between the Lover and the Beloved is considered closest of all relationships and it proceeds through different stages that are Sangsaya, fear of loss of love leading one to state of doubt, Viraha , sorrow of separation Abhimana, anger and jealousy of separation, Bichheda , the state of complete separation, Vyakulata , passion to reunite again and the end is Milana , complete union. The means through which the love is activated are: - Sammohona , attraction, Uchhatana, excitation, Sosana , possession, Vikhyovana, disappointment and Dahana , burning sensation. Fear, doubt, anger, jealousy, grief, dissatisfaction and passion are the vital impurities. Integral Yoga rejects the vital being’s union with the Divine through the above-mentioned means as there is a danger of inrush of the lower nature and unpurified emotions; rather it experiences the same Divine union by directing purified emotions through the gate of the Psychic being which is a flowering of joy, union, confidence, self-giving and Ananda or one gets impersonal Spiritual Love by rejecting the personal egoistic limitations. The fundamental difference between the exclusive love of the traditional Bhakti Yoga and the comprehensive love of the integral Yoga is that in the former, the Divine union begins from vital sheath by turning vital emotions towards the Divine to arrive at Psychic (as that of Sri Chaitanya ) and Spiritual union (as that of Sri Krishna ); whereas the latter aims at constant union and control of Divine at every moment in all the ten sheaths (which has been discussed later) and Divine union in the mental, vital and physical sheaths are perfected by the pressure of Psychic, Spiritual, Universal and Supramental Love. Love, Psychicised and Spritualised necessarily offers a twofold fulfilment of Personal and Impersonal Joy; the lover and Beloved enjoy their infinite variety of Divine union in difference and they throw themselves finally into an absolute and intense ecstasy of divine Oneness. The sense of this Oneness paves the passage of discovery of the Supramental Self. The prolongation of this ascending union and oneness establishes the Supramental concentration. When the Supramental concentration is established or the Love Supramentalised, the personal relation with the Divine is utterly satisfied and the Divine Beloved lives permanently with His visible (subtle) material vibration. That is the experience of constant purified subtle physical Divine union and highest milana with the Divine Beloved. The descent of Divine Love to the Inconscient Sheath: “The persistent thrill of a transfiguring touch Persuaded the inert black quietude And beauty and wonder disturbed the fields of God.” Savitri-3 “A Splendour presses or a Power breaks through, Earth’s great dull barrier is removed awhile, The inconscient seal is lifted from our eyes And we grow vessels of creative might.” Savitri-108 “The poised inconscience shaken with a touch, The intuitive Silence trembling with a name, They cried to Life to invade the senseless mould And in brute forms awake divinity.” Savitri-129 “For since upon this blind and whirling globe Earth-plasm first quivered with the illumining mind And life invaded the material sheath Afflicting Inconscience with the need to feel,” Savitri-353 “Out of division’s dense inconscient cleft, And make them one with God and world and her.” Savitri-363 “A mystery wakes in our inconscient stuff, A bliss is born that can remake our life. ” Savitri-397-398 “He sang the Inconscient and its secret self, Its power omnipotent knowing not what it does All-shaping without will or thought or sense, Its blind unerring occult mystery, And darkness yearning towards the eternal Light, And Love that broods within the dim abyss And waits the answer of the human heart, And death that climbs to immortality.” Savitri-416 “My soul can meet them (Inconscient’s Law and Fate) with its living fire.” Savitri-589 “My God is will and triumphs in his paths, My God is love and sweetly suffers all. To him I have offered hope for sacrifice And gave my longings as a sacrament.” Savitri-591 “Love’s golden wings have power to fan thy void: The eyes of love gaze starlike through death’s night, The feet of love tread naked hardest worlds. He (Divine Love) labours in the depths, exults on the heights; He shall remake thy universe, O Death.” Savitri-592 “I know my coming was a wave from God. For all his suns were conscient in my birth, And one who loves in us came veiled by death.” Savitri-594 “And it is this, this descent to the very bottom, in search of... but it is not an unknown, it is not an unknown—a bursting (it really is like a bursting), that marvellous bursting of the Vibration of Love; that is...it is the memory. And the effort is to turn it into an active reality.”⁷⁷ The Mother “And there I suddenly found myself in front of something like a vault or a grotto (of course, it was only something ‘like’ that), and when it opened, I saw a Being of iridescent light reclining with his head on his hand, fast asleep. All the light around him was iridescent. When I told Theon what I was seeing, he said it was ‘the immanent God in the depths of the Inconscient,’ who through his radiations was slowly waking the Inconscient to Consciousness… I have experienced the descent into the Inconscient many times; this experience of descending to the very bottom of the Inconscient and finding there the Divine Consciousness, the Divine Presence, under one form or another. it has happened quite frequently.”¹⁵² The Mother In the Upanishadic era, the human body is defined to be composed of five koshas or sheaths. In each of these koshas, the Brahman or Purusha or Self is either concealed or revealed. They are Annamaya kosha, Pranamaya kosha, Manomaya kosha, Vijnanamaya kosha and Anandamaya kosha. Five more nether and intermediate sheaths are incorporated here in integral Yoga, as the Mother and Sri Aurobindo had experienced ten (actually twelve) occult Centres; for They better distinguish the stages of our self-development. The Inconscient sheath is the base, which is a rather darker and impure part of our existence and the dwelling place of four fundamental problems of existence represented by Ignorance, Suffering, Falsehood and Death. The Subconscient sheath, physical sheath, vital sheath and mental sheath have evolved from the Inconscient sheath. In the mental sheath, the physical mind, vital mind, sensory mind, emotional mind and intellectual mind are already evolved and they are under the direct control of the Inconscient sheath. There are higher faculties of the mind sheath that we name them also as Spiritual sheath; they are Higher mind, Illumined mind, Intuitive mind and Over mind, which are yet to evolve in our self-growth. Apart from them, the Psychic sheath, the Universal sheath, the Supramental sheath and Bliss sheath, are yet to evolve and our immediate preoccupation is to participate in the evolution of these higher sheaths and apply their respective concentration towards the perfection of other inferior sheaths. King Aswapati’s exploration of the Inconscient sheath opened the passage of ‘grand solution’ in the problem of existence. On digging the core of darkness, he discovered wells of Light. A cave of darkness guards the Eternal Light. Eternal wraps His head in the Inconscient’s dark covered cloud. He discovered in the heart of Inconscient, the Supreme Consciousness. The activation of this Supreme state of Inconscient Self will flood all the other intermediate sheaths with the Divine faculties of Light, Love, Will and Ananda etc. This discovery of Inconscient Self paves the passage of Supramental invasion to all the intermediate sheaths from two ends of above the head and below the feet or in the language of Savitri ‘Our life is entrenched between two rivers of Light.’⁷ The Mother never recounted the invasion of Supramental Love from Inconscient domain; rather there is The Mother’s record of Supramental Power and Supramental Light invading from Inconscient sheath on 7th November, 1958 and night of 24-25 July, 1959 respectively. The Divine Love from the Vijnanamaya Kosha had invaded the vast inconscient sheath through The Mother’s body on the night of 12-13th April, 1962. This experience confirms that there is yet another invasion of Divine Love that waits, through the innermost gate or very bottom gate of Inconscient sheath that is identified as one of Their unfinished tasks (For example of Savitri's line: “A mystery wakes in our inconscient stuff, A bliss is born that can remake our life. ” Savitri-397-398, "He (Divine Love in Inconscient) shall remake thy universe, O Death.” Savitri-592). The utter fullness of such an experience will come with the simultaneous invasion of Divine Love from two extreme ends of top and bottom sheath which is again identified as Their another unfinished mighty task. The descent of Divine Love to the Subconscient Sheath: “Although he (King) once had felt the Eternal’s clasp, Too near to suffering worlds his nature lived, And where he stood were entrances of Night.” Savitri-128 “It (Divine Love) summons the spirit’s sleeping memories Up from subconscient depths beneath Time’s foam; Oblivious of their flame of happy truth, Arriving with heavy eyes that hardly see, They come disguised as feelings and desires, Like weeds upon the surface float awhile And rise and sink on a somnambulist tide. Impure, degraded though her (Subconscient) motions are, Always a heaven-truth broods in life’s deeps; In her obscurest members burns that fire.” Savitri-138-139 “Then kindling the gold tongue of sacrifice, Calling the powers of a bright hemisphere, We shall shed the discredit of our mortal state, Make the abysm a road for Heaven’s descent, Acquaint our depths with the supernal Ray And cleave the darkness with the mystic Fire.” Savitri-171-72 “Out of the Void this grand creation rose, For this the Spirit came into the Abyss” Savitri-632 “A hidden Bliss is at the root of things.” Savitri-630 “A heavier tread is mine, a mightier touch. There where the gods and demons battle in night Or wrestle on the borders of the Sun, Taught by the sweetness and the pain of life To bear the uneven strenuous beat that throbs Against the edge of some divinest hope, To dare the impossible with these pangs of search, In me the spirit of immortal love Stretches its arms out to embrace mankind. Too far thy heavens for me from suffering men. Imperfect is the joy not shared by all.” Savitri-686 “Often a lustrous inner dawn shall come Lighting the chambers of the slumbering mind; A sudden bliss shall run through every limb And Nature with a mightier Presence fill.” Savitri-710 In integral Yoga, the dynamisation of the Brahman or Purusha in the Psychic sheath and higher Mental sheath or Spiritual sheath is our first preoccupation. Second preoccupation is the activation of Brahman in the distant Universal, Supramental and Bliss sheaths; third preoccupation is to activate the Brahman in the Subconscient and Inconscient sheath and the concurrent preoccupation to activate the Brahman in the lower Mental, Vital and Physical sheaths. The above order may vary based on the swabhava and swadharma of a Sadhaka or simultaneous activation of more than one sheath may supersede the above order. The influence of Psychic love and Spiritual love is effective partly to transform the mind, life and body, but for exploring the vast domain of Subconscient and Inconscient Sheaths, the greater instrumentation of Supramental Love is essential. Since Divine Love is related with the most intense purification, its Presence is most required in the dark, obscured, restless nether members and unhealthy zone of Subconscient and Inconscient Sheaths. The Mother’s present world action is concerned with clearing the Subconscient sheath, which is the uppermost layer of the Inconscient Sheath and that rises up to the surface in order to be transformed. The old pull of Subconscient memory renews and its dull gravitation drags us down to half half-ordered chaos of life and may even draw towards Spiritual fall. Her large subjective action includes penetration and call down of Divine Light to darker parts and is curtained by darkness does Her slow transformative work and establishes control in the individual, local, state, national and international subconscience, layer after layer, so that more and more those sheaths will grow conscious and be possessed by Her Light. The descent of Divine Love to Annamaya Kosha or Physical Sheath: - “Here with the suddenness divine advents have, Repeating the marvel of the first descent, Changing to rapture the dull earthly round, Love came to her hiding the shadow, Death. Well might he (Love) find in her his perfect shrine.” Savitri-14 “The smile of love that sanctions the long game,” Savitri-41 “Even his body’s subtle self within Could raise the earthly parts towards higher things And feel on it the breath of heavenlier air." Savitri-43 “The sweetness of love that knows not death,” Savitri-51 “The beautiful body of a soul at ease, Like one who laughs in sweet and sunlit groves, Childlike she (life) swung in her gold cradle of joy.” Savitri-114 “All the soul’s postures donned divinity. There met the ardent mutual intimacies Of mastery’s joy and the joy of servitude Imposed by Love on Love’s heart that obeys And Love’s body held beneath a rapturous yoke.” Savitri-125 “This limited being lifted to zenith bliss, Happy to enjoy one touch of things supreme, Packed into its sealed small infinity, Its endless time-made world outfacing Time, A little output of God’s vast delight.” Savitri-238 “On an earth which looked towards a thousand suns, That the created might grow Nature’s lord And Matter’s depths be illumined with a soul They tied to date and norm and finite scope The million-mysteried movement of the One.” Savitri-268 “For He who Is grows manifest in the years And the slow Godhead (Annamaya Purusha) shut within the cell Climbs from the plasm to immortality.” Savitri-272 “It longed for the Light that knows not death and birth.” Savitri-277 “The radiant limbs that know not birth and death,” Savitri-278 “As those who have lived long made one in love” Savitri-292 “Incarnating inexpressibly in her limbs The boundless joy the blind world-forces seek, Her body of beauty mooned the seas of bliss.” Savitri-314 “A deathless meaning filled her mortal limbs;” Savitri-373 “Thought, vision, feeling, sense, the body’s self Are seized unutterably and he endures An ecstasy and an immortal change; He feels a Wideness and becomes a Power, All knowledge rushes on him like a sea:” Savitri-375 “As if Love’s deathless moment had been found,” Savitri-579 “Then Love shall at last unwounded tread earth’s soil; Man’s mind shall admit the sovereignty of Truth And body bear the immense descent of God.” Savitri-516 “Always he was with her, a living soul That met her eyes with close enamoured eyes, A living body near to her body’s joy… Body to body near, soul near to soul, Moving as if by a common breath and will They were tied in the single circling of their days Together by love’s unseen atmosphere, Inseparable like the earth and sky.” Savitri-533 “Even now the deathless Lover’s touch we feel:” Savitri-649 “An imperishable Force touching brute things Transform earth’s death into immortal life.” Savitri-664 “Her body quivered with eternity’s touch, Her soul stood close to the founts of the infinite.” Savitri-671 “A physical world is made to express Beauty; if it became harmonious instead of being the ignoble thing it is, if it became harmonious, it would have exceptional vibratory quality!... It is rather curious: the vital world is magnificent, the mental world has its splendours, the overmental world with all its god (who are existing beings, I know them well) is truly very beautiful; but I tell you, since I had that Contact, I have found all that hollow—hollow and ...lacking the essential. And that essential thing, in its principle, is here on earth.”⁷¹ The Mother Our ancient scriptures have represented fivefold Ananda manifested in the physical nature. They are Maithunananda , sex enjoyment, Visayananda, sense enjoyment, Tivrananda , intense enjoyment, Raudrananda, wrathful enjoyment and Vaidyutananda , lightning enjoyment. These enjoyments are established in the form of habits in the physical mind, sensational mind, aesthetic mind, emotional mind and intellectual mind respectively and are separated from the Soul stuff and hence are short-lived enjoyments. In order to transform this transient physical substance into ideal love and pure vessel of self-existent motiveless flawless Ananda , it has to ascend the four stairs of purification through Psychic love, Spiritual love, Universal love and Supramental Love and purify those enjoyments into the image of Soul stuff, Spiritual stuff, Universal stuff and Supramental stuff. The purification of physical sheath offers the four perfections of mahattva, greatness of a sustaining force, bala, an abounding strength, energy and puissance of outgoing and managing force, laghuta, a lightness, swiftness and adaptability of nervous and physical being and dharana-samarthya, a holding and responsive power of physical substance towards the Divine Love. When the physical substance is completely transformed, which is the most difficult exercise among transforming action of all the sheaths, then the physical substance will be able to hold the three Divine faculties of Supreme Love, Supreme Delight and Supreme Beauty. Through descent of pure Divine Love, life span can be increased indefinitely through activation of ‘immense spiritual fate’¹¹³ and one remains eternally young. The descent of Divine Love to Pranamaya Kosha or Vital Sheath: - “Heaven’s joys might have been earth’s if earth were pure. There could have reached our divinised sense and heart Some natural felicity’s bright extreme, Some thrill of Supernature’s absolutes:” Savitri-123 “Only to be was a supreme delight, Life was a happy laughter of the soul And Joy was king with Love for minister. The spirit’s luminousness was bodied there. Life’s contraries were lovers or natural friends And her extremes keen edges of harmony:” Savitri-124 “A mystic Presence none can probe nor rule, Creator of this game of ray and shade In this sweet and bitter paradoxical life, Asks from the body the soul’s intimacies And by the swift vibration of a nerve Links its mechanic throbs to light and love.” Savitri-138 “Made (subtle) sense a road to reach the intangible: It thrilled with the supernal influences That build the substance of life’s deeper soul.” Savitri-236 “A Bliss, A Light, a Power, a flame-white Love Caught all into a sole immense embrace; Existence found its truth on Oneness’ breast And each became the self and space of all. The great world-rhythms were heart-beats of one Soul, To feel was a flame-discovery of God, All mind was a single harp of many strings, All life a song of many meeting lives; For worlds were many, but the Self was one.” Savitri-322-23 “Aware of forms to which our eyes are closed, Conscious of nearnesses we cannot feel, The Power within her shaped her moulding sense In deeper figures than our surface types.” Savitri-356 “Or longing with their self of life and flesh They clung to her for heart’s nourishment and support: The rest they could not see in visible light; Vaguely they bore her inner mightiness.” Savitri-363 “In a narrow passage, the subconscient’s gate, She breathed with difficulty and pain and strove To find the inner self concealed in sense.” Savitri-489 “The All-Wonderful makes a marvel of each event, The All-Beautiful is a miracle in each shape; The All-Blissful smites with rapture the heart’s throbs, A pure celestial joy is the use of sense.” Savitri-663 “But you see, you see all the way I have come...And I was born with a consciously prepared body—Sri Aurobindo was aware of that, he said it immediately the first time he saw me: I was born free. That is, from the spiritual standpoint: without any desire. Without any desire and attachment. And mon petit, if there is the slightest desire and the slightest attachment, it is IMPOSSIBLE to do this work. A vital like a warrior, with an absolute self-control (the vital of this present incarnation was sexless—a warrior), an absolutely calm and imperturbable warrior—no desires, no attachments...Since my earliest childhood, I have done things which, to human consciousness, are “monstrous;” my mother went so far as to tell me that I was a real “monster,” because I had neither attachments nor desires. If I was asked, “Would you like to do this?” I answered, “I don’t care.” If people were nasty to me, or if people died or went away, it left me absolutely calm—and so: “You are a monster, you have no feelings.” And with that preparation... It is eighty-six years since I came here, mon petit! For thirty years I worked with Sri Aurobindo consciously, without letup, night and day... We shouldn’t be in a hurry.”⁶⁹ The Mother “But I can tell you one thing: even before Her (Ananda aspect of the Divine Mother) coming, when, with Sri Aurobindo, I had begun going down (for the Yoga) from the mental plane to the vital plane, when we brought our yoga down from the mental plane into the vital plane, in less than a month (I was forty years old at the time – I didn’t seem very old, I looked less than forty, but I was forty anyway), after no more than a month of this yoga, I looked exactly like an 18 year old! And someone who knew me and had stayed with me in Japan’ came here, and when he saw me, he could scarcely believe his eyes! He said, ‘But my god, is it you?’ I said, ‘Of course!’…Only when we went down from the vital plane into the physical plane, all this went away – because on the physical plane, the work is much harder and we had so much to do, so many things to change.”¹¹² The Mother “I should perhaps add one or two things to avoid misapprehensions. First, the love for the Divine of which I speak is not a psychic love only; it is the love of all the being, the vital and vital-physical included, — all are capable of the same self-giving. It is a mistake to believe that if the vital loves, it must be a love that demands and imposes the satisfaction of its desire; it is a mistake to think that it must be either that or else the vital, in order to escape from its “attachment”, must draw away altogether from the object of its love. The vital can be as absolute in its unquestioning self-giving as any other part of the nature; nothing can be more generous than its movement when it forgets self for the Beloved. The vital and physical should both give themselves in the true way — the way of true love, not of ego desire.”¹¹⁸ Sri Aurobindo Behind the surface life of desire and sense there is in us an inner and subtle vital being, which is not dissolved by death; if this vital Godhead is brought out into prominence, then it lifts life with the Supreme's touch and will be a true instrument of Divine Nature. The innermost domain of subtle vital Sheath that is close to the true Psychic being is called the true vital Being which has direct access to the Divine in the Spiritual domain. True vital is the means through which the sacrificial flame will rise in order to bring down Divine forces to the subtle vital and gross vital substance. True vital is the purest part of the vital where the Divine is stationed and around it there is extension of subtle vital and around subtle vital there is extension of gross vital. Both gross vital and subtle vital are subject to impurity and the purity of subtle vital grows as it is exposed to the influence of true vital Being. The fourfold perfection of the Vital Sheath are purnata , fullness of life, prasnnata , clear purity and gladness, samata , vital and emotional equality and bhoga-samarthya , capacity for possession and enjoyment or capacity to hold the Divine Love in the vital sheath. Integral Yoga proposes six-fold disciplines through which life will be transformed into the image of the Divine. First, life as it is a movement of desire; for Divine living the desire must be abolished and in its place there must emerge the calm, strength, happiness of true vital being; secondly, life is driven partly by the influence of physical mind, vital mind, emotional mind, sensory mind, intellectual mind, and these faculties are still under the domination of ignorant forces; for Divine living these lower mind faculties must cease to be anything but an instrument of the inmost Psychic being; thirdly, there is a veil that separates the lower mind faculties from higher mind faculties, which are higher Mind, illumined Mind, intuitive Mind and Over Mind; for Divine living the lid that separates these two domains must be broken and vital sheath must come under the direct influence of higher Mind; the six lotuses or energy centres open from top in descending order and vital sheath opens by the pressure of higher mental sheath or Spiritual sheath; fourthly, life for its satisfaction turns towards separative ego; ego must disappear and must be replaced by true Spiritual person and the formation of universal sheath begins; fifthly, the law of love is a Divine Presence and Influence to realise and fulfil oneself in others and by others, to possess and be possessed by others because without being possessed one does not possess oneself utterly; sixthly, the life must open itself towards Supramental pranic force and will for its complete transformation and perfect enjoyment and with the exposure towards Divine Love one ‘does in a brief period the work of many lives or ages.’⁸ Lastly, we may take the help of external physical means of Hatha Yogic asana and pranayama and Raja Yogic japa, for the full and free working of the universal Pranic Shakti . The descent of Divine Love to Manomaya Kosha or Mental Sheath: “His brain was wrapped in overwhelming light, An all-embracing knowledge seized his heart: Thoughts rose in him no earthly mind can hold, Mights played that never coursed through mortal nerves: He scanned the secrets of the Overmind, He bore the rapture of the Oversoul.” Savitri-302 “There was no mind there with its need to know, There was no heart there with its need to love. All person perished in its namelessness.” Savitri-308 “I shall save earth, if earth consents to be saved. Then Love shall at last unwounded tread earth’s soil; Man’s mind shall admit the sovereignty of Truth And body bear the immense descent of God.” Savitri-516 “The Power that from her being’s summit reigned, The Presence chambered in lotus secrecy, Came down and held the centre in her brow Where the mind’s Lord in his control-room sits; There throned on concentration’s native seat He opens that third mysterious eye in man, The Unseen’s eye that looks at the unseen, When Light with a golden ecstasy fills his brain And the Eternal’s wisdom drives his choice And eternal Will seizes the mortal’s will.” Savitri-665 “Often a lustrous inner dawn shall come Lighting the chambers of the slumbering mind; A sudden bliss shall run through every limb And Nature with a mightier Presence fill.” Savitri-710 “When I returned from Japan and we began to work together, Sri Aurobindo had already brought the Supramental light into the mental world and was trying to transform the Mind. ‘It’s strange,’ He said to me, ‘it is an endless work! Nothing seems to get done—everything is done and then constantly has to be done all over again.’ Then I gave Him my personal impression, which went back to the old days with Theon: ‘It will be like that until we touch bottom.’ So instead of continuing to work in the Mind, both of us (I was the one who went through the experience…how to put it? …practically, objectively; He experienced it only in His consciousness, not in the body—but my body has always participated), both of us descended immediately (it was done in a day or two) from the Mind into the Vital, and so on quite rapidly, leaving the Mind as it was, fully in the light but not permanently transformed.”⁹ The Mother Behind the silence and stillness of surface mind, there is a vast domain of inner or subtle mind and the innermost domain of subtle mind which is close to the true Psychic being, is truth Mind or true Mental Being, the Divine stationed in the subtle mind. This truth Mind wakes to new-born truths which are inexpressible to the surface mind and is having direct access to the Divine Source in the higher mental or Spiritual sheath and Supramental Sheath. Truth mind ascends to Psychic being in the heart and Spiritual Being above the head and the corresponding Divine Force descend on our mental, vital and physical sheaths for their Divine illumination and transformation. We have divided Manomaya Kosha into two parts, one of lower mentality, which requires transformation and the other of higher mentality, the Spiritual faculties above the head, which are responsible for our Spiritual transformation. Integral Yoga begins with the opening of passage to higher mental faculties of Higher mind, Illumined mind, Intuitive mind and Over mind, which are sealed to the common man. For our integral fulfilment and perfection, we have to convert our lower mind faculties of ethical and intellectual mind into Truth, Right of Divine nature and illumination of Divine knowledge, our emotional and aesthetic mind into the Divine love, unity and creative enjoyment of Divine beauty, our dynamic and volitional mind into working of Divine power, our sensational and physical mind into possession of higher states of Samadhi dynamised in the waking state.¹⁰ All the above-mentioned lower mind faculties are to be thrown into the Psychic fire within; under its pressure all the emotions are compelled to cast off their grosser elements and undivine perversions are burned away. Then a flame of larger Spiritual love emerges out of the mental sheath for further purification and perfectibility of life. Thus, mental sheath prepares itself to the exposure of Universal and Supramental love. A fully developed mental sheath or the subtle mind can support and hold a well built gross body and is a meeting ground of all other sheaths for transformation action. The descent of Divine Love to Chaitya Kosha or Psychic Sheath: “The soul must soar sovereign above the form And climb to summits beyond mind’s half-sleep; Our hearts we must inform with heavenly strength, Surprise the animal with the occult god.” Savitri-171 “In passionate responses half-unveiled He reached the rim of ecstasies unknown; A touch supreme surprised his hurrying heart, The clasp was remembered of the Wonderful, And hints leaped down of white beatitudes.” Savitri-237 “Adored and pure and still on his heart’s throne… Immaculate in white virginity… Or as a lover clasps his one beloved, Godhead of his life’s worship and desire, Icon of his heart’s sole idolatry, She now is his and must live for him alone: She has invaded him with her sudden bliss, An exhaustless marvel in his happy grasp, An allurement, a caught ravishing miracle. Her now he claims after long rapt pursuit, The one joy of his body and his soul:” Savitri-274 “A single ecstasy without a break, Love was a close and thrilled identity In the throbbing heart of all that luminous life.” Savitri-325 “I have found the deep unchanging soul of love.” Savitri-435 “O lover of my soul, give more, give more Of love while yet thou canst, to her thou lov’st” Savitri-471 “In the kingdom of the lotus of the heart Love chanting its pure hymeneal hymn Made life and body mirrors of sacred joy And all the emotions gave themselves to God.” Savitri-529 “A divine Puissance then takes Nature’s place And pushes the movements of our body and mind; Possessor of our passionate hopes and dreams, The beloved despot of our thoughts and acts, She streams into us with her unbound force, Into mortal limbs the Immortal’s rapture and power. An inner law of beauty shapes our lives;” Savitri-530 “Over the body she loved her soul leaned out” Savitri-571 “Only the spirit knew the spirit still, And the heart divined the old loved heart, though changed.” Savitri-576 “In other spaces, and the soul she loved” Savitri-578 “The soul of the beloved now seen no more.” Savitri-585 “An adoration reigned in the yearning heart, A spirit of purity, an elusive presence Of faery beauty and ungrasped delight Whose momentary and escaping thrill, However unsubstantial to our flesh, And brief even in imperishableness, Much sweeter seemed than any rapture known Earth or all-conquering heaven can ever give.” Savitri-603 “And let his soul be one with him I love;” Savitri-614 “But the soul grows concealed within its house; It (Psychic being) gives to the body its strength and magnificence; It (Psychic being) follows aims in an ignorant aimless world, It lends significance to earth’s meaningless life.” Savitri-658-659 “In the heart’s cave speaks secretly with God . But these are touches and high moments lived; Fragments of Truth supreme have lit his soul, Reflections of the sun in waters still.” Savitri-659 “If our souls could see and love and clasp God’s Truth,” Savitri-663 “Eternity multiplied its vast self-look Translating its endless mightiness and joy Into delight souls playing with Time could share In grandeurs ever new-born from the unknown depths, In powers that leaped immortal from unknown heights, In passionate heart-beats of an undying love, In scenes of a sweetness that can never fade.” Savitri-671 “I open the wide eye of solitude To uncover the voiceless rapture of my bliss, Where in a pure and exquisite hush it lies Motionless in its slumber of ecstasy, Resting from the sweet madness of the dance Out of whose beat the throb of hearts was born.” Savitri-697 “Awakened to the meaning of my heart That to feel love and oneness is to live And this the magic of our golden change, Is all the truth I know or seek, O sage.” (Supramentalised Psychic transformation.) Savitri-724 Our true Psychic being is behind the surface desire soul and emotional mind which is a ‘hurtling field of joy and grief, love and hatred, wrath, fear, struggle, aspiration, disgust, likes, dislikes, indifferences, content, discontent, hopes, disappointments, gratitude, revenge and all the stupendous play of passion.’¹¹ The Psychic Love’s momentary beauty and ungrasped delight, however unsubstantial and escaping to our thrilling flesh, it is much sweeter than any rapture known. In Psychic love, the joy comes from within, is pure, without demand and sincere in self-giving. It has its own more personal love, bhakti, surrender, vision and sense of The Mother everywhere and the heart within. In Spiritual love, Ananda comes from above the head; it is more impersonal and universal and less exclusive in nature. Supramental love is all-inclusive, does not depend on outer contact. It has access to both personal and impersonal elements of our being. Psychic love springs from inmost Psychic being, which has the capacity to discern and reject mind and life’s falsehood, seizes hold on the truth of the Divine Love and Ananda. Intensification of Psychic love depends on its opening towards the flame of Spiritual and Supramental Love. The true Psychic being holds the true physical, true vital and true mental being which are innermost stuff of subtle physical, subtle vital and subtle mental sheath and this innermost Psychic Being has direct access to the Divine in Spiritual and Supramental domain. It is the first Divine instrument to transform nature, leading towards Psychicisation of nature where mind, life and body will be completely under the control of Psychic being. Psychicisation is a powerful aid towards Spiritualisation and Supramentalisation of the Psychic being. The descent of Divine Love to Spiritual Sheath: “Leaped out from a chance tension of the soul, Some hue of the Absolute could fall on life, Some glory of knowledge and intuitive sight, Some passion of the rapturous heart of Love. A hierophant of the bodiless Secrecy Interned in an unseen spiritual sheath, The Will that pushes sense beyond its scope To feel the light and joy intangible, Half found its way into the Ineffable’s peace, Half captured a sealed sweetness of desire That yearned from a bosom of mysterious Bliss, Half manifested veiled Reality.” Savitri-176 “As if a miracle of heart’s change by joy He watched in the alchemist radiance of her suns The crimson outburst of one secular flower On the tree-of-sacrifice of spiritual love.” Savitri-190 “The Bliss that is creation’s splendid grain Or the white passion of God-ecstasy That laughs in the blaze of the boundless heart of Love.” Savitri-287 “The Spirit’s white neutrality became A playground of miracles, a rendezvous For the secret powers of a mystic Timelessness: It (Spirit)made of Space a marvel house of God, It poured through Time its works of ageless might, Unveiled seen as a luring rapturous face The wonder and beauty of its Love and Force.” Savitri-326-327 “A consciousness that saw without a seer, The Truth where knowledge is not nor knower nor known, The Love enamoured of its own delight In which the Lover is not nor the Beloved Bringing their personal passion into the Vast, The Force omnipotent in quietude, The Bliss that none can ever hope to taste.” Savitri-548 “Immortal yearnings without name leap down, Large quiverings of godhead seeking run And weave upon a puissant field of calm A high and lonely ecstasy of will.” Savitri-572 “Around him nameless, infinite she surged, Her spirit fulfilled in his spirit, rich with all Time, As if Love’s deathless moment had been found, A pearl within eternity’s white shell.” Savitri-579 “The Love our hearts call down to heal all strife,” Savitri-661 “Oh, it’s an impression equivalent to the one I had when Sri Aurobindo gave my mind silence (during the first meeting with Him). It became perfectly blank and empty (gesture to the forehead), blank and empty, and there was nothing anymore: I couldn’t think anymore, not one idea, not one system anymore, nothing –in a word, total imbecility! It never came back. You see, it went up above, and here there was nothing.”⁷⁰ The Mother Nirvana is an impersonal, signless, featureless, blank pure Spiritual Consciousness that replaces mind. In Spiritual life, the more one will enter the higher planes of consciousness the more one will meet the threat from the Inconscient plane. That is a part of the Divine play in order to bridge the gulf between Heaven and Hell. It is like a mighty storm from the Inconscient world, which is chased by the mighty Sun from the Supramental world. In integral Yoga, individual Spiritual Self is won to merge not with the Supreme Self alone but also dynamised as descent of Divine Shakti for the transformation of Nature. Transformation of individual Nature is not the objective but to adventure in all the planes of the Consciousness till all the worlds or planes of consciousness are possessed by Divine Shakti. Thus, Savitri’s Spiritual force must be used to conquer the greater kingdom of untransformed Nature. She will ascend this Spiritual being to the absolute state of the Divine so that Nature and Soul will experience the descent of the absolute Divine state. At the same time, she will accept to be small and a mere human on earth so that high and low can meet in a single body. She will uncover the Unknowable and grow conscious of the tops of the Superconscient plane by banishing all thought from her and by becoming God’s void. So, she realises her Spiritual Self, God, by casting off her mind, by stepping back from name and form and annuls herself completely. The Spiritual approach of life of becoming a true Divine instrument is that his understanding proceeds without the aid of thought, he speaks whatever is needed to be said, does whatever need to be done and knows things without the aid of knowledge, his impersonal Love needs no aid of the Lover and Beloved. It has greater instrumentality of Knowledge, Power and Will and unlimited intensity of Love, Joy and Beauty. The descent of Divine Love to Visva Atma and Universal Sheath: “The universal Mother’s love was hers.” Savitri-8 “A deep of compassion, a hushed sanctuary, Her inward help unbarred a gate in heaven; Love in her was wider than the universe, The whole world could take refuge in her single heart.” Savitri-15 “His bliss in her to him is his whole world:” Savitri-62 “There reigned a breath of high immune content, A fortunate gait of days in tranquil air, A flood of universal love and peace. A sovereignty of tireless sweetness lived Like a song of pleasure on the lips of Time.” Savitri-127 “And when that greater Self comes sea-like down To fill this image of our transience, All shall be captured by delight, transformed:” Savitri-171 “Waking and sleep lay locked in mutual arms; Helpless and indistinct came pleasure and pain Trembling with the first faint thrills of a World-Soul.” Savitri-157 “And lay on the breast of universal love.” Savitri-233 “Feels now the closeness of a waiting love,” Savitri-289 “One who could love without return for love, Meeting and turning to the best the worst, It healed the bitter cruelties of earth, Transforming all experience to delight; Intervening in the sorrowful paths of birth It rocked the cradle of the cosmic Child And stilled all weeping with its hand of joy; It led things evil towards their secret good, It turned racked falsehood into happy truth; Its power was to reveal divinity.” Savitri-291 “A fire of passion burned in spirit-depths, A constant touch of sweetness linked all hearts, The throb of one adoration’s single bliss In a rapt ether of undying love.” Savitri-291 “A love that bore the cross of pain with joy Eudaemonised the sorrow of the world, Made happy the weight of long unending Time, The secret caught of God’s felicity.” Savitri-312-133 “His being, spread to embrace the universe,… His universal sympathy upbore, Immense like ocean, the creation’s load As earth upbears all beings’ sacrifice, Thrilled with the hidden Transcendent’s joy and peace.” Savitri-318-319 “To him the universe was her bosom of love,” Savitri-327 “Her greatness and her sweetness and her bliss, Her might to possess and her vast power to love:” Savitri-362 “And the loneliness that separates soul from soul, She wished to make all one immense embrace That she might house in it all living things” Savitri-362 “My spirit has glimpsed the glory for which it came, The beating of one vast heart in the flame of things, My eternity clasped by his eternity And, tireless of the sweet abysms of Time, Deep possibility always to love.” Savitri-435 “When I have loved for ever, I shall know. Love in me knows the truth all changings mask. I know that knowledge is a vast embrace: I know that every being is myself, In every heart is hidden the myriad One.” Savitri-594 “A Lover leaning from his cloister’s door Gathers the whole world into his single breast.” Savitri-632-3 “My heart is wiser than the Reason’s thoughts, My heart is stronger than thy bonds, O Death. It sees and feels the one Heart beat in all, It feels the high Transcendent’s sunlike hands, It sees the cosmic Spirit at its work; In the dim Night it lies alone with God. My heart’s strength can carry the grief of the universe And never falter from its luminous track, Its white tremendous orbit through God’s peace. It (Savitri’s heart) can drink up the sea of All-Delight And never lose the white spiritual touch, The calm that broods in the deep Infinite.” Savitri-635 “More hearts till love in us has filled thy world!” Savitri-687 “And the mandate of thy secret world-wide love.” Savitri-687 “An energy of the triune Infinite, In a measureless Reality she dwelt, A rapture and a being and a force, A linked and myriad-motioned plenitude, A virgin unity, a luminous spouse, Housing a multitudinous embrace To marry all in God’s immense delight, Bearing the eternity of every spirit, Bearing the burden of universal love, A wonderful mother of unnumbered souls.” Savitri-695 “For ever love, O beautiful slave of God! O lasso of my rapture’s widening noose, Become my cord of universal love. The spirit ensnared by thee force to delight Of creation’s oneness sweet and fathomless, Compelled to embrace my myriad unities And all my endless forms and divine souls.” Savitri-702 “His living cosmic spirit shall enring, Annulling the decree of death and pain, Erasing the formulas of the Ignorance, With the deep meaning of beauty and life’s hid sense, The being ready for immortality, His regard crossing infinity’s mystic waves Bring back to Nature her early joy to live, The metred heart-beats of a lost delight, The cry of a forgotten ecstasy, The dance of the first world-creating Bliss.” Savitri-706 “In the night, I am always given a state of human consciousness to put right, one after another—there are millions of them. And there are always all the images and events that illustrate that particular state of consciousness. At times, it is very hard going: I wake up tired, as after a long period of work.”⁷⁰ The Mother “The sorrow of all living things shall come And knock at his (Avatara’s) doors and live within his house;” Savitri-446 With the complete dissolution of ego, the universal sheath takes possession of the lower sheaths of mind, life and body, and it widens their capacity to the proportion of the universe. The universalisation process begins with the breakdown of the walls of mental, vital and physical sheaths by powerful inrush of the Divine into these lower sheaths and changes our nature into reflection of Divine nature by possession of universal love, joy and oneness. A Sadhaka feels oneness with all the bodies and identifies that as his true physical existence, universal life as his true vital existence, universal Mind as his true mental existence and be aware of their desires, struggles, joys, sorrows, thoughts, in a sense as if they were his own problem to be cured in his universal sheath. The Mother recounts, “All the mornings are difficult...for instance, all the vibrations from sick people, all those problems of life come from everywhere. And for those three hours, there is tension, struggle, acute seeking for what should be done or for the attitude to be taken...It is that time I have tested the power of mantra...I repeat my mantra automatically, without stopping; and every time the difficulty increases, a kind of Power comes into those words and acts on Matter...It saves the situation at critical moments...it restores order.”⁷⁵ “But I found that interesting, because ... It's generally like this: the Force is there, working, and if something comes (a call from someone, a prayer or something), all this (gesture to the forehead) generally remains absolutely still, immobile, merely letting the Force pass through, and all I sometimes do is simply (gesture of offering or presenting something upward): "Lord, here is this task, it's for You." That's all, and I leave it. But in this case, I was sitting at my table (the telegram had just come), concentrating, and I quite deliberately and consciously put him in contact with the Force. Because there was a whole world of suggestions, he expected the end: "Now it's the end." So because of that, I concentrated and put a formation.”¹⁴³ Universal love is Spiritual in its origin and is founded in the sense of the One and the Divine everywhere. ‘When the universal love seized his heart, it is decisive sign that the Divine has taken possession of him; and when he has the vision of the All-beautiful everywhere and can feel at all times the bliss of His embrace, that is the decisive sign that he has taken possession of the Divine.'¹² There are three grades of universalisation; in the first stage Sadhaka is identified with lower sheaths of universal mind, life and body; he is depressed by the cosmic suffering and elated by cosmic joy and ‘this oneness can be carried even to the body, as in the story of the Indian saint who, seeing a bullock tortured in the field by its cruel owner, cried out with the creature’s pain and the weal of the lash was found reproduced on his own flesh.’13 In the second stage this subjection of the lower sheath to the reaction of Prakriti is added with new faculty of freedom and oneness with Sachchidananda. The Soul becomes ‘free and superior to the cosmic reactions; the soul understands, accepts the experience, sympathises, but is not overpowered or affected, so that at last even mind and body learn also to accept without being overpowered or even affected except on their surface.’¹ ³ In the third stage the Sadhaka attains a ‘spiritual supremacy and freedom which enables him to understand perfectly, put the right values on things, and heal from above instead of struggling form below. It does not inhibit the divine compassion and helpfulness, but it does inhibit the human and animal sorrow and suffering.’¹³ To recapitulate, in the first stage the Sadhaka due to his universalisation bears the burden of earth’s suffering; out of this endurance perfect equality is born; in the second stage his suffering is added with the capacity to heal the universal problems by transforming equality into ecstasy; in the third stage the mind, life and body utterly obey the higher sheaths, or highest of the bliss sheath of perfect ecstasy and heals the universal problem with fullness of bliss, without any trace of suffering. The Mother and Sri Aurobindo were missioned on earth for the greatest world action of the Avataras , of bearing the heavy burden of earth. They had accepted the second stage of universalisation and cleared the vast debris of universal Inconscient by Their prolonged suffering. They would have easily reached the third stage of universalisation, had they sealed and excluded the burden of transformation of universal Subconscient and Inconscient from the scope of Their integral world action. In this physical transformation process healing of the body by the pressure of Sachchidananda consciousness alone from above is discouraged, because that will distance the possibility of discovery of All Mighty Power of Subconscient and Inconscient Self ingrained in the cells of the body or awakening of the same Sachchidananda force from below. So for transformation of the body the simultaneous action of Sachchidananda force from above the head and below the feet are highly desirable. In spite of the above constraint, The Mother had promised⁸⁶ that Her children need not have to suffer like Them because of the reduced burden of the Inconscient sheath and will be able to ascend to the third stage of universalisation, where transformation action will be accelerated with full of Bliss. The ecstasy will have the power to restore order in the physical working and there will be victory over the forces of dissolution. The Mother recounted, ‘Sri Aurobindo wrote very clearly: for all those who have faith and open themselves in surrender and faith, the work will be done automatically. As long as he was here...all the thirty years I spent with him working, NOT ONCE did I have to make an effort for a transformation. Simply, whenever there was a difficulty, I repeat, My Lord, my Lord, my Lord... I just thought of him—hop! It went away. Physical pain: he annulled it.’⁸⁶ If a liberated Soul’s consciousness is universalised, then through movement of his Consciousness many unknown Souls in distant land will be liberated. Thus, the task of liberated Soul of liberating others is accomplished or earth “Knows that one high step might enfranchise all.”¹⁴⁴ The descent of Divine Love to Vijnanamaya Kosha or Supramental Sheath: - “Here came the thought that passes beyond Thought, Here the still Voice which our listening cannot hear, The Knowledge by which the knower is the known, The Love in which beloved and lover are one.” Savitri-297-98 “There (in Supramental) substance was a resonant harp of self, A net for the constant lightnings of the spirit, A magnet power of love’s intensity Whose yearning throb and adoration’s cry Drew God’s approaches close, sweet, wonderful.” Savitri-328-29 “One moment fill with thy eternity, Let thy infinity in one body live, All-Knowledge wrap one mind in seas of light, All-Love throb single in one human heart.” Savitri-345 “All mights and greatnesses shall join in her; Beauty shall walk celestial on the earth, Delight shall sleep in the cloud-net of her hair, And in her body as on his homing tree Immortal Love shall beat his glorious wings. Savitri-346 “Loved all and spoke no word and made no sign,” Savitri-358 “They reached the one-self in all through boundless love.” Savitri-381 “To live, to love are signs of infinite things, Love is a glory from eternity’s spheres. Abased, disfigured, mocked by baser mights That steal his name and shape and ecstasy, He (Love) is still the godhead by which all can change.” Savitri-397 “All that the lightning-flash of love reveals” Savitri-406 “His large identity and all-harbouring love” Savitri-446 “All-love was hers and its one heavenly cord Bound all to all with her as golden tie.” Savitri-471 “When unity is won, when strife is lost And all is known and all is clasped by Love Who would turn back to ignorance and pain?” Savitri-633 “My love eternal sits throned on God’s calm; For Love must soar beyond the very heavens” Savitri-633 “When we begin living the Spiritual life, a reversal of consciousness takes place which for us is the proof that we have entered the Spiritual life; well yet another occurs when we enter the Supramental world… This is why even our Spiritual life, which is such a total reversal compared to ordinary life, seems something so…so totally different when compared to this Supramental consciousness that the values are almost opposite.”⁵² The Mother “Two or three nights ago, something like that occurred: in the middle of the night, early morning, there was a descent of this Force, a descent of this Truth-Power; and this time it was everywhere, but with a special concentration in the brain—not in this brain: in THE brain (experience of earth consciousness). And it was so strong, so strong, so strong! The head felt as if it were about to burst—yes, as if everything were going to burst—so that for about two hours I simply had to keep calling for the widening of the Lord’s Peace... And with the consciousness that this descent into unprepared brain would be enough to drive you completely mad or absolutely daze, or else you would burst...there was tremendous fever- though nothing even remotely like an “illness”!”⁶⁷ The Mother In most of the individual Souls the Supramental sheath or the causal body is not formed and it is very difficult to take shape around the subtle body. It takes shape through interference of Divine faculties from Sat-kosha, Tapas kosha and Anandamaya kosha. This interference is possible by the ascension of individual consciousness to Anandamaya world and beyond, which are above the Supramental sheath and corresponding descent of Divine Love, Divine Delight and Divine Beauty to the Vijnanamaya kosha. Supramental Sheath is also built gradually by activation of Supramental Self. Supramental Love serves the following six-fold purpose; firstly it offers integral union and perfect satisfaction of the relation between Purusha and Prakriti; secondly it brings active ecstasy in addition to deeper calm and Supramental silence; thirdly an intense unity with all creatures founded on profound oneness; fourthly the realisation of one in many and many in one is inherent; fifthly, the power of Love Supramentalised can take hold of all living relations without hesitation or danger and turn them Godward, delivered from their crude, mixed and petty human settings and sublimated into the happy material of a Divine life; sixthly, it would be utterly possible to embrace all contacts with men and the world in a purified sleepless flame-force.¹⁴ The source of Divine Love, Anandamaya Kosha or Bliss Sheath: “On the bare peak where Self is alone with Nought And life has no sense and love no place to stand, She must plead her case upon extinction’s verge, In the world’s death-cave uphold life’s helpless claim And vindicate her right to be and love.” Savitri-12 “And sudden ecstasies from a world of bliss.” Savitri-31 “The quintessence glowed of Life’s supreme delight.” Savitri-120 “Only to be was a supreme delight, Life was a happy laughter of the soul And Joy was king with Love for minister. The spirit’s luminousness was bodied there. Life’s contraries were lovers or natural friends And her extremes keen edges of harmony:” Savitri-124 “In the deep breast of God’s supreme delight.” Savitri-200 “Happy to enjoy one touch of things supreme,” Savitri-238 “There was no mind there (in Bliss Self) with its need to know, There was no heart there with its need to love. All person perished in its namelessness. There was no second, it had no partner or peer; Only itself was real to itself. A pure existence safe from thought and mood, A consciousness of unshared immortal bliss, It dwelt aloof in its bare infinite, One and unique, unutterably sole.” Savitri-308-309 “A Heart was felt in the spaces wide and bare, A burning Love from white spiritual founts Annulled the sorrow of the ignorant depths; Suffering was lost in her immortal smile. A Life from beyond grew conqueror here of death; To err no more was natural to mind; Wrong could not come where all was light and love.” Savitri-313-14 “Her clasp shall turn to ecstasy our pain.” Savitri-314 “There leaps out unity’s supreme delight” Savitri-324 “And from her eyes the Eternal’s bliss shall gaze.” Savitri-346 “The Bliss for which the world’s derelict sorrows yearn:” Savitri-661 “There was no more the torment under the stars, The evil sheltered behind Nature’s mask; There was no more the dark pretence of hate, The cruel rictus on Love’s altered face. Hate was the grip of a dreadful amour’s strife; A ruthless love intent only to possess Has here replaced the sweet original god.” Savitri-679 “The bliss that made the world in his body lived, Love and delight were the head of the sweet form.” Savitri-683 “Know the thrilled bliss with which I made (all) the worlds.” Savitri-701 “Some rapture of the bliss that made the world,” Savitri-704 “Since soon after the beginning of the century this work (of permeation of Supreme Ananda into disorder of mind, life and material substance) has been going on. Afterwards, there was all the Psychic work, in the same way (gesture of widening): the identification and the response. Then the vital work, which I began with Sri Aurobindo when we were staying over there (at the Guest House); then the physical work, but there it is ... gropingly learning one’s job. Now there is a sort of certainty: you see, you come into contact with something, and then you know instantly what should be done and how it should be done; the vibration comes, meets a response, and goes back—and this is going on every minute, all the time.”⁶⁶ The Mother Above Anandamaya kosha , there are also two other sheaths of Tapas kosha and Sat kosha . We have excluded these two sheaths from our study because of their inaccessibility at the present stage and we shall instead pursue perfection through the above-mentioned ten koshas. When Divine Love is profoundly dynamised in the earth’s atmosphere, then the other two higher sheaths above Anandamaya Kosha find substantial base for manifestation. Love, Joy and Beauty are the fundamental determinates of the Divine Delight of Existence, and we can see at once that these are the very stuff and nature of that Delight.15 When we pursue the process of self manifestation we shall find that Joy has its original and utter gladness in a trinity of the Enjoyer, the Enjoyed and the Delight; Love finds itself in the trinity of the Lover, the Beloved and Love; Beauty restores itself in the trinity of possessor of Beauty, the Beauty possessed and Beauty that holds them together. Ascension of individual consciousness to Anandamaya Kosha and descent of the Ananda, Love and Beauty to Vijnanamaya Kosha, strengthens the causal body and we require a well built causal body for full exercise of Supramental influence on the lower sheaths. The Incarnating Dual Power: “The twin duality for ever one” Savitri-35 “This whole wide world is only he and she.” Savitri-63 “For him she was made, lives only for his use.” Savitri-65 “For this is sure that he and she are one.” Savitri-72 “She burned in his sweet intolerable blaze.” Savitri-125 “And all her soul a counterpart of his soul.” Savitri-125 “The dual Energy they have justified” Savitri-186 “She now is his and must live for him alone: She has invaded him with her sudden bliss, An exhaustless marvel in his happy grasp, An allurement, a caught ravishing miracle.” Savitri-274 “He is lost in her, she is his heaven here.” Savitri-275 “Incarnating her beauty in his clasp She (Para prakriti) gave for a brief kiss her immortal lips And drew to her bosom one glorified mortal head:” Savitri-275 “Self-made from the dual power creation rose.” Savitri-284 “A burning of two bodies in one flame.” Savitri-468 “And Krishna and Radha for ever entwined in bliss,” Savitri-525 “A dual Power at being’s occult poles Still acted, nameless and invisible:” Savitri-553 “Her spirit fulfilled in his spirit, rich with all Time,” Savitri-579 “I have burned in flame to travel in his steps.” Savitri-638 “One leans to earth, the other yearns to the skies:… Meanwhile you two shall serve the dual law” Savitri-684 “I know that I (Savitri) can lift man’s soul to God, I know that he (Satyavan) can bring the Immortal down.” Savitri-687, “My soul and his indissolubly linked In the one task for which our lives were born, To raise the world to God in deathless Light, To bring God down to the world on earth we came, To change the earthly life to life divine.” Savitri-692, “O Sun-Word, thou shalt raise the earth-soul to Light And bring down God into the lives of men;” Savitri-699, “A dual power of God in an ignorant world, In a hedged creation shut from limitless self, Bringing down God to the insentient globe, Lifting earth-beings to immortality.” Savitri-702 “The incarnate dual Power shall open God’s door, Eternal Supermind touch earthly Time.” Savitri-705 “Thy body is my body’s counterpart... Two fires that burn towards that parent Sun, Two rays that travel to the original Light.” Savitri-720 “…when Sri Aurobindo and I were working to bring down the Supramental forces, a descent from the mental plane to the vital plane, He was always telling me that everything I did (when we meditated together, when we worked)—all my movements, all my gestures, all my postures (mudras), all my reactions—was absolutely tantric, as if I had pursued a tantric discipline. But it was spontaneous, it did not correspond to any knowledge, any idea, any will, nothing, and I thought it was like that simply because, as He knew, naturally I followed.”¹⁶ “And he gave me his own example (I had mine, too) of certain things considered dangerous or bad, which we both did independently and spontaneously and which were a great help to us!”⁸⁴ The Mother Integral Yoga does not recommend the Tantric means of external human aid to experience the Divine Love for beginners or its necessity is dispensable in order to avoid distortion, abasement and the Spiritual fall. Its indispensable end is that the Divine Love can be experienced through Purusha’s union with Prakriti in Ignorance, Ishwara-Shakti union in the Knowledge and Brahman-Maya union in the Supramental, Vijnana . We have to understand Radha and Krishna or Divine incarnation of Savitri and Satyavan in this inner perspective, where marriage between the ‘eternal Lord and Spouse’⁵³ takes place in our heart’s secluded chamber ‘Like lovers in a lonely secret place’¹³³ and this union between Paramatma and Para-prakriti extends to all other nine planes of Consciousness. If we accept Savitri as a continuation of Radha and Krishna’s Overmental Love for developed Souls of Instruments, Emanations and Incarnations, it can equip us with some more insight of wave/plastic nature of universal Love where river, Atma, flows into a mighty sea, Paramatma and a Lover ‘Gathers the whole world into his single breast.’¹⁴⁰ Thus, the Soul can recognise its answering supreme-Soul. In ancient Indian discipline, the Radha and Krishna’s relation has been symbolised through sixty-four pure postures, yoga mudras , thirty-two pure subtle-physical union, alingana , sixteen special pure joy, ratis, twelve various penetrating Divine gaze of clinging to sight’s embrace, chahani , and various enchantment of delightful liquid voices and heart disclosing sweet words, swara. The above postures (“All the soul’s postures donned divinity.”¹³⁹ ) are symbols of various subtle enjoyments beyond the limitation of three gunas leading to the ascension of Consciousness from the lower sheaths of mind, life and body to higher sheaths of Psychic and Spiritual culminating in Overmental Ananda and they had the experience of profound Ananda in Their mortal body through Divine descent. Their exclusive Divine Love is intended towards the exclusive liberation of a Soul, established in Brahma Nirvana, ⁶ ⁰ with gusts of intense Ananda, atyantam sukhamasnute ,⁶¹ and accelerates the universal evolution through multiple concentration of Overmental descent to the universal sheath. They were instrumental in opening the first gate or the lower ranges of the Supramental world. Savitri and Satyavan are the symbolic reincarnation of Radha and Krishna who have broken the bright lid of Overmind in order to enter wider and higher ranges of the Supramental world, whose Light, Love and Power have far greater instrumental capacity in capturing all the ten sheaths. They prepared their life with new undying base and ‘reached the one-self in all through boundless love’¹³⁴ and Supramental Love ‘is still the godhead by which all can change.’¹³⁵ Savitri and Satyavan lived together in their Soul’s chamber from the beginning of the creation and their exclusive as well as all-inclusive Divine Love begins, after their Psychic and Spiritual opening or they ‘glimpsed the presence of the One in all’ and the dual Consciousness is subsequently thoroughly established in the Supramental and Bliss Self, through ascension of Consciousness and it is directed towards union in their subtle, universal and causal body in order to bring down Supramental concentration into their mortal body with deep physical joy. Thus emotion clasped emotion in two hearts, felt each other’s thrill in flesh, nerve and tissue, limb cried for answering limb, melted each in each and grew immense and finally lost themselves in the Infinite Consciousness. Since the Supramental Force has the power of penetration in all the sheaths and is deeply interested to transform them, its action is treated as comprehensive. Ascension of Consciousness towards Supreme Ananda and descent of Supreme Ananda to lower sheaths are indispensable dual movements of Jivatma and Parmatma in the integral Yoga. The danger of inrush of lower nature is observed during the transition of ascension of consciousness from lower sheaths to higher sheaths or ‘bloom of their purity and passion one’⁸⁵ whereas the same danger is not entirely excluded during the transition of descent of consciousness from higher sheaths to lower sheaths if the process of purification is not sufficient. In the integral Yoga the above problem is overpowered if the ascent and descent are routed through a strong influence of the Psychic being. Since Savitri and Satyavan had established themselves in Spiritual and Supramental purity from the beginning, and both had a strong Psychic being and Psychicised Supramental Presence, the problem of inrush of lower nature was controlled and annulled through strong Psychic and Spiritual influence and ‘claimed deep union with its outer selves.’⁸ ⁷ In them, the spirit of delight in sensuous things are transformed into ‘more sweetness than can now be dreamed.’⁸⁷ In Savitri and Satyavan’s subtle physical relation, the ascension of Consciousness to new height in Supramental and Bliss Self were pursued or witnessed by them in meditating peaks, and during the corresponding descent of Bliss, Light, Power and flame white Love to the new depths in mental, vital, physical, Subconscient and Inconscient sheaths, the dual action were essential, and they were represented through variety of spontaneous and independent subtle Yogic postures, not postures of petty mechanical bounds of human mind because the inner experiences were entirely sincere to multiply the action of Supramental and facilitates increased capacity to hold the strong and powerful inrush of Divine forces and Ananda. Satyavan’s ability to bring down a higher Supramental force was supported by Savitri in order to hold it in her pure material vessel or ‘Heal with her bliss the tired breast of earth.’⁶⁴ This dual exercise has to continue for a prolonged uninterrupted period, keeping in view of the vast, complex, dark, recalcitrant domain of lower sheaths, which require to be enriched with sweet Subconscient memory and this serves as a bank to provide wealth of positive Spiritual energy and strength to meet in support of overcoming of the hour of crisis and struggle in God’s Night. Physical postures are only an aid which comes by itself and are the outcome of entirely sincere inner experience; yet there are supreme states of Consciousness, which require no posture, no hands to clasp and no feet to move of any external kind. There are inner movements or shifts of Consciousness, which will open new vistas of ascent of Soul, descent of Shakti and expansion of Consciousness. Great actions can be initiated either in the subtle body or in the causal body through spontaneous inner movement of Consciousness. Thus, Supramental touch of Divine Love ‘needs not hands to feel, to clasp.’¹³⁶ In the epic Savitri, all possible Soul postures¹³⁹ of Radha and Krishna have been thoroughly revised, multiplied and extended along with a new birth of various postures in order to accommodate more subtle and causal body enjoyments of its own and donned new pulsation of Divine Love in order to satisfy its Supramental requirement. The eternal variety of Ananda of Divine love which were flooded through Radha and Krishna’s union are extensively multiplied in Savitri with ‘More vivid raptures than earth’s life can bear.’⁸⁷ So for those strong Souls who are preoccupied with Psychic and Spiritual experience and are in touch with Supramental Consciousness, these experiences are accessible to them either through waking trance or through Samadhi of deeper state. For entering into Samadhi the traditional Raja Yoga, Jnana Yoga or Bhakti Yoga methods may be followed. The first step is to constantly hear their name, qualities, relation and their Divine union; secondly, the constant thinking of all these movements; thirdly setting and fixing of the mind on the objects and by this one enters full realisation of Divine union and ecstasy. The exercise of infinite variety of motiveless enjoyment through descent of Ananda purifies our whole being in the destined path of perfection. Out of the four habitations of the Soul, Jivatma, the eye is considered its first habitation in waking trance. The dream trance, Swapna samadhi and sleep trance, Suspti are the two other states in which the Soul resides in the throat and heart centre respectively. Turiya is the fourth supreme state of Jivatma, where the Soul lives in the mystic Brahmarandhra in the head and all other states of sleep, dream and waking are the derivation of this supreme Turiya . Integral Yoga stresses due importance on the waking trance and in this active state, it is possible to enter the Spiritual and Supramental experience of all kinds. The experience of Divine union through eye or ‘a look’ or ‘a gaze’ has been extensively experienced in Savitri . “The spirit is not limited like the waking material consciousness, and the supermind when it takes possession of the waking consciousness, dematerialises it, delivers it from its limits, converts the material and the psychic into the nature of the spiritual being.”¹²¹ Dream trance and sleep trance, are the Spiritual and Supramental experiences of the subtle and causal bodies, respectively. These have twofold utilities in integral Yoga, first, there are infinite series of depths, supreme states of trance to which the Soul rises, where the truth mind ascends itself towards higher Mind, illumined Mind, intuitive Mind, Overmind, mind of Light, Supermind and supreme Ananda and in those states the action of sense mind and physical mind are annulled and direct experience of all these higher planes of Consciousness is acquired; as a result the whole seeing, living and active consciousness of waking state is enlarged; secondly, once these higher states are accessed, it has to be brought as much as possible into the waking Consciousness. The dynamisation of Supreme state and intermediate higher states of Consciousness in waking state, resulting in waking trance is the full benefit that we can draw from Samadhi experience. Supreme Love descended through Savitri: “My Love is stronger than the bonds of Fate: Our love is the heavenly seal of the Supreme. I guard the seal against thy (Death’s) rending hands. Love must not cease to live upon the earth; For Love is the bright link twixt earth and heaven, Love is the far Transcendent’s angel here; Love is man’s lien on the Absolute.” Savitri-633 Sri Aurobindo had never used the word ‘Love Supreme’ or ‘Supreme Love’ anywhere in His epic Savitri. (but the Mother had used this word in her Agenda.¹⁴⁶ ) Rather we notice words like, ‘terrible in love,’¹⁷ ‘Love’s golden wings,’¹⁸ ‘all Love,’¹⁹ ‘boundless love,’²⁰ ‘Immortal Love,’²¹ ‘vast power to love,’²² ‘seas of love,’²³ ‘burning Love,’²⁴ ‘outstretched arm of Love,’²⁵ ‘spiritual love,’²⁶ ‘a power more ruthless than Love,’²⁷ which give us the insight to move towards the Supreme Love. From this study we have concluded that Savitri had an infinite variety of Spiritual and Psychic experiences and seemingly finite variety of Supreme experiences which must come in stages and the last eighteen are identified as:- ‘Life supreme,’²⁸ ‘Omniscience supreme,’²⁹ ‘Trinity supreme,’³⁰ ‘occult Supreme,’³¹ ‘supreme Intelligence,’³² ‘Voice supreme,’³³ ‘word supreme,’³⁴ ‘all negating Void supreme,’³⁵ or ‘emptiness of the Supreme,’³⁶ ‘silent still Supreme,’³⁷ or ‘still Supreme,’³⁸ ‘supreme epiphany,’³⁹ ‘touch supreme,’⁴⁰ ‘things supreme,’¹¹⁰ ‘power supreme,’⁴¹ ‘supreme delight,’⁴² ‘supreme identity,’⁴³ ‘Light supreme,’⁴⁴ or ‘supreme light,’⁴⁵ ‘Will supreme’⁴⁶ and ‘Truth supreme.’⁴⁷ Savitri’s realisation of ‘Supreme Love’ is the ‘head of the sweet form’⁴⁸ of ‘supreme delight’ that ‘made the world’, activated to transform all the vibratory difficulties of earth. Sri Aurobindo was aware of the activation of this great pulsation of Divine Love that contracts and expands the creation through mobile blissful manifestation and immobile blissful non-manifestation in the immediate future through The Mother’s physical form, as He wrote, “There are other great Personalities of the Divine Mother… There are among them Presences indispensable for Supramental realisation,--most of all one who is her Personality of that mysterious and powerful ecstasy and Ananda which flows from a supreme divine Love, the Ananda that alone can heal the gulf between the highest heights of Supramental spirit and the lowest abysses of Matter…”⁴⁹ Sri Aurobindo had also foreseen no immediate realisation of Savitri’s last Spiritual experience of ‘Truth supreme’ in The Mother’s physical form and left the issue to the Mighty Mother, the last Avatara, who shall again ‘take birth in Time’⁵⁰ and ‘Then shall the Truth supreme be given to men.’⁵⁰ The ‘Truth supreme’ is the last siddhi of the integral Yoga and it is that Spiritual experience of Savitri in which Inconscient Sheath of the whole earth will be illumined and earth will be eliminated from the influence of Ignorance, Suffering, Falsehood and Death. When the action of ‘Love Supreme’ is sufficiently dynamised in earth’s atmosphere then The Mother will work towards the manifestation of three other Divine faculties of ‘Will Supreme,’ ‘Omniscience Supreme’ and ‘Truth Supreme;’ for they represent the manifestation of Chit, Tapas and Sat aspect of Supreme Sachchidananda respectively. Then that will be the period of Supramental earth where no one is left untransformed. The Mother’s Unfinished Yoga: “It bore the stroke of That which kills and saves” (Savitri’s heart bore the stroke of Supramental energy that slays falsehood and saves the truth.) Savitri-20 “One soul’s ambition lifted up the race;” Savitri-44 “He mastered the tides of Nature with a look:” Savitri-219 “His gates to the world were swept with seas of light.” Savitri-236 “And guards the world with its all seeing gaze.” Savitri-317 “He (King Aswapati) stood fulfilled on the world’s highest line Awaiting the ascent beyond the world, Awaiting the descent the world to save.” Savitri-319 “Her aspiration called high destiny down;” Savitri-358 (Earth) “Knows that one high step might enfranchise (liberate) all” Savitri-371 “He still must travel Hell the world to save.” Savitri-450 “Sometimes one life is charged with earth’s destiny,” Savitri-460 “Man in the world’s life works out the dreams of God.” Savitri-479 “One man’s perfection still can save the world.” Savitri-531 “He who would save the world must be one with the world,” Savitri-537 “Its gaze controls the turbulent whirl of things.” Savitri-571 “Earth is the chosen place of mightiest souls Earth is the heroic spirit’s battle field” Savitri-686 “You (Savitri) are my Force at work to uplift earth’s fate,” Savitri-702 “Some shall be made the glory’s receptacles And vehicles of the Eternal’s luminous power. These are the high forerunners, the heads of Time, The great deliverers of earth-bound mind, The high transfigurers of human clay, The first-born of a new supernal race.” Savitri-705 “That is exactly what Sri Aurobindo wanted and attempted; he used to say, “If I can find a hundred people, it will be enough for my purpose.”⁷⁶ The Mother Sri Aurobindo’s requirement of one hundred perfect instruments, are they who live in cosmic consciousness, by whose pressure all objective life will become part of the subjective existence and they realise, perceive, feel, see and hear only the Divine in every way, in all forms and all happenings of the world are taking place within their vast universal Self. Their outer surface Nature is a concentration and radiation of silence, calm, stillness and peace. ‘To grow in the spirit is the greatest help one can give to others, for then something flows out naturally to those around that helps them.’¹²⁵ The ‘special work’¹² ⁶ of integral Yoga is ‘of bringing down the higher consciousness with all its effect for the earth’¹² ⁶ without ‘too eager to help others,’¹² ⁵ without ‘accepting the nature of man and the world as it is’¹² ⁶ and by standing ‘apart from the rest of the world.’¹²⁶ Integral Yoga proposes that Universalised Consciousness is the outcome of a long movement of Consciousness between Psychic and Spiritual planes replacing the earlier slow evolution of consciousness between three modes of Nature, Gunas and in this vast Consciousness (1) equality becomes perfect and consecration becomes complete and absolute, or this surrender of whole being ‘has to be accomplished slowly and with difficulty by the being itself before the supramental transformation can become at all possible;’¹⁴⁸ ‘A perfect equality not only of the self, but in the nature’¹⁴⁷ is also the sign of universalized consciousness; (2) exclusive concentration of Mind is replaced with the faculty of Multiple-concentrations; thus one can pursue triple Yoga of Karma, Jnana and Bhakti simultaneously and ceaselessly, (3) transformation of human Nature into Divine Nature is practicable, as in this Consciousness the World is inseparable from the individual; with the activation of cosmic Self, Savitri had this experience, ‘all changed within her and without.’¹⁵⁰ (4) His time and space experience is completely different from ordinary man subjected to three gunas, the latter lives in the present succession of moments oblivious of his past and future and his little habitation of space is separated from the world and the former lives in the triple time of past, present and future and the whole world lives within his cosmic Self; his universalised Spirit can move backward towards the past of this birth and past births and illumine the obscure corners of his Subconscient and Inconscient sheaths and his Spirit can travel forward in time to call down all future possiblities to present moment; (5) outer wandering and movement reduces and is replaced by the more and more inner wandering of Soul which shows interest only in eternal things and 'In every shrine it cries for the clasp of God’¹⁴⁹ ; (6) in this Cosmic Consciousness, Matter is real to Spirit, Spirit is real to Matter and Matter is reconciled with Spirit in order to resolve all world problem; (7) in addition to his own individual suffering, he is ready to bear a part of earth's heavy burden and suffering and ‘only the self-ruler (swarat ) and master man (samrat ) can help, in leading the human race forward spiritually towards this consummation and towards some image of a greater divine truth in their personal and communal existence. He becomes a light and power of the Truth to which he has climbed and a means for others’ ascension’¹⁵¹ and thus, (8) a fitness has arrived for ascension into still higher Supramental Consciousness. The immediate preoccupation of these instruments of Truth who are concerned with Integral Yoga will be the increase and accumulation of Soul Force through fourfold Divine union that of Jivatma’s union with Paramatma, Jivatma’s union with Para-prakriti, Paramatma’s union with Para-prakriti and Para-prakriti’s union Apara-prakriti. This accumulation or multiplication of Soul Power to transform the lower Nature is identified by Sri Aurobindo as 'the utmost importance in the Yoga of self-perfection.’¹⁵⁴ Their action on the world will be largely inner subjective action dictated by the power of triple-time of the Spirit and they will accumulate Spiritual energy to such an extent that the Transcendent Divine forces of oceanic proportion will invade the earth’s dark Inconscient rock. The danger of the Inconscient Sheath swallowing the whole earth to its dark breast, perpetually stands as an evolutionary threat and barrier. Earth is to be saved from life’s immense desire and destructive Forces from their ‘bleeding roots’¹²⁸ through invasion of strong affirmative Spiritual forces from below, within and above and to keep this action active and its growing intensity is the responsibility of few fit channels of human instruments. A Spiritual fence of protection is to be built which at present is confined to few privileged Souls, who will admit ‘through its gates only such activities as consent to undergo the law of the spiritual transformation.’¹³⁸ This Spiritual wall will extend itself to cover the whole of humanity. Or a ‘golden tower’⁶⁵ of protection is built in the subtle world with the help of ‘flame child’⁶⁵ who are prepared Souls, ready to become channels of vast inflow of Supreme Ananda. Integral Yoga aims at a comprehensive solution or all-time panacea of all the problems of existence through complete immunisation of disease, decay, sorrow, dissidence and strife and the process of inoculation begins at individual and collective level depending on the degree of restoration of harmony and opening towards a comprehensive Concentration. A safe passage in the subtle world is to be made in order to help living and dead Souls⁹⁸ so that they can easily travel different planes of Consciousness for their Soul’s training and arrive at the Psychic plane and cosmic Self for their accumulation of Spiritual energy and rebirth respectively. At the same time the Yoga Shakti must drive out all tamasic forces to eliminate incapacity, poverty, illiteracy, ‘ugliness and powerlessness to express beauty,¹³⁷ malnutrition of the body from the whole of the race and drive out all rajasic forces to eliminate all discordant human action of violence, destructive aggression, tyranny of beast wrath, hatred, injurious brutality, corruption, bottomless ingratitude that disfigure earth nature and enjoyments of temporal nature. Those destined Souls for the Divine work will protect and guard earth in three stages. First, they will have a ‘vision and knowledge of the triple time’."¹²² or partial/complete foreknowledge of immediate future doom and holocaust of individual, state, national and universal proportion ‘by going back from the surface physical mind to the psychic and spiritual consciousness;’¹² ² secondly, they will keep the concentration alive to reduce and minimise the quantum of such catastrophe through intervention of the overhead Divine Grace or vibration of Harmony of which they are conscious channel; thirdly, they will maintain the effort to completely annul the root of all such destruction and vibration of disorder through intervention and invasion of Supreme Harmony and Light to the yet untouched dark province of Subconscient and Inconscient Sheaths. A conscious movement of Consciousness between Psychic and Spiritual planes can liberate¹⁴⁴ distant unknown living and dead Souls from the subjugation of their untransformed Nature and, thus, the purpose of invisible self-expansion through self-concentration or the liberated Souls liberating others is accomplished. The steps through which they will immediately control the world event through the evolution of preliminary Psychic and Spiritual faculties are: - 1) The perception, thought, feelings and happenings of world event which are entirely guided by forces of Ignorance, are gathered directly through vision without the aid of any external means of communication like telephone, newspaper and internet etc or ‘of establishing a direct communication between mind and mind without the aid of the physical organs and the limitations they impose on our consciousness.’¹²³ ‘The psychical consciousness, as it develops, makes us aware of the great mass of thoughts, feelings, suggestions, will impacts, influences of all kinds that we are receiving from others or sending to others or imbibing from and throwing into the general mind atmosphere around us.’¹²⁴ The outer aid is useful only to verify the degree of accuracy of the direct inner vision. 2) Harmonised vibrations of thoughts and feelings or Spiritual idea force formulating itself in the world are communicated to them (individual and group) by secret unspoken word, transmission of will-power, Spiritual Influence which are already tuned with the Divine-Will. Or as the Psychic being ‘evolves in power, precision and clearness, we are able to trace these to their source or feel immediately their origin and transit to us and direct consciously and with an intelligent will our own messages.’¹²⁴ Or the ‘spiritual inner consciousness has then to deal with these (dark and obscure) influences in such a way that, as soon as they approach or enter (the Spiritual realm), they become either obliterated and without result or transformed by their very entry into its own mode and substance.’¹²⁹ 3) Silent compulsion on them to act according to these communicated ideas, power of the heart and dynamic life forces. ‘There is necessarily a commerce here between disparate influences: the inner spiritual influence is met by quite opposite influences strong in their control of the present world-order; the new spiritual consciousness has to bear the shock of the dominant and established unspiritualised powers of the Ignorance.’¹²⁹ As a result, the single and multiple results are experienced through power of the Self and development of essential and multiple Concentrations. The Nature of living of a Spiritual man will be ‘an accomplished inner existence whose light and power will take perfect body in the outer life.’¹³⁰ 4) They will be egoless transparent instruments to determine the events, actions and the results of action of objective life throughout the world by pure intervention of their subjective subtle-physical existence and silent Will-Power of multiple Concentrations. Their ‘environmental being must be so steeped in the spiritual light and spiritual substance that nothing (no world influence) can enter into it without undergoing this transformation…’¹²⁹ If a Sadhak attains Cosmic Consciousness, then he must pursue sadhana in secrecy and silence. His presence will be intolerable for the common man because of this particular nature, ‘Universal, he is all,--transcendent, none.’¹ ⁴ ¹ When he lives in universal Self he becomes very intimate with all and when he lives in transcendent Consciousness, he goes beyond all these relations or ‘A distance severed her from those most close.’¹⁴¹ This is unbearable to man’s righteousness. His outward appearance will be marked with Truth-Power or the ‘sound of infinity’¹⁴² in his voice and his eyes will shine with the ‘light of things beyond.’¹ ⁴ ² So, through frequent/constant increase of invasion of vibration of Order and permeation of a superior Harmony into the Inconscient, Subconscient and material life, the world would move towards the process of transformation. ‘Supreme Love eliminates all problems, even the problem of creation...But the world is not ready yet, it may take a few thousand years.’⁹⁵ Thus, Sri Aurobindo’s vision of creating ‘a new world, a new humanity, a new society expressing and embodying the new consciousness’⁹⁴ is in the process of realisation by reconciliation of Spirit with Matter and by harmonisation of body with the Soul. This is a task offered to the most conscious individual through realisation of Soul as the centre of the World and its objective manifestation in the form of a Divine Centre or the emergence of a formative and affirmative Ashram living. Integral Yoga aims at a comprehensive solution of all the problems of existence through complete immunisation of disease, decay and death and the process of inoculation begins at individual and collective level depending on the degree of restoration of harmony and opening towards a comprehensive Concentration. The world and humanity ‘is beginning to be ready for the manifestation of supreme Power. And this supreme Power would result from a constant identification.’⁹³ The above work will pave the passage of The Mother’s highest work of manifestation of ‘Supreme Ananda ,’ ‘Supreme Love,’ ‘Omniscience Supreme’ and ‘Truth Supreme.’ Supreme Love descended through The Mother’s physical embodiment: - “A strong Descent leaped down. A Might, a Flame, A Beauty half-visible with deathless eyes, A violent ecstasy, a Sweetness dire, Enveloped him with its stupendous limbs And penetrated nerve and heart and brain That thrilled and fainted with epiphany: His nature shuddered in the Unknown’s grasp. In a moment shorter than death, longer than Time, By a Power more ruthless than love, happier than Heaven, Taken sovereignly into eternal arms, Haled and coerced by a stark absolute bliss, In a whirlwind circuit of delight and force Hurried into unimaginable depths, Upborne into immeasurable heights, It was torn out from its mortality And underwent a new and bourneless change.” Savitri-81 “It is said that divine Love doesn’t manifest because, in the world’s present state of imperfection, the result would be catastrophe—that is a human vision. Divine Love manifests, has manifested eternally, will manifest eternally, and it is the incapacity of the material world...not only of material world, but of the vital world and mental world, and of many other worlds that are not ready, that are incapable—but HE is there, He is there, right there! He is there permanently: It is THE Permanence.”" ⁶⁸ The Mother “Ultimately, nothing but omnipotence could convert the world, convince the world. The world isn't ready to experience supreme Love. Supreme Love eliminates all problems, even the problem of creation: there are no more problems, I know it since that experience [of April 13]. But the world isn't ready yet, it may take a few thousand years. Although it is beginning to be ready for the manifestation of supreme Power (which seems to indicate that this will manifest first). And this supreme Power would result from a CONSTANT identification…But this "constancy" isn't yet established: one is identified and then one isn't, is and then isn't, so things get delayed indefinitely. You wind up doing exactly what you tell others not to do – one foot here and one foot there! It just won't do.¹⁴⁶ The Mother Supreme Love is beyond Manifestation and Non-manifestation. The Mother’s experience on the night of 12-13th April, 1962 is instructive for us. The experience which began after midnight and continued for four hours indicates that the above experience is not a part of waking trance but rather an experience in complete trance where the Supreme state is able to re-invade all the descending hierarchies. During this re-invasion, when the Supreme state entered the domain of gross physical sheath, the waking state became active and the same experience continued in the waking trance. The predominance of the physical mind in the waking state is partly nullified by the strong gusts of Love, which gave the sensation in physical sheath that death, suffering, falsehood and ignorance are non-existent and illusory. We understand this experience as an inter-penetration and union between The Mother’s and Sri Aurobindo’s causal body, where the intensities of Divine force reached beyond all measures of previous Spiritual experiences, and its interaction with the physical sheath generated new sensations and suffocation of intense order. In all Supramental experiences, the original formula of Existence, Consciousness and Bliss cannot be separated from its integral functioning. But in this experience of The Mother, the Ananda aspect of the Divine had far dominated over the Existence and Consciousness aspect of the Divine. If we note the Supramental experience of The Mother of 24-25th July, 1959, where the Mother first time met Sri Aurobindo in subtle physical, this experience clarified our stand that Sri Aurobindo took nine years after His physical departure in 1950, in order to build a passage and develop a concrete relation with The Mother in subtle physical. After this experience The Mother claimed of meeting Sri Aurobindo almost ‘every night’⁸³ for the purpose of transformation action. Their joint work in the subtle body and the causal body prepared the passage for a series of Supramental experiences in the gross physical sheath of The Mother, of which the experience of 12-13th April, 1962 was one of the major milestones or decisive Spiritual experiences. In Savitri, Sri Aurobindo had foreseen this particular Supramental experience of 12-13th April, 1962, with all the similar symptoms as noted by The Mother . This is probably due to Sri Aurobindo’s contact with the Divine Love in 1946, represented in the Yoga of King Aswapati. If we look into the matter, it will open more insight:- 1) “I was the Origin—I was the Origin. For more than two hours, consciously, here on this bed, I was the Origin. And it was like gusts—like great gusts ending in explosions. And each one of these gusts was a span of the universe… And each gust of this essence of Love was dividing and spreading out… but they weren’t forces, it was far beyond the realm of forces. The universe as we know it no longer existed; it was a sort of bizarre illusion, bearing no relation to THAT. There was only the truth of the universe, with those great gusts of colour—they were colored with something that is the essence of colour… And then a Voice was explaining everything to me (not exactly a Voice, but something that was Sri Aurobindo’s origin, like the most recent gust from the Origin). As the experience unfolded, this Voice explained each gust to me, each span of the universe; and then it explained how it all became like this (The Mother makes a gesture of reversal): the distortion of the universe. And I was wondering how it was possible, with that Consciousness, that supreme Consciousness, to relate to the present, distorted universe. How to make connection without losing that Consciousness? A relationship between the two seemed impossible. And that’s when a sort of Voice reminded me of my promise, that I had promised to do the Work on earth and it would be done. “I promised to do the Work and it will be done.” (Ref: Mother’s Agenda-3/138) “In a whirlwind circuit of delight and force Hurried into unimaginable depths, Upborne into immeasurable heights,” (Ref: Savitri-81) “Thus swaying in strong gusts of happiness” (Ref: Savitri-469) “It brought a grandiose gust of the Breath of Life;” (Ref: Savitri-492) 2) “It was Love in its supreme essence—which has nothing to do with what people normally understand by that word… It was stupendous. I lived more than two hours like that, consciously... It was the formidable pulsations of the eternal, stupendous Love, only Love: each pulsation of the Love was carrying the universe further in its manifestation... The heavens are ringing with chants of the Victory! Truth alone exists; truth alone shall manifest. Onward! … Onward! Compared to the experience, what I say is nothing, nothing, nothing but words” (Ref: The Mother’s Agenda-3/131, 132, 138) “His nature shuddered in the Unknown’s grasp. In a moment shorter than death, longer than Time, By a Power more ruthless than love, happier than Heaven, Taken sovereignly into eternal arms, Haled and coerced by a stark absolute bliss,” (Refer: Savitri-81) 3) “Then began the process of descent (descent was not the right word), and the Voice was explaining it to me—I lived through it in all detail, and it wasn’t pleasant. It took an hour and a half to change from that true Consciousness to the individual consciousness. Because throughout the experience this present individuality no longer existed, this body no longer existed, there were no more limits, I was no longer here—what was here was THE PERSON. An hour and a half was needed to return to the body-consciousness, to the individual consciousness. (Ref: The Mother’s Agenda-3/138) “A strong Descent leaped down. A Might, a Flame, A Beauty half-visible with deathless eyes, A violent ecstasy, a Sweetness dire, Enveloped him with its stupendous limbs And penetrated nerve and heart and brain That thrilled and fainted with epiphany:” (Ref: Savitri-81) 4) “And the consciousness is a limitless consciousness, like a material equivalent or expression of these gusts—it’s like waves, but waves with no… Not separate waves, but a MOVEMENT of waves; a movement of what might be called material, corporeal waves, as vast as the earth, but not …round, not flat…Something giving a great sense of infinity but moving in waves. And this wave movement is the movement of life. And the consciousness (the body consciousness, I suppose) floats along in this, with a sensation of eternal peace… But it is not an expanse—that’s not the word for it. It is a limitless movement, with very harmonious and very tranquil rhythm, very vast, very calm. And this movement is life itself.” (Ref: The Mother’s Agenda-3/145) “His nature shuddered in the Unknown’s grasp. In a moment shorter than death, longer than Time,” (Ref: Savitri-81) 5) “And in that experience I was sent back to the body, because the thing —that creative gust—had to be realised through this body.” (Ref: Mother’s Agenda—3/144) “A violent ecstasy, a Sweetness dire, Enveloped him with its stupendous limbs And penetrated nerve and heart and brain” (Ref: Savitri-81) 6) “There was something I have never told anyone, but when the doctor was called … I was constantly fainting, you know: I would take a step and –plop! So the doctor was called and they began watching over me (everything was supposedly going wrong, all the organs, everything breaking down), and he declared I was sick and wasn’t to stir from my bed…” (Ref: The Mother’s Agenda-3/152) “That thrilled and fainted with epiphany:” (Ref: Savitri-81) “Her human nature faint with heaven’s delight,” (Ref: Savitri-677) “And even the Spirit that holds the universe Fainted in luminous insufficiency.” (Ref: Savitri-307) 7) “All the results of the Falsehood had disappeared: Death was an illusion, Sickness was an illusion, Ignorance was an illusion—something that had no reality, no existence…Only Love, and Love, and Love, and Love – immense, formidable, stupendous, carrying everything.” (Ref: The Mother’s Agenda-3/131) “It was torn out from its mortality” (Ref: Savitri-81) “His young unaging look on deathless things, His joy in our escape from death and Time,” (Ref: Savitri-484) 8) “Something really radical has happened, in the sense that …I tried once just to see if I could do it and I didn’t succeed: I can’t go back to the old way of relating to the body. It’s impossible.” (Ref: The Mother’s Agenda-3/153) “But one thing has happened practically without my noticing it. In the past before that experience [April-13], the body used to feel the struggle against the forces of wear and tear (different organs wearing out, losing their endurance, their power of reaction, and certain movements, for instance, becoming less easy to make). That’s what the body felt, although the body-consciousness never sensed any aging, never, none—that simply didn’t exist.” (Ref: The Mother’s Agenda-3/196) “And underwent a new and bourneless change.” (Ref: Savitri-81) “All he had been and all towards which he grew Must now be left behind or else transform Into a self of That which has no name.” (Ref: Savitri-307) The Fifth Power of The Mother: “A giant drop of Bliss unknowable Overwhelmed his limbs and round his soul became A fiery ocean of felicity;” (First Supreme experience of Divine Love.) Savitri-237 “A mystery wakes in our inconscient stuff, A bliss is born that can remake our life.” (Second experience) Savitri-397-98 “Two powers from one original ecstasy born… One leans to earth, the other yearns to the skies:” (Third experience) Savitri-684 “It (dynamic Spirit) is within, below, without, above.” (Fourth experience) (Spirit is within us as Psychic Being, true physical Being and true vital Being and true mental Being, below the feet as Subconscient Self and Inconscient Self, without as cosmic Self and above as Spiritual, Supramental and Bliss Self.)) Savitri-98 "Heaven’s leaning down to embrace from all sides earth," (fourth experience) Savitri-716 The Mother’s four Mediatrix aspects of Wisdom, Power, Harmony and Perfection are more active in earth’s atmosphere from 24th November, 1926, in order to link the existence with the Supreme and lead human evolution towards its fullness of Being, fullness of Consciousness and fullness of Life. Mahalakshmi is the Mother’s aspect of love that must come and work with all its plentitude before the establishment of supreme Love. On the night of 12-13th, April-1962, the aspect of Her Supreme Love, Creatrix Bliss, had become active in the earth’s atmosphere. To become identified with this particular aspect of The Mother’s Power is to become one with ‘the most powerful of all redeeming and creative forces’⁵¹ which ‘has yet been the least frontally present in earthly life.’⁵ ¹ The Supramental Consciousness in the form of Truth, Light, Power and Force must descend first in the manifested nature and is sufficiently sublimated so as to be able to receive and bear the pressure of the Divine Love, which is ‘most powerful, pure, rare and intense of all divine energies.’⁵ ¹ The fifth Mother Power is identified as ‘mysterious and powerful ecstasy and Ananda which flows from a supreme divine Love.’⁵⁹ A series of Supramental experiences of finite variety waits behind our crudely formed subtle and causal body, leading them to well-built and integrated Sheaths of perfect vessel, where Divine Love shall repeat its action in three profound stages. (1) In the first stage, the blissful Divine Love will spread the universe through the descent of causal body action in the Supramental Sheath. (2) In the second stage, the repetition of the same experience through an explosion in the bottom-most layer of Inconscient sheath or ‘Love that broods within the deem abyss.’⁶³ (3) In the third stage, both the states Supramental Self and Inconscient Self are activated and they coexist in the profoundest whirlwind or gusts of Consciousness, leading the creation towards ‘supreme epiphany.’³⁹ (4) In the fourth stage, Supramental energy is dynamised in all the ten sheaths. OM TAT SAT ¹²³⁴⁵⁶⁷⁸⁹¹⁰ References: 1: The Mother’s Agenda/Vol-3/131, 2: The Mother’s Centenary Works/Vol-6/291-94, 3: CWSA (Complete Works of Sri Aurobindo)/Vol-23(or The Synthesis of Yoga)/39, 4: The Gita-7.1, 5: The Gita-9.17, 6: The Gita-4.3, 7: Savitri-531, 8: CWSA/Vol-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/183, 9: The Mother’s Agenda/Vol-2/379, 10: CWSA/Vol-24/ The Synthesis of Yoga/621, 11: CWSA/Vol-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/351, 12: CWSA/Vol-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/591, 13: CWSA/Vol-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/416-17, 14: CWSA/Vol-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/169, 15: The Life Divine/314, 16: The Mother’s Agenda/Vol-1/417, 17: Savitri-711, 18: Savitri-592, 19: Savitri-555,471, 20: Savitri-381, 21: Savitri-346, 22: Savitri-362, 23: Savitri/372, 24: Savitri-314, 25: Savitri-200, 26: Savitri-190, 27: Savitri-81, 28: Savitri-197, 29: Savitri-76, 30: Savitri-89, 31: Savitri-331, 32: Savitri-250, 33: Savitri-694, 34: Savitri-405, 35: Savitri-545, 36: Savitri-536, 37: Savitri-533, 38: Savitri-497, 333, 39: Savitri-663, 40: Savitri-237, 145, 706, 329, 41: Savitri-542, 42: Savitri-120, 200, 124, 325, 43: Savitri-579, 44: Savitri-20, 45: Savitri-484, 46: Savitri-378, 47: Savitri-44, 658, 659, 661, 662, 663, 705, 48: Savitri-682, 49: The Mother-35, 50: Savitri-705, 51: CWSA/ Vol-23/167, 52: The Mother’s Agenda/Vol-1/236, 53: Savitri-411, 54: Savitri-410, 55: Savitri-19, 56: Savitri-346, 57: Savitri-358, 58: Savitri-403, 59: The Mother-53, 60: The Gita-5.25, 61: The Gita-6.28, 62: Savitri-405, 63: Savitri-416, 64: Savitri-422, 65: Savitri-702, 66: The Mother’s Agenda/Vol-5/78, 67: The Mother’s Agenda/Vol-5/95-98, 68: The Mother’s Agenda/Vol-5/134, 69: The Mother’s Agenda-5/100-101, 70: The Mother’s Agenda-5/170-71, 71: The Mother’s Agenda/Vol-5/138, 72: The Mother’s Agenda/Vol-5/181, 73: SABCL/27/176, 74: The Mother’s Agenda-11/228, 75: The Mother’s Agenda-5/225, 76: The Mother’s Agenda-5/195, “This is exactly what Sri Aurobindo wanted, what he was trying for He said: “If I could find one hundred people, that would be enough.”” TMCW-10/On Thoughts and Aphorism-p-198, 77: The Mother’s Agenda-5/p-263, 78: The Gita-10.3, 79: The Gita-5.29, 80: The Gita-3.26, 81: Isha Upanishad-2, 82: CWSA/Vol-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/741, 83: “You see, there’s a curious fluctuation possibly indicating that your dream is part of the present attack which continues with such violence.... The night before last, between midnight and half-past, there was a formidable attack. When I emerged from it, I felt that something had lifted, a victory had been won and that the body’s condition had improved. It happens like that, the horizon clears and this Certainty comes with. (The presence is always here – Sri Aurobindo and I are together almost every night – but the night when I saw that formation, the illness spell over the Ashram, Sri Aurobindo was quite sick in his bed, just as I saw him in 1950.) So when it lifts, all is well: once again there is harmony, there is joy, there is force ... and again the whole thing continues, the effort continues, consciously. Yet there is a kind of fluctuation: it will go on like that for a few moments or a few hours and then suddenly everything becomes muddled again and I am beset by ... a fatigue. A fatigue which is – I can’t say almost unbearable, because nothing in the consciousness feels it to be unbearable – but it makes me like this (Mother clenches her fist tightly in a tension to ‘hold on).” 11.02.1961, The Mother’s Agenda-4/46, “To give a rather curious example, there was a kind of spell of illness over the Ashram, stemming mainly from people’s thoughts, from their way of thinking. It was quite widespread and it was horrible, gloomy, full of fear, pettiness, blind submission, oh! Everyone was in a state of expectation....55 In short, the atmosphere was such that there was an attempt to prevent me from leaving my room – I had to sneak out! It was disgusting! Well, on the very night I saw the spell over the Ashram, Sri Aurobindo was lying sick in his bed, just as I had seen him in 1950. Normally, we spend almost every night together, doing this, seeing that, arranging things, talking – it’s a kind of second life behind this one, and it makes existence pleasant. But that night when I had to sneak out of my room (in my nightgown!), and people were trying to find me to ... (laughing) force me back into bed, he was lying sick in bed – and this struck me hard, for it means these things still affect him in his consciousness. He was in a kind of trance and not at all well. It didn’t last, but nonetheless....” The Mother’s Agenda-18.02.1961, “I so often hear Sri Aurobindo speak, and I say it in French, but I use the English word because I hear him speak…Often the thought alone comes, but quite often it's the exact words; and then, while speaking in French I tend to use the English words. While I take my bath, for instance, he always speaks to me and tells me the things I have to write or say; so afterwards, when I come out of the bathroom, I very often have to ask for a piece of paper and a pen, and I write…It's constantly, constantly like that…I remember, some time ago, at night, I said to him (I see him almost every night, but for a few days I hadn't seen him, then I met him at night ... because he is always there [Mother makes a gesture enveloping her], but at night, in that subtle physical world, I see him objectively, as if I were meeting him), and I said to him, "I haven't seen you for a few days," like that, in jest. Then he put on his most serious air, but with all his irony: "Oh, I am very busy these days." And ... (laughing) the next day I learned they were shooting a film on Sri Aurobindo's life! So I thought he must have been busy sending them good suggestions. But it was so comical! With straight-faced seriousness: "Oh, I am very busy." (Mother laughs)” The Mother’s Agenda-25.01.1967 84: The Mother’s Agenda-4/134, 85: Savitri-409, 86: “I asked myself if for everybody the supramental process will always automatically involve a lot of physical suffering. No. No, because I have a growing proof that those things I have mastered now, in the body, I have the power (I keep receiving letters and notes from here or there, from people here or there who have an illness) ... it is beginning; so far it's only a beginning, a very small beginning: the power to eliminate pain. You know, on a smaller scale, what happened with your illness. Yes, but I didn't mean sick people. I mean people who today or in the future will seek to effect the transformation in themselves. No, they ... Will they have to go through all that suffering? No! That Sri Aurobindo wrote very clearly: for all those who have faith and open themselves in surrender and faith, the work will be done automatically.98 As long as he was here, mon petit, all the thirty years I spent with him working, NOT ONCE did I have to make an effort for a transformation. Simply, whenever there was a difficulty, I repeated, My Lord, my Lord, my Lord ... I just thought of him – hop! it went away. Physical pain: he annulled it. You know, some things that were hampering the body, some old habits that had come back, I only had to tell him: off they would go. And through me, he did the same for others. He always said that he and I did the Work (in fact, when he was here, it was he who did it; I only did the external work), that he and I did the Work, and that all that was asked from the others was faith and surrender, nothing more.” The Mother’s Agenda/ August 10, 1963, The Mother’s Agenda-4/271, 87: Savitri-675, 88: Savitri-374, 89: Savitri-422-23, 90: Savitri-457, 91: “It is that which the spirit in Love is seeking here in the darkness of the Ignorance and it is that which it finds when individual human love is changed into the love of the Immanent Divine incarnate in the material universe.” CWSA/23/The Synthesis of Yoga-160 “In that larger play of the Divine the joy of the relations of divine love also is possible without the lapse into the ego-sense, —just as the supreme state of human love likewise is described as the unity of one soul in two bodies.” CWSA/23/The Synthesis of Yoga-367 “And since love is the effective power and soul-symbol of bliss-oneness he will approach and enter into this oneness by the gate of universal love, a sublimation of human love at first, a divine love afterwards, at its summits a thing of beauty, sweetness and splendour now to us inconceivable.” CWSA/23/The Synthesis of Yoga-509 “There is a movement of (Divine) love, as in the aspiration of human love, to separate the lover and the loved in the enjoyment of their exclusive oneness away from the world and from all others, shut up in the nuptial chambers of the heart. That is perhaps an inevitable movement of this path. But still the widest love fulfilled in knowledge sees the world not as something other and hostile to this joy, but as the being of the Beloved and all creatures as his being, and in that vision divine works find their joy and their justification.” CWSA/24/The Synthesis of Yoga-551 “This is in essence the power of love itself in the heart and soul turning from earthly objects to the spiritual source of all beauty and delight. There live in this seeking all the sentiment and passion, all the moods and experiences of love concentrated on a supreme object of desire and intensified a hundredfold beyond the highest acme of intensity possible to a human love.” CWSA/24/The Synthesis of Yoga-575 92: Savitri-295, 93: The Mother’s Agenda/Vol-3/p-239-240, 94: The Mother’s Agenda/Vol-8/p-389, 95: The Mother’s Agenda/Vol-3/p-239-240, “A burning Love from white spiritual founts Annulled the sorrow of the ignorant depths; Suffering was lost in her immortal smile.” Savitri-314 “Her clasp shall turn to ecstasy our pain.” Savitri-314 96: Savitri-633, 97: “Joy that forgot mortality for a while… And passions that crumble to ashes while they blaze Kindled the common earth with their brief flame.” Savitri-159, “Her (Mother of light of sattwic mind) smile could persuade a dead lacerated heart To live again and feel the hands of calm.” Savitri-514, 98: “As soon as I came upon Theon’s teaching (even before meeting him personally), and read and understood all kinds of things which I hadn’t known before, I began to work quite systematically. Every night, at the same hour, I was working to construct – between the purely terrestrial atmosphere and the psychic atmosphere – a path of protection across the vital, so that people wouldn’t have to pass through it (for those who are conscious but without knowledge it’s a very difficult passage – infernal.) I was preparing this path, doing this work (it must have been around 1903 or 1904, I don’t remember exactly) for months and months and months. All sorts of extraordinary things happened during that time – extraordinary. I could tell long stories.... Then, when I went to Tlemcen, I told Madame Theon about it. ‘Yes,’ she told me, ‘it is part of the work you have come on earth to do. Everyone with even a slightly awakened psychic being who can see your Light will go to your Light at the moment of dying, no matter where they die, and you will help them to pass through.’ And this work is constant. Constant. it has given me a considerable number of experiences concerning what happens to people when they leave their bodies. I’ve had all sorts of experiences, all kinds of examples – it’s really very interesting.” The Mother/The Mother’s Agenda- June 24, 1961, 99: Savitri-325, 100: Savitri-329, 101: “Rent man’s horizons into infinity.” Savitri-359, “To rend the veil of the last mysteries.” Savitri-360, “The knot of the two, the higher and the lower hemisphere, is where mind and supermind meet with a veil between them. The rending of the veil is the condition of the divine life in humanity; for by that rending, by the illumining descent of the higher into the nature of the lower being and the forceful ascent of the lower being into the nature of the higher, mind can recover its divine light in the all-comprehending supermind, the soul realise its divine self in the all-possessing all-blissful Ananda, life repossess its divine power on the play of omnipotent Conscious-Force and Matter open to its divine liberty as a form of the divine Existence.” CWSA/21/The Life Divine-279, 102: Savitri-6, 103: The Mother’s Agenda- January 10, 1961, 104: Savitri-468, 105: Savitri-159, 106: CWSA/23/The Synthesis of Yoga-211, 107: Savitri-404, 108: Savitri-701 109: Savitri-470, 110: Savitri-123, 238, 111: Savitri-435, 112: The Mother’s Agenda/August-25-1954, 113: Savitri-75, 114: “This culmination of sacrifice is the height even of human love and devotion when it tries to become divine; for there too the highest peak of love points into a heaven of complete mutual self-giving, its summit is the rapturous fusing of two souls into one.” CWSA/23/The Synthesis of Yoga-108, 115: TMCW/14/127, 116: Savitri-291, 117: CWSA/23/The Synthesis of Yoga-67, 118: CWSA-32/The Mother and Letters on the Mother-462, 119: Savitri-588, 120: CWSA-29/Letters on Yoga-II- p-344, 121: CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga-841, 122: “It is therefore only by going back from the surface physical mind to the psychic and spiritual consciousness that a vision and knowledge of the triple time, a transcendence of our limitation to the standpoint and view range of the moment, can be wholly possible.” CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga-892, “Meanwhile there are certain doors opening from the inner on to the outer consciousness which make an occasional but insufficient power of direct retro-vision of the past, circumvision of the present, prevision of the future even in the physical mind at least potentially feasible.” CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga-892, “The supermind has the vision of the three times, trikaladrsti; it sees them as an indivisible movement and sees too each containing the others. It is aware of all tendencies, energies and forces as the diverse play of unity and knows their relation to each other in the single movement of the one spirit.” CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga-792, 123: “The phenomena of this vital consciousness and sense, this direct sensation and perception of and response to the play of subtler forces than the physical, are often included without distinction under the head of psychical phenomena. In a certain sense it is an awakening of the psyche, the inner soul now hidden, clogged wholly or partially covered up by the superficial activity of the physical mind and senses that brings to the surface the sub- merged or subliminal inner vital consciousness and also an inner or subliminal mental consciousness and sense capable of perceiving and experiencing directly, not only the life forces and their play and results and phenomena, but the mental and psychical worlds and all they contain and the mental activities, vibrations, phenomena, forms, images of this world also and of establishing a direct communication between mind and mind without the aid of the physical organs and the limitations they impose on our consciousness.” The Synthesis of Yoga-874, 124: “For there is a continuous scale of the planes of consciousness, beginning with the psychical and other belts attached to and dependent on the earth plane and proceeding through the true independent vital and psychical worlds to the worlds of the gods and the highest supramental and spiritual planes of existence. And these are in fact always acting upon our subliminal selves unknown to our waking mind and with considerable effect on our life and nature. The physical mind is only a little part of us and there is a much more considerable range of our being in which the presence, influence and powers of the other planes are active upon us and help to shape our external being and its activities. The awakening of the psychical consciousness enables us to become aware of these powers, presences and influences in and around us; and while in the impure or yet ignorant and imperfect mind this unveiled contact has its dangers, it enables us too, if rightly used and directed, to be no longer their subject but their master and to come into conscious and self-controlled possession of the inner secrets of our nature. The psychical consciousness reveals this interaction between the inner and the outer planes, this world and others, partly by an awareness, which may be very constant, vast and vivid, of their impacts, suggestions, communications to our inner thought and conscious being and a capacity of reaction upon them there, partly also through many kinds of symbolic, transcriptive or representative images presented to the different psychical senses. But also there is the possibility of a more direct, concretely sensible, almost material, sometimes actively material communication — a complete though temporary physical materialisation seems to be possible — with the powers, forces and beings of other worlds and planes. There may even be a complete breaking of the limits of the physical consciousness and the material existence. The awakening of the psychical consciousness liberates in us the direct use of the mind as a sixth sense, and this power may be made constant and normal. The physical consciousness can only communicate with the minds of others or know the happenings of the world around us through external means and signs and indications, and it has beyond this limited action only a vague and haphazard use of the mind’s more direct capacities, a poor range of occasional presentiments, intuitions and messages. Our minds are indeed constantly acting and acted upon by the minds of others through hidden currents of which we are not aware, but we have no knowledge or control of these agencies. The psychical consciousness, as it develops, makes us aware of the great mass of thoughts, feelings, suggestions, will impacts, influences of all kinds that we are receiving from others or sending to others or imbibing from and throwing into the general mind atmosphere around us. As it evolves in power, precision and clearness, we are able to trace these to their source or feel immediately their origin and transit to us and direct consciously and with an intelligent will our own messages. It becomes possible to be aware, more or less accurately and discerningly, of the activities of minds whether near to us physically or at a distance, to understand, feel or identify ourselves with their temperament, character, thoughts, feelings, reactions, whether by a psychic sense or a direct mental perception or by a very sensible and often intensely concrete reception of them into our mind or on its recording surface. At the same time we can consciously make at least the inner selves and, if they are sufficiently sensitive, the surface minds of others aware of our own inner mental or psychic self and plastic to its thoughts, suggestions, influences or even cast it or its active image in influence into their subjective, even into their vital and physical being to work there as a helping or moulding or dominating power and presence.” CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga-877-879, 125: “To concentrate most on one’s own spiritual growth and experience is the first necessity of the sadhak — to be too eager to help others draws away from the inner work. There is also likely to be an overzeal and haste which clouds the discrimination and makes what help is given less effective than it should be. To grow in the spirit is the greatest help one can give to others, for then something flows out naturally to those around that helps them.” Sri Aurobindo/CWSA-31/Letters on Yoga-IV-317, “The idea of helping others is a subtle form of the ego. It is only the Divine Force that can help. One can be its instrument, but you should first learn to be a fit and egoless instrument.” CWSA-31/Letters on Yoga-IV/p-318, “The best way to help the world is to transform oneself by an integral and intensive yoga.” The Mother/TMCW-14/Words of The Mother-II/p-277, 126: “That is all right in the ordinary karmayoga which aims at union with the cosmic Spirit and stops short at the Overmind — but here a special work has to be done and a new realisation achieved for the earth and not for ourselves alone. It is necessary to stand apart from the rest of the world so as to separate ourselves from the ordinary consciousness in order to bring down a new one… It is not that love for all is not part of the sadhana, but it has not to translate itself at once into a mixing with all — it can only express itself in a general and when need be dynamic universal goodwill, but for the rest it must find vent in this labour of bringing down the higher consciousness with all its effect for the earth. As for accepting the working of the Divine in all things that is necessary here too in the sense of seeing it even behind our struggles and difficulties, but not accepting the nature of man and the world as it is — our aim is to move towards a more divine working which will replace what now is by a greater and happier manifestation. That too is a labour of divine Love.” Sri Aurobindo/CWSA-35/Letters on Himself and the Ashram- 812-813, “There must come upon us in the change at once a reversal and rejection of our present way of existence and a fulfilment of its inner trend and tendency.” CWSA-22/The Life Divine-1012, 127: “The heart’s love of God may be blind, narrow and ignorant and lead to fanaticism and obscurantism; it may, even when otherwise pure, limit our perfection by refusing to see Him except in a limited personality and by recoiling from the true and infinite vision. The heart’s love of man may equally lead to distortions and exaggerations in feeling, action and knowledge which have to be corrected and prevented by the purification of the understanding.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga-309, 128: Savitri-318 , 129: CWSA-22/The Life Divine-994-995, 130: CWSA-22/The Life Divine-1013, 131: “The relation of Guru and disciple is only one of many relations which one can have with the Divine, and in this Yoga which aims at a supramental realisation, it is not usual to give it this name; rather, the Divine is regarded as the Source, the living Sun of Light and Knowledge and Consciousness and spiritual realisation and all that one receives is felt as coming from there and the whole being remoulded by the Divine Hand. This is a greater and more intimate relation than that of the human Guru and disciple, which is more of a limited mental ideal. Nevertheless, if the mind still needs the more familiar mental conception, it can be kept so long as it is needed; only do not let the soul be bound by it and do not let it limit the inflow of other relations with the Divine and larger forms of experience.” CWSA-29/Letters on Yoga-II-192-193, 132: ““Even Vaishnavism and Tantra are in the end other-worldly; mukti is the aim of their efforts and anything else could be only incidental and secondary or a result on the way.” CWSA-29/Letters on Yoga-II/p-401, “Even Tantra and Vaishnavism end in the release from life; here (in Integral Yoga) the object is the divine fulfilment of life.” CWSA-29/Letters on Yoga-II/p-400, 133: Savitri-105, 134: Savitri-381, 135: Savitri-397, 136: Savitri-325, 137: “The only thing in the world that still appears intolerable to me now is all physical deterioration, physical suffering, the ugliness the powerlessness to express this capacity of beauty inherent in every being. But this, too, will be conquered one day. Here, too the power will come one day to shift the needle a little. Only, one has to climb higher in consciousness: the deeper into matter you want to descend, the higher must you ascend in consciousness…It will take time. Sri Aurobindo was surely right when he spoke of a few centuries.” The Mother’s Agenda-25.02.1958, “There will be other consequences that by opposite means will tend to eradicate the perversion and ugliness created in life due to the intervention of the mind, a whole range of deformations that have aggravated suffering, misery, moral poverty, a whole zone of sordid and repugnant miseries that makes an entire portion of human life so hideous. That must disappear. That is what in many respects makes humanity infinitely inferior to animal life, with its simplicity and its natural spontaneity, and which in spite of everything is harmonious. Suffering among animals is never as miserable and sordid as it is in a whole section of humanity perverted by a mentality exclusively turned towards egoistic needs…One must rise above, surge forth into the Light and the Harmony, or sink back down into the simplicity of a wholesome, unperverted animal life.” The Mother’s Agenda-June-1958, 138: “In the transition there may well be a period in which we take up all life and action and offer them to the Divine for purification, change and deliverance of the truth within them, another period in which we draw back and build a spiritual wall around us admitting through its gates only such activities as consent to undergo the law of the spiritual transformation, a third in which a free and all-embracing action, but with new forms fit for the utter truth of the Spirit, can again be made possible. These things, however, will be decided by no mental rule but in the light of the soul within us and by the ordaining force and progressive guidance of the Divine Power that secretly or overtly first impels, then begins clearly to control and order and finally takes up the whole burden of the Yoga.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-138-139, 139: “All the soul’s postures donned divinity.” Savitri-125 140: Savitri-633, 141: “Universal, he is all, — transcendent, none. To man’s righteousness this is his cosmic crime,” Savitri-657 “Some near approached, were touched, caught fire, then failed, Too great was her demand, too pure her force. Thus lighting earth around her like a sun, Yet in her inmost sky an orb aloof, A distance severed her from those most close.” Savitri-366 “Sri Aurobindo once said (jokingly, as it were), while talking with those around him (I was there and we were talking about Christianity and the "new Christ"), he told them, "Oh, if the new Christ comes, the Church will crucify him!"” The Mother’s Agenda-October-7, 1967, 142: (Death said) “Thy voice carries the sound of infinity, Knowledge is with thee, Truth speaks through thy words; The light of things beyond shines in thy eyes.” Savitri-663, 143: The Mother’s Agenda-6th May 1967, 144: “Therefore, whenever even a single soul is liberated, there is a tendency to an extension and even to an outburst of the same divine self-consciousness in other individual souls of our terrestrial humanity and, — who knows? — perhaps even beyond the terrestrial consciousness.” CWSA-21/The Life Divine-45, “The stone lying inert upon the sands which is kicked away in an idle moment, has been producing its effect upon the hemispheres.” Sri Aurobindo/TMCW-10/p-229, “As soon as I came upon Theon’s teaching (even before meeting him personally), and read and understood all kinds of things which I hadn’t known before, I began to work quite systematically. Every night, at the same hour, I was working to construct-between the purely terrestrial atmosphere and the psychic atmosphere-a path of protection across the vital, so that people wouldn’t have to pass through it (for those who are conscious but without knowledge it’s a very difficult passage-infernal.) I was preparing this path, doing this work (it must have been around 1903 or 1904, I don’t remember exactly) for months and months and months. All sorts of extraordinary things happened during the time-extraordinary. I could tell long series… Then, when I went to Tlemcen, I told Madame Theon about it. ‘Yes, ‘she told me, ‘it is part of the work you have come on earth to do. Everyone with even a slightly awakened psychic being who can see your Light will go to your Light at the moment of dying, no matter where they die, and you will help them to pass through,’ And this work is constant. Constant. It has given me a considerable number of experiences concerning what happens to people when they leave their bodies. I’ve had all sorts of experiences, all kinds of examples-it’s really very interesting.” June-24/1961/Mother’s Agenda/Vol-2/P: 231-238, (Earth) “Knows that one high step might enfranchise all.” Savitri-371, “Over the years I have had a considerable number of experiences in this realm, and my first action is always the same: send the Peace (I do this in all cases, for everyone) and happy the Force, The Power of the Lord, for the best thing to happen. Some people are very sick, sick to the point where there is no hope, where they cannot be cured, where the end is coming; but they sense that their souls must still need to have certain experiences, so they hang on-they don’t want to die. In such cases I apply the Force for them to last as long as possible. In other cases, on the contrary, they are weary of suffering, or indeed the soul has finished its experience and desires to be liberated. In such a case, if I am sure of it, sure that they themselves are expressing the desire to depart, it’s over in a few hours-I say this with certainty because I’ve had a considerable number of experiences. There is a certain force which goes out and does what is necessary. I haven’t done either of these things for your father-neither to prolong to his life (because when people are suffering it’s not a very kind to prolong their lives indefinitely), nor to finish it, because I didn’t know-one can’t do either without knowing the person’s conscious wish.” June-24/1961/Mother’s Agenda/Vol-2/P: 231-238 145: “A universal light was in his eyes, A golden influx flowed through heart and brain; A Force came down into his mortal limbs, A current from eternal seas of Bliss; He felt the invasion and the nameless joy.” Savitri-79 “Across the unfolding of the seas of self Appeared the deathless countries of the One. A many-miracled Consciousness unrolled Vast aim and process and unfettered norms, A larger Nature’s great familiar roads.” Savitri-91 “The Master of the worlds self-made her slave Is the executor of her fantasies: She has canalised the seas of omnipotence; She has limited by her laws the Illimitable.” Savitri-121 “A scale of sense that climbed with fiery feet To heights of unimagined happiness, Recast his being’s aura in joy-glow, His body glimmered like a skiey shell; His gates to the world were swept with seas of light.” Savitri-236 “Absolved from the ligaments of death and sleep He rode the lightning seas of cosmic Mind And crossed the ocean of original sound; On the last step to the supernal birth He trod along extinction’s narrow edge Near the high verges of eternity, And mounted the gold ridge of the world-dream Between the slayer and the saviour fires; The belt he reached of the unchanging Truth, Met borders of the inexpressible Light And thrilled with the presence of the Ineffable.” Savitri-299-300 “Incarnating inexpressibly in her limbs The boundless joy the blind world-forces seek, Her body of beauty mooned the seas of bliss.” Savitri-314 “One moment fill with thy eternity, Let thy infinity in one body live, All-Knowledge wrap one mind in seas of light, All-Love throb single in one human heart. Immortal, treading the earth with mortal feet All heaven’s beauty crowd in earthly limbs!” Savitri-345 “Leaving earth’s safety daring wings of Mind Bore her above the trodden fields of thought Crossing the mystic seas of the Beyond To live on eagle heights near to the Sun.” Savitri-360 “Amid her tresses’ cloudy multitude Her long eyes shadowed as by wings of Night Under that moon-gold forehead’s dreaming breadth Were seas of love and thought that held the world; Marvelling at life and earth they saw truths far.” Savitri-372 “Unsatisfied he yearned for me through time, Sometimes with wrath and sometimes with sweet peace Desiring me since first the world began. He rose like a wild wave out of the floods And dragged me helpless into seas of bliss.” Savitri-614 “My dreadful hands laid on thy bosom shall force Thy being bathed in fiercest longing’s streams. Thou shalt discover the one and quivering note, And cry, the harp of all my melodies, And roll, my foaming wave in seas of love.” Savitri-700 “A power dwelt in her soul too great for earth, A bliss lived in her heart too large for heaven; Light too intense for thought and love too boundless For earth’s emotions lit her skies of mind And spread through her deep and happy seas of soul.” Savitri-715 “Her mind, a sea of white sincerity,” Savitri-15, “Toiling to transform the still far Absolute Into an all-fulfilling epiphany, Into an utterance of the Ineffable, She would bring the glory here of the Absolute’s force, Change poise into creation’s rhythmic swing, Marry with a sky of calm a sea of bliss.” Savitri-195-196 “There Knowledge called him to her mystic peaks Where thought is held in a vast internal sense And feeling swims across a sea of peace And vision climbs beyond the reach of Time.” Savitri-299 “His soul was all in front like a great sea Flooding the mind and body with its waves; His being, spread to embrace the universe, United the within and the without To make of life a cosmic harmony, An empire of the immanent Divine.” Savitri-318 “In these new worlds projected he became A portion of the universal gaze, A station of the all-inhabiting light, A ripple on a single sea of peace.” Savitri-325 “Its ordered hours proclaimed the eternal Law; Vision reposed on a safety of deathless forms; Time was Eternity’s transparent robe. An architect hewing out self’s living rock, Phenomenon built Reality’s summer-house On the beaches of the sea of Infinity.” Savitri-329 “Always behind this strange divided life Her spirit like a sea of living fire Possessed her lover and to his body clung, One locked embrace to guard its threatened mate.” Savitri-471 “An inner law of beauty shapes our lives; Our words become the natural speech of Truth, Each thought is a ripple on a sea of Light.” Savitri-530-531 “Then out of the engulfing sea of trance Her mind rose drenched to light streaming with hues Of vision and, awake once more to Time, Returned to shape the lineaments of things And live in borders of the seen and known.” Savitri-579 “My heart’s strength can carry the grief of the universe And never falter from its luminous track, Its white tremendous orbit through God’s peace. It can drink up the sea of All-Delight And never lose the white spiritual touch, The calm that broods in the deep Infinite.” Savitri-635-636 “As one drowned in a sea of splendour and bliss, Mute in the maze of these surprising worlds, Turning she saw their living knot and source, Key to their charm and fount of their delight, And knew him for the same who snares our lives Captured in his terrifying pitiless net, And makes the universe his prison camp And makes in his immense and vacant vasts The labour of the stars a circuit vain And death the end of every human road And grief and pain the wages of man’s toil.” Savitri-678 “All was the violent ocean of a will Where lived captive to an immense caress, Possessed in a supreme identity, Her aim, joy, origin, Satyavan alone.” Savitri-579, “But higher still can climb the ascending light; There are vasts of vision and eternal suns, Oceans of an immortal luminousness, Flame-hills assaulting heaven with their peaks, There dwelling all becomes a blaze of sight; A burning head of vision leads the mind, Thought trails behind it its long comet tail; The heart glows, an illuminate and seer, And sense is kindled into identity.” Savitri-659-660 “The Two opposed each other face to face. His being like a huge fort of darkness towered; Around it her light grew, an ocean’s siege.” Savitri-667 “Air seemed an ocean of felicity Or the couch of the unknown spiritual rest, A vast quiescence swallowing up all sound Into a voicelessness of utter bliss; Even Matter brought a close spiritual touch, All thrilled with the immanence of one divine.” Savitri-672 “An oceanic spirit dwelt within; Intolerant and invincible in joy A flood of freedom and transcendent bliss Into immortal lines of beauty rose.” Savitri-680 “Break into eternity thy mortal mould; Melt, lightning, into thy invisible flame! Clasp, Ocean, deep into thyself thy wave, Happy for ever in the embosoming surge.” Savitri-691-692, 146: The Mother’s Agenda-4.07.1962, “And when the day comes for the manifestation of supreme Love – a crystalized, concentrated descent of supreme Love – that will truly be the hour of Transformation, for nothing will be able to resist That. But as it’s all-powerful, a certain receptivity must be prepared on earth so its effects are not devastating. Sri Aurobindo has explained it in one of his letters. Someone asked him, ‘Why doesn’t this Love come now?’, and he replied something like this: If divine Love in its essence were to manifest on earth, it would be like an explosion; for the earth is not supple enough or receptive enough to widen to the measure of this Love. The earth must not only open itself but become wide and supple. Matter – not just physical Matter, but the substance of the physical consciousness as well – is still much too rigid.” The Mother’s Agenda-10.01.1961, “As an experience, it's absolutely certain: when you come in touch with eternal Love, supreme Love, the first, immediate ... (what should I say?) perception or sensation (it's not an understanding, it is much more concrete) is that even the most enlightened, kneaded, prepared material consciousness is INCAPABLE of manifesting That! The first impression is that sort of incapacity. Then comes the experience of something manifesting a type of ... not exactly "cruelty," because it's not cruelty as we conceive it; but in the totality of circumstances, there is a vibration which is felt as a certain intensity of refusal of love as it is manifested here – that's exactly the thing: something in the material world refuses the manifestation of love as it exists at present (I don't refer to the ordinary world but to the consciousness at its present highest). It's an experience, I am speaking of something that has taken place. Then the part of the consciousness that has been touched by that opposition calls out directly to Love's origin WITH AN INTENSITY IT COULD NOT HAVE HAD WITHOUT THE EXPERIENCE OF THE REFUSAL. Limits are broken, a flood descends which could NOT manifest before, and something is expressed which was not expressed before.” The Mother’s Agenda/15.05.1963, “More and more, there is something that presses to make itself known and is formulated like this: what wants to come for next February is the Truth-Light ... (Mother repeats like an incantation) the Truth-Light, the Truth-Force, the Truth- Light, the Truth-Force ... to prepare the way for the manifestation of supreme Love. But that is for later on…But immediate, immediate: the Truth-Light, the Truth-Force. It's becoming precise…I didn't think about it. It was perfectly blank in my head. I didn't know at all…And then that came.” The Mother’s Agenda-15.01.1965, “Yes, this problem of the transformation, I see more and more clearly that there are three approaches, three ways to go about it, and that in order to be more complete one should combine the three. One – the most important, naturally – is the way we could call "spiritual," the way of the contact with the Consciousness – Love-Consciousness-Power, that is. These three aspects: supreme Love-Consciousness-Power. And the contact, the identification: making all the material cells capable of receiving Him and expressing Him – of BEING That. Of all the ways, that is the most powerful and most indispensable. There is the occult way, which brings all the intermediary worlds into play. There is a very detailed knowledge of all the powers and personalities, all the intermediary regions, and it makes use of all that. That's where one makes use of the Overmind godheads: it's in this second way. Shiva, Krishna, all the aspects of the Mother are part of this second way. Then there is the higher intellectual approach, which is the projection of a surpassing scientific mind and takes up the problem from below. It has its own importance too. From the standpoint of the detail of the procedure, it reduces approximation, it gives a more direct and precise action. If one can combine all three, then obviously the thing will go faster. Without the first, nothing is possible (and even, the other two are an illusion without the first: they lead nowhere, you go round in circles endlessly). But if you clothe the first in the other two, then I think the action is more precise, direct, rapid.” The Mother’s Agenda-04.03.1967, “Tell me, it would be lovely if one could take people's consciousness as one takes a flower, and then, because one looks at it and holds it and the vibration is that Vibration of supreme Love, it opens up, like that, becomes organized, and grows magnificent…It would be fine if one could do that – (laughing) perhaps one can!” The Mother’s Agenda-15.03.1967, 147: “A perfect equality not only of the self, but in the nature is a condition of the Yoga of self perfection. The first obvious step to it will be the conquest of our emotional and vital being, for here are the sources of greatest trouble, the most rampant forces of inequality and subjection, the most insistent claim of our imperfection. The equality of these parts of our nature comes by purification and freedom…All that comes to it from the world with menace or with solicitation, it will refer to the higher principles, to a reason and heart, in touch with or changed by the light and calm joy of the spirit… There is no question here of an ascetic killing of the life-impulse and its native utilities and functions; not its killing is demanded, but its transformation.” CWSA/24/The Synthesis of Yoga-702-703, 148: “But this highest condition is difficult and must evidently take long to bring about; for the participation and consent of the Purusha to the transition is not sufficient, there must be also be the consent and participation of Prakriti. It is not only the central thought and will that have to acquiesce, but all the parts of our being must assent and surrender to the law of spiritual Truth; all has to learn to obey the government of the conscious Divine Power in the members. There are obstinate difficulties in our being born of its evolutionary constitution which militate against this assent. For some of these parts are still subject to the inconscience and subconscience and to the lower automatism of habit or so-called law of nature,--mechanical habit of mind, habit of life, habit of instinct, habit of personality, habit of character, the ingrained mental, vital, physical needs, impulses, desires of natural man, the old functionings of all kinds that are rooted there so deep that it would seem as if we had to dig to abysmal foundations in order to get them out: these parts refuse to give up their response to the lower law founded in the Inconscient; they continually send up to the conscious mind and life the old reactions and seek to reaffirm them there as the eternal rule of Nature. Other parts of the being are less obscure and mechanical and rooted in inconscience, but all are imperfect and attached to their imperfection and have their own obstinate reactions; the vital part is wedded to the law of self-affirmation and desire, the mind is attached to its own formed movements, and both are willingly obedient to the inferior law of the Ignorance. And yet the law of participation and the law of surrender are imperative; at each step of the transition (1) the ascent of the Purusha is needed and (2) there must be too the consent of each part of the nature to the action of the higher power for its change. There must be then a conscious self-direction of the mental being in us towards this change, this substitution of Supernature for the old nature, this transcendence. The rule of conscious obedience to the higher truth of the spirit, the surrender of the whole being to the light and power that come from the Supernature, is a second condition which has to be accomplished slowly and with difficulty by the being itself before the supramental transformation can become at all possible.” CWSA-22/The Life Divine-962-63, 149: Savitri-631, 150: Savitri-554, 151: “In this self-development the soul finds that it has accomplished on this line the object of the whole integral Yoga, union with the Supreme in its self and in its universalised individuality. So long as he remains in the world-existence, this perfection must radiate out from him, — for that is the necessity of his oneness with the universe and its beings, — in an influence and action which help all around who are capable of it to rise to or advance towards the same perfection, and for the rest in an influence and action which help, as only the self-ruler and master man can help, in leading the human race forward spiritually towards this consummation and towards some image of a greater divine truth in their personal and communal existence. He becomes a light and power of the Truth to which he has climbed and a means for others’ ascension.” CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-642, 152: The Mother’s Agenda/November 7/1961, 153: “The human form is naturally unable to bear the Divine Love or contain it, because it is itself a creation of the ignorance, weak and impure. It must be transformed in order to be capable of that; it must become strong and pure. First of all, it must have the strength to love the Divine alone and turn away from all other ties. But besides that a new consciousness must be created in it — first a consciousness of pure and purifying Divine Peace from above which must take hold of all down to the most physical — then in that peace an increasing inner strength pure and unegoistic — then the Divine Light and Knowledge transforming all the consciousness and movements. When this has been done, then the human form can contain the Divine Love and Ananda. Till then the touches of the Divine Love and Ananda are usually momentary or brief, they cannot remain. In an impure consciousness the Divine Love if it came in would create a perturbation and possibly be attacked by a mixture which would make it impossible for it to stay. It is therefore that touches only can come.” CWSA-29/Letters on Yoga-II/p-334, 154: “The power of the soul over its nature is of the utmost importance in the Yoga of self-perfection; if it did not exist, we could never get by conscious endeavour and aspiration out of the fixed groove of our present imperfect human being; if any greater perfection were intended, we should have to wait for Nature to effect it in her own slow or swift process of evolution.” CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-628, “The Yoga of self-perfection brings out this soul-force and gives it its largest scope, takes up all the fourfold powers and throws them into the free circle of an integral and harmonious spiritual dynamis. The godhead, the soul-power of knowledge rises to the highest degree of which the individual nature can be the supporting basis. A free mind of light develops which is open to every kind of revelation, inspiration, intuition, idea, discrimination, thinking synthesis; an enlightened life of the mind grasps at all knowledge with a delight of finding and reception and holding, a spiritual enthusiasm, passion, or ecstasy; a power of light full of spiritual force, illumination and purity of working manifests its empire, brahma-tejas, brahma-varcas ; a bottomless steadiness and illimitable calm upholds all the illumination, movement, action as on some rock of ages, equal, unperturbed, unmoved, acyuta .” CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-750, 155: Savitri-603, 156: Savitri-548, 157: Savitri-291, 158: Savitri-318-319, 159: Savitri-685, 160: CWSA-29/Letters on Yoga-II/p-333, 161: Savitri-42, 162: Savitri-231, 163: Savitri-89, 164: Savitri-398, Download this WEB PAGE as a PDF file: "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

Integral Psychic Education "These things, love, compassion, kindness, bhakti, Ananda are the nature of the psychic being, because the psychic being is formed from the Divine Consciousness, it is the divine part within you. But the lower parts are not yet accustomed to obey or value the influence and control of the psychic for in men the vital and physical are accustomed to act for themselves and do not care for what the soul wants. When they do care and obey the psychic, that is their conversion — they begin to put on themselves the psychic or divine nature." Sri Aurobindo CWSA-28/Letters on Yoga-I/p-122 "For the integral Yoga this method of Samadhi may seem to have the disadvantage that when it ceases, the thread is broken and the soul returns into the distraction and imperfection of the outward life, (return to three gunas ) with only such an elevating effect upon that outer life as the general memory of these deeper experiences may produce. But this gulf, this break is not inevitable. In the first place, it is only in the untrained psychic being that the experiences of the trance are a blank to the waking mind; as it becomes the master of its Samadhi, it is able to pass without any gulf of oblivion from the inner to the outer waking. Secondly, when this has been once done, what is attained in the inner state, becomes easier to acquire by the waking consciousness and to turn into the normal experience, powers, mental status of the waking life (activation of waking trance). The subtle mind which is normally eclipsed by the insistence of the physical being, becomes powerful even in the waking state, until even there the enlarging man is able to live in his several subtle bodies as well as in his physical body, to be aware of them and in them, to use their senses, faculties, powers, to dwell in possession of supraphysical truth, consciousness and experience. " Sri Aurobindo CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-525 Integral Psychic Education: “Attracted to strange far-off shimmerings, Led by the fluting of a distant Player He sought his way amid life’s laughter and call” Savitri-192 “An Infant nursed on Nature’s covert breast, An Infant playing in the magic woods, Fluting to rapture by the spirit’s streams, Awaits the hour when we shall turn to his call.” Savitri-169 “Although are witnessed there the joys of Time, Pressed on the bosom the Immortal’s touch is felt, Heard are the flutings of the Infinite .” Savitri-279 “It seemed the yearning of a lonely flute That roamed along the shores of memory And filled the eyes with tears of longing joy.” Savitri-290 “High-fluting with the coil’s happy voice, His peacock turban trailing on the trees; His breath was a warm summons to delight, The dense voluptuous azure was his gaze.” Savitri-352 “What feet of gods, what ravishing flutes of heaven Have thrilled high melodies round, from near and far” Savitri-419 “An adoration reigned in the yearning heart, A spirit of purity, an elusive presence Of faery beauty and ungrasped delight Whose momentary and escaping thrill, However unsubstantial to our flesh, And brief even in imperishableness, Much sweeter seemed than any rapture known Earth or all-conquering heaven can ever give.” Savitri-603 “His bliss laughs to us or it calls concealed Like a far-heard unseen entrancing flute From moonlit branches in the throbbing woods, Tempting our angry search and passionate pain. Disguised the Lover seeks and draws our souls.” Savitri-614 “O subtle-souled musician of the years, Play out what thou hast fluted on my stops ; Arise from the strain their first wild plaint divined And that discover which is yet unsung.” Savitri-687 “Pursuing her in her fall, implacably sweet, A face was over her which seemed a youth’s, Symbol of all the beauty eyes see not, Crowned as with peacock plumes of gorgeous hue Framing a sapphire, whose heart-disturbing smile Insatiably attracted to delight, Voluptuous to the embraces of her soul.” Savitri-711 “The soul may dwell in the principle of infinite unity of self-existence and be aware of all consciousness, energy, delight, knowledge, will, activity as conscious form of this essential truth, Sat or Satya . It (Psychic being) may dwell in the principle of infinite conscious energy, Tapas , and be aware of it unrolling out of self-existence the works of knowledge, will and dynamic soul-action for the enjoyment of an infinite delight of the being. It may dwell in the principle of infinite self-existent delight and be aware of the divine Ananda creating out of its self-existence by its energy whatever harmony of being. In these three poises the consciousness of unity dominates; the soul lives in its awareness of eternity, universality, unity, and whatever diversity there is, is not separative, but only a multitudinous aspect of oneness.”⁹ Sri Aurobindo " It is only love that can understand and get at the secrets of the Divine Working. The mind, the physical mind especially, is incapable of seeing correctly and yet it always wants to judge. It is only a true, sincere humility in the mind, allowing the psychic to rule the being, that can save human beings from ignorance and obscurity."¹² The Mother Psychic education draws one towards the immortal life, ‘a higher realisation upon earth,’ ¹⁰ ever progressive change, unbroken continuity in the world of forms, meets the Immanent God dwelling in each form and it turns always towards Truth, Good and Beauty. It is conscious of rasa of things and takes equal delight to all contacts. Their opposite experiences of pleasure, pain and indifference gather strength and grow by them and are necessary part of experience, but have to be outgrown in the Spiritual increase of the being. (Janmastami & Nanda Utsaba at Sri Matriniketan Ashram) (“The Blessed Lord said to Arjuna , the Divine, Ishwara, is seated in the heart of all beings, turning all beings mounted upon a machine by His Maya .” The Gita-18.61) (“God has so arranged life that the world is the soul’s husband; Krishna its divine paramour. We owe a debt of service to the world and are bound to it by a law, a compelling opinion, and a common experience of pain and pleasure, but our heart’s worship and our free and secret joy are for our Lover.”¹¹ Sri Aurobindo ) The inner soul in man, the Psychic being, Kshara Purusha , is a partial manifestation of the Divine, mamaivamsah , who is itself mutable, kshara, everlasting, sanatanah , the Lord, Ishwara, the luminous inhabitant in human body, manusim tanumasritam , and simultaneously the giver of sanction, anumanta of all the action of the three gunas within the boundary of Ignorance, missioned to lead man in Ignorance towards light of Divine Consciousness. Its operation in the ignorance is different from Akshara Purusha , the Spiritual being and Uttama Purusha, the Supramental Being, though it is having manifold deep relations with them. The Kshara Purusha , associating itself with the works of Prakriti , seems to be the doer of all works, karta , whereas Akshara Purusha, dissociating itself from all the workings of the gunas is the inactive non-doer, akarta and witness. In Purushottama , these two states, the action of the Soul and its mutability and the status of the immutability of the Spirit actually coexist. The Purushottama puts forth his own active nature, svam prakrtim , manifest in the jiva and works out its own innate Divine nature, svabhava , in addition to its egoistic action, bewildered by the three gunas. Initially the Gita has identified the double soul in man (The Gita-6-5, 6); one that of the surface desire soul carrying in its nature the apparent nature of lower instincts, emotions, the mental seeking for power, knowledge and happiness and the other behind it that of the true Soul, the Psychic being which is a living light that illumines. We are aware of a guide within that knows the truth, the good,¹ the pure power of light, the true delight and beauty of existence, when body, heart and intellect take their true place as instrument and lead our life and being towards Spiritual completeness. The desire soul’s wrong approach and reception towards life deforms the pure joy into pleasure, pain and indifference. True Soul is the imperishable, evolves in us from birth to birth and untouched by death, decay and corruption. It is actually the Psychic sheath that grows from birth to birth by entering the essence of all experience of the Psychic self in the Ignorance. A mastery of senses, the ability to do without all that they hanker after, is the initial condition of the true Soul education. True Soul is a witness who discerns within the obscure working of Ignorance; it is a will that refuses to be misled by the mind’s error, the heart’s response towards wrong call, the turbid falsehood of our vital nature and its dark self-seeking. “Even as her body, such is she within. Heaven’s lustrous mornings gloriously recur, Like drops of fire upon a silver page, In her young spirit yet untouched with tears. All beautiful things eternal seem and new To virgin wonder in her crystal soul.” Savitri-422 “He dwelt in his self’s colourless purity” Savitri-297 “Wisdom transcendent touched his quivering heart:” Savitri-33 “The All-Blissful sat unknown within the heart” Savitri-43 “But the soul grows concealed within its house; It gives to the body its strength and magnificence; It follows aims in an ignorant aimless world, It lends significance to earth’s meaningless life.” Savitri-658-59 The fundamental Psychic⁸ experience in us has the delight of all-life and progressive manifestation of the Spirit and gathers out of all contacts and happenings their secret Divine sense and essence. Thus, our mind and life can grow out of the Inconscience and the divisions of Ignorance towards supreme Consciousness and Knowledge. In the book-7, Canto-5 of Savitri book, Savitri discovered her Psychic being⁷ through Tantric Method of Yoga and not the Vedantic self-discipline. This Tantric method is safe for Developed Soul but not so safe for developing Souls. Because the desire Soul surrounding the Psychic Being is not easy to overcome but rather it invites Spiritual fall. In Vedantic method, first the Spiritual being opens and by its pressure or descent, the Psychic being opens and this Self-discipline is rather safe for developing Souls and without any possibility of Spiritual fall. In this Canto, Savitri’s Psychic⁶ being not only opens but the Psychic being is Spiritualised and Supramentalised. It means mediatrix Spiritual Mother and Creatrix Supramental Mother, consented to live permanently in Savitri’s Psychic heart centre, thus the Psychic being is identified as an important centre for individual and world Transformation. “Here in this chamber of flame and light they met; (Psychic and Spiritual being met) They looked upon each other, knew themselves, The secret deity (Spiritual being) and its human part (Psychic being), The calm immortal (Spiritual being) and the struggling soul (Psychic being). Then with a magic transformation’s speed They rushed into each other and grew one.” Savitri-527 (This is the experience of Spiritualisation of Psychic being.) (By this experience the Spiritual Mother consented to live in Savitri's Psychic heart centre.) “In its deep lotus home her being sat As if on concentration’s marble seat, Calling the mighty Mother of the worlds To make this earthly tenement her house.” Savitri-528 (The Mighty Supramental Mother stationed permanently in the Savitri’s Psychic heart Centre.) So Savitri book proposes that if a Sadhaka has realised the Psychic⁵ being and his consciousness learns the lesson to live in waking trance, then through the movement of Consciousness, he can Spiritualise and Supramentalise the Psychic being, then he can save himself, the collectivity and the world. But to realise this perfection is a long process of time. This Canto gives the input, that if the Psychic Being⁴ opens, then this heart Centre acts as a Fortress of Truth and Virginity, surrounded with a large world of Ignorance and from this Divine Centre the Overhead truth and purity pours into world Falsehood and world perversion, thus one extends help to illumine the world and this is further universalised as ‘the little strength we have to help our race.’ (Savitri-527) “O soul, my soul, we have created Heaven, Within we have found the kingdom here of God, His fortress built in a loud ignorant world.” Savitri-531 This Canto also informs us that with the Psychic³ realisation of Savitri , the Gods and Goddess of the Overmental world preferred to live with her. Similar experience we also observe with King Aswapati : "In the slow process of the evolving spirit, In the brief stade between a death and birth A first perfection’s stage is reached (by Savitri) at last; Out of the wood and stone of our nature’s stuff A temple is shaped where the high gods could live. Even if the struggling world is left outside One man’s perfection still can save the world.” Savitri-531 (King Aswapati’s experience) “In an outburst of heavenly joy and ease Life yields to the divinity within And gives the rapture-offering of its all, And the soul opens to felicity. A bliss is felt that never can wholly cease, A sudden mystery of secret Grace Flowers goldening our earth of red desire. All the high gods who hid their visages From the soiled passionate ritual of our hopes, Reveal their names and their undying powers.” Savitri-278 If ‘the inner doors are flung sufficiently open, the light from the sanctuary can suffuse the nearest and the farthest chambers of the outer being. The necessary turn or change can also be brought about by an occult descent of the spiritual force from above, in which the influx, the influence, the spiritual consequence is felt, but the higher source is unknown and the actual feeling of a descent is not there.’² This Canto also hints at the Psychic transformation of Savitri’s untransformed Nature. They are: “And all emotions gave themselves to God.” Savitri-529 “Its proud ambitions and its master lusts Were tamed into instruments of a great calm sway To do a work of God on earthly soil.” Savitri-530 “Its childish game of daily dwarf desires Was changed into a sweet and boisterous play,” Savitri-530 “Then sin and virtue leave the cosmic lists;” Savitri-531 Psychic being is the conscious Immortal being in us reminds us of the necessity of physical immortality. With fourfold Divine union Psychic being gather Force. With the increase and accumulation of fourfold Soul Force, the conscious Psychic Being prepares to confront with Death and destiny. OM TAT SAT References: 1: “The subconscient is not the whole foundation of our nature; it is only the lower basis of the Ignorance and governs mostly the lower vital and physical exterior consciousness and these again affect the higher parts of the nature. While it is necessary to see what it is and how it acts, one must not be too preoccupied with this dark side or this apparent aspect of the instrumental being. One should rather regard it as something not oneself, a mask of false nature imposed on the true being by the Ignorance. The true being is the inner with all its vast possibilities of reaching and expressing the Divine and especially the inmost, the soul, the psychic Purusha which is always in its essence pure, divine, turned to all that is good and true and beautiful. The exterior being has to be taken hold of by the inner being and turned into an instrument no longer of the upsurgings of the ignorant subconscient Nature, but of the Divine. It is by remembering always that and opening the nature upwards that the Divine Consciousness can be reached and descend from above into the whole inner and outer existence, mental, vital, physical, the subconscient, the subliminal, all that we overtly or secretly are. This should be the main preoccupation. To dwell solely on the subconscient and the aspect of imperfection creates depression and should be avoided. One has to keep a right balance and stress on the positive side most, recognising the other but only to reject and change it. This and a constant faith and reliance on the Mother are what is needed for the transformation to come.” CWSA-28/Letters on Yoga-I/p-217-218, 2: “It is indeed from these higher sources that the secret spiritual Power acts upon the being and by its pressure brings about the psychic transformation or the spiritual change; but in the early stages of our growth this action is not apparent, it remains occult and unseizable. At first what is necessary is that the pure touch of the spiritual force must intervene in mental nature: that awakening pressure must stamp itself upon mind and heart and life and give them their upward orientation; a subtle light or a great transmuting power must purify, refine and uplift their motions and suffuse them with a higher consciousness that does not belong to their own normal capacity and character. This can be done from within by an invisible action through the psychic entity and the psychic personality; a consciously felt descent from above is not indispensable. The presence of the spirit is there in every living being, on every level, in all things, and because it is there, the experience of Sachchidananda, of the pure spiritual existence and consciousness, of the delight of a divine presence, closeness, contact can be acquired through the mind or the heart or the life-sense or even through the physical consciousness; if the inner doors are flung sufficiently open, the light from the sanctuary can suffuse the nearest and the farthest chambers of the outer being. The necessary turn or change can also be brought about by an occult descent of the spiritual force from above, in which the influx, the influence, the spiritual consequence is felt, but the higher source is unknown and the actual feeling of a descent is not there.” CWSA-22/The Life Divine/p-967-968 3: “The central being — the Jivatman which is not born nor evolves, but presides over the individual birth and evolution puts forward a representative of himself on each plane of the consciousness. On the mental plane it is the true mental being, manomaya purusa, on the vital plane the true vital being, pranamaya purusa , on the physical plane the true physical being, annamaya purusa . Each being therefore is, so long as the Ignorance lasts, centred round his mental, vital or physical Purusha, according to the plane on which he predominantly lives, and that is to him his central being. But the true representative all the time is concealed behind the mind, vital and physical — it is the psychic, our inmost being… When the inmost knowledge begins to come, we become aware of the psychic being within us and it comes forward and leads the sadhana. We become aware also of the Jivatman, the individual Self or Spirit above the manifestation of which the psychic is the representative here.” CWSA-28/Letters on Yoga-I/p-59, 4: “The central being is above the Adhara — most people are not aware of their central being (Jivatma) — they are aware only of the ego. The psychic is the soul — it is a portion of the Divine that supports the mind, life and body in the evolution. The psychic gets the Divine’s help directly from the Divine.” CWSA-28/Letters on Yoga/p-60 5: “The central being is that which is not born, does not evolve, but presides over all the individual manifestation. The psychic is its projection here — for the psychic being is in the evolution and from within supports our whole evolution; it receives the essence of all experience and by that develops the personality Godward. The Self is at once one in all and many — one in its essence, it manifests also as the individual self which may be described as in Nature an eternal portion of the Divine; in spirit a centre of the manifestation, individual but extending into universality and rising into transcendence.” CWSA-28/Letters on Yoga/p-60 6: It is the central being above the evolution (always the same) that we call the Jivatma — the psychic being is the same in the evolution, it is the spark of the Divine there growing into its full divinity as a portion of the Divine.” CWSA-28/Letters on Yoga/p-60 7: “The central being and the soul are both in different ways portions of the Divine. They are in fact two aspects of the same entity, but one is unevolving above Nature, the other evolves a psychic being in Nature.” CWSA-28/Letters on Yoga/p-60-61 8: “The phrase “central being ” in our Yoga is usually applied to the portion of the Divine in us which supports all the rest and survives through death and birth. This central being has two forms — above, it is the Jivatman , our true being, of which we become aware when the higher self-knowledge comes, — below, it is the psychic being which stands behind mind, body and life. The Jivatman is above the manifestation in life and presides over it; the psychic being stands behind the manifestation in life and supports it …The natural attitude of the psychic being is to feel itself as the child, the son of God , the Bhakta ; it is a portion of the Divine, one in essence, but in the dynamics of the manifestation there is always even in identity a difference. The Jivatman, on the contrary, lives in the essence and can merge itself in identity with the Divine; but it too, the moment it presides over the dynamics of the manifestation, knows itself as one centre of the multiple Divine, not as the Parameshwara . It is important to remember this distinction ; for, otherwise, if there is the least vital egoism, one may begin to think of oneself as an Avatara …” CWSA-28/Letters on Yoga/p-61, “Caitya purusa means rather the Purusha in the cit, the fundamental (inner) consciousness…Jiva is the fundamental, or as we call it, the central being. But the fundamental being is not combined of the mental, vital, psychic etc., these are only expressions of the Jivatman; the Jivatman itself is self-existent in the Divine; essential in its being, it cannot be regarded as a combination of things.” CWSA-28/Letters on Yoga/p-62, “The nascent spiritual man makes his appearance in the emotional nature as the devotee, the bhakta; if, in addition, he becomes directly aware of his soul and its dictates, unites his emotional with his psychic personality and changes his life and vital parts by purity, God-ecstasy, the love of God and men and all creatures into a thing of spiritual beauty, full of divine light and good, he develops into the saint and reaches the highest inner experience and most considerable change of nature proper to this way of approach to the Divine Being. But for the purpose of an integral transformation this too is not enough; there must be a transmutation of the thinking mind and all the vital and physical parts of consciousness in their own character.” CWSA-22/The Life Divine/p-936, “It is only through these decisive movements that the true character of the evolution becomes evident; for till then there are only preparatory movements, a pressure of the psychic Entity on the mind, life and body to develop a true soul action, a pressure of the spirit or self for liberation from the ego, from the surface ignorance, a turning of the mind and life towards some occult Reality, — preliminary experiences, partial formulations of a spiritualised mind, a spiritualised life, but no complete change, no probability of an entire unveiling of the soul or self or a radical transformation of the nature.” CWSA-22/The Life Divine/p-887, “It is evident that if we can live thus deeper within and put out steadily the inner forces into the outer instrumentation or raise ourselves to dwell on higher and wider levels and bring their powers to bear on physical existence, not merely receive influences descending from them, which is all we can now do, there could begin a heightening of our force of conscious being so as to create a new principle of consciousness, a new range of activities, new values for all things, a widening of our consciousness and life, a taking up and transformation of the lower grades of our existence, — in brief, the whole evolutionary process by which the Spirit in Nature creates a higher type of being.” CWSA-22/The Life Divine/p-751, 9: CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-629, 10: “Because the two are usually confused under the general term of “yogic discipline”, although the goals they aim at are very different: for one it (Psychic Being) is a higher realisation upon earth, for the other (Spiritual Being) an escape from all earthly manifestation, even from the whole universe, a return to the unmanifest.” TMCW-12/On Education/p-35, (In integral Yoga Psychic is given more importance than the Spiritual being, because of the escapist tendency of the latter.) 11: Sri Aurobindo/TMCW-10/On Thoughts and Aphorisms/p-340, 12: The Mother/(TMCW-14/Words of the Mother-II/p-343), Download this WEB PAGE in PDF format: "There's such a wonderful passage in The Synthesis of Yoga ("The Yoga of Self-Perfection" ), where he (Sri Aurobindo) mentions four things (you surely remember this), four things the disciple needs (I have just translated it). I knew this, of course, but the passage is especially timely now – particularly after that last experience, which is a jolt for a physical being. The fourth thing is wonderful. The first three we know: equality, peace and (a hard one) a spiritual ease in all circumstances. He added the word "spiritual" so people wouldn't think only of material ease – it's an ease in feelings, in sensations, in everything. But when you have a lot of pain it's obviously not so easy! When physical pain keeps you from sleeping and eating, when you are plagued by constant physical pain – or rather by a whole host of physical pains! – well, that bodily "ease" becomes difficult. It's the one thing that has seemed difficult to me; but anyway, it's being investigated – I think it was sent for me to investigate... But the last thing he mentions is a marvel – the joy and laughter of the soul. And it's so true, so true! Always, all the time, no matter what happens, even when this body is in dreadful pain, the soul is laughing joyously within. Always, always, always. " The Mother The Mother's Agenda/May 22, 1962

"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 - The World Soul ALL LIFE IS YOGA(sarva (ananta) jivanam nitya-yogamastu ) “One must accept infirmity and even accept looking like an imbecile, one must accept everything, and there is not one person in fifty millions who has the courage to do it (Sri Aurobindo told me I was the only one!…[laughing] It may be so!). Many have also gone off elsewhere, into other, more or less subtle worlds— you see, there are millions of ways to escape, but only one way to stay: that is to have courage and endurance, to accept all the appearances of infirmity, powerlessness, ignorance—the appearances of the very negation of truth. But if one does not accept that, nothing will ever change. As for those who want to go on being great, luminous, strong, powerful and so on and so forth, well, let them stay where they are, they cannot do anything for earth.” The Mother The Mother's Agenda-25.09.1965 (The Mother's above Subconscient transformation experience hints that if one very rarest of the rare Soul has the Supreme force of Vijnana at his disposal, then he can adventure into the dark Inconscient and Subconscient Sheaths to face and confront all infirmity, powerlessness and negations and Divinise them. This immense transformative work appears outwardly as a vain and thankless job and to do such inner action, one must have the Spirit of long and hard Sacrifice. The Savitri book has a message to the aimless and issueless circling human race to be conscious of the issue and aim of Savitri within , who must accumulate Soul Force in order to confront and wrestle endlessly with the riddle of human birth and the shadow of negative energies till the last breath and to trace a path of immortality. Her Soul’s issue is to change the human destiny through Yogic discipline, initially by the movement of ascending and descending Consciousness and finally to reach an apex Consciousness of world destiny where all is won by the dynamization of Static Witness Supreme Self, Para-prakriti, or all is lost for man by non-dynamization of Static Witness Supreme Self, Paramatma . The most difficult task for a Sadhak is the extreme accumulation of the ‘Spirit’s bare and absolute potencies’ (Savitri-57) to become mightier than all the forces of the material and vital world and wrestles with Matter to meet and confront victoriously dark Subconscient forces of naked Hell, compel active dynamic unification of cosmic Nature and tearing of desire from its bleeding Inconscient root is identified as ‘last and mightiest transformation’ (Savitri-318) which culminates in Divinisation of mundane surface Nature. Then he emerges as Universalised individual Soul Centre with a liberated immobile Soul and transformed mobile Nature. "Whoever is too great must lonely live. Adored he walks in mighty solitude; Vain is his labour to create his kind, His only comrade is the Strength within." Savitri-368 When a high Soul takes birth on earth, it becomes difficult for him to find equal Souls who can help him accomplish his Divine Mission of fourfold Divine union. Till the arrival of 'predestined face', he must live alone with his Psychic Being and must be isolated from any inferior human association. The desperate effort made to create, nurture and build an equal Soul, lokasangraha, is identified here as a waste of time and vain effort. Before arriving at any higher Universal life, time and space must be utilised exclusively to the preliminary work of 'psychicisation and spiritualisation of the being and nature...' through purification, liberation and perfection of intelligence and will (buddhi yoga ). Savitri is a representative symbol of Incarnation and a few Instruments and Emanations, always present close to earth’s atmosphere with the single mission of divinising the clay. The above verse recognises them as '‘the sun-eyed children of a marvellous dawn" (Savitri-343) or 'Omnipotent's flaming pioneers.' (Savitri-343) However small the number they may be; they must not squander energy to wide spread the mission but rather devote time to Psychicise and Spiritualise being and nature. Thus, they accumulate Spiritual energy and canalise this invisible Transcendent Force to earth and men. They will learn the lesson to depend on descending overhead Spiritual energy rather than on collective force. The Mother defined her universal world action in the following terms: “In the night, I am always given a state of human consciousness to put right, one after another—there are millions of them. And there are always all the images and events that illustrate that particular state of consciousness. At times, it is very hard going: I wake up tired, as after a long period of work.” The Mother The Mother’s Agenda-5/p-170-71 “All the mornings are difficult...for instance, all the vibrations from sick people, all those problems of life come from everywhere. And for those three hours, there is tension, struggle, acute seeking for what should be done or for the attitude to be taken...It is that time I have tested the power of mantra. ..I repeat my mantra automatically, without stopping; and every time the difficulty increases, a kind of Power comes into those words and acts on Matter...It saves the situation at critical moments...it restores order.” The Mother The Mother’s Agenda-5/p-225 “A million wounds gape in his (Avatar’s ) secret heart... The sorrow of all living things shall come And knock at his (Avatar’s ) doors and live within his house;” Savitri-446 (Savitri said) "Are there not still a million fights to wage?" Savitri-687 This large-scale subtle-physical world action executed by an Avatar (a special manifestation of Parameswara ) can be repeated on a relatively small scale by His instruments and Emanations (one centre of the multiple Divine) by accepting life as a field of constant enlargement and growing Spiritual Influence through overhead descent of Divine Will, Wisdom and Love. "Only a slow advance the earth can bear.” (Savitri-244) In the long run, humanity will be prepared to divinise themselves by going beyond the slavery of lower Nature and learning the lesson of ceaseless sacrificial Divine Action and Wisdom. All the Divine opulence will be given to them by opening themselves towards the Supreme Self and dynamisation of Sachchidananda Consciousness in life and action.) DOWNLOAD THIS WEBPAGE IN PDF FORMAT: ABOUT SRI MATRINIKETAN ASHRAM “Earthly realisations easily take on a great importance in our eyes, for they are proportionate to our external being with this limited form which makes us men. But what is an earthly realisation beside Thee, before Thee? However perfect, complete, divine it may be, it is nothing but an indiscernible moment in Thy eternity ; and the results obtained by it, however powerful and marvellous they may be, are nothing but an imperceptible atom in the infinite march to Thee. This is what Thy workers must never forget , otherwise they will become unfit to serve Thee.” The Mother Prayers And Meditations-July-17/1914 READ MORE >> SRI MATRI DHYANA MANDIR "All must be done for the Divine; all must be directed towards the Divine. Nothing must be attempted for ourselves as a separate existence; nothing done for others, whether neighbours, friends, family, country or mankind or other creatures merely because they are connected with our personal life and thought and sentiment or because the ego takes a preferential interest in their welfare. In this way of doing and seeing all works and all life become only a daily dynamic worship and service of the Divine in the unbounded temple of his own vast cosmic existence. Life becomes more and more the sacrifice of the eternal in the individual constantly self-offered to the eternal Transcendence." Sri Aurobindo CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-113 READ MORE >> TATTVAMASI “Then there were the few —the rare individuals— who are ready to make the necessary effort to prepare themselves for the transformation and to attract the new forces , try to adapt matter, seek the means of expression and so forth. Those are ready for Sri Aurobindo’s Yoga . They are very few . There are even those who have the sense of sacrifice and are ready have a hard and difficult life, as long as it leads them or helps them towards this future transformation. But they should not, they should in no way try to influence others and make them share their own effort : that would be quite unjust – not only unjust, but extremely clumsy because it would alter the universal – or at least terrestrial – rhythm and movement, and instead of helping, it would cause conflicts and result in chaos.” The Mother The Mother's Agenda/27th November, 1965 READ MORE >> Our Mantra of collective Divine living is "Accept everything, but cling to nothing."¹ For that is a necessary condition of harmonising and organising the Subconscient of the whole earth² with the recognition of the fact that 'in the unseen providence of things our greatest difficulties are our best opportunities.'¹⁴ Its inspiring Psychic and Spiritual motive is 'To arrive by the shortest way at the largest development'¹³ and this 'perfect assurance of a rapid progress'¹ ⁵ is ensured by complete possession of equality, samata. Its mission is primarily the invisible inner action of movement of Psychic and Spiritual Consciousness , of which this Ashram, website and Sri Matri Dhyana Mandir are secondary outer manifestations of Karma, Jnana and Bhakti Yoga respectively . By this exercise, we partly fulfill the instruction issued in Sri Aurobindo’s principal Teachings, The Synthesis of Yoga, that a Sadhaka of integral Yoga must be accountable ³ for his Sadhana to the Self, the World and the Divine. He must have an account of Karma Yoga through the manifestation of nine inner kingdoms and one outer kingdom, an account of Jnana Yoga through the manifestation of mundane and Supreme Wisdom, an account of Bhakti Yoga through the manifestation of Divine Love, Beauty, and Delight, and an account of the Yoga of Self-perfection through the transformation of Nature. He must have a full account⁴ of the inner and outer evolution of Earth's Spiritual history, its rise and fall of Consciousness and all the 'limited revelations of modern knowledge and seeking.'⁴ Those who are beneficiaries of a brief touch of Supramental Energy, now active on earth's atmosphere, can act, think and love far beyond the limitations of the human mind and in this new manifestation, they will feel a considerable difference in earth's atmosphere in the sense that a Force is felt all around and permeating the body, life and mind. This is a life filled with another Energy whose inrush is felt from within, above, around and below the feet. The quality of an individual and an institution is measured by the degree of Truth, Purity and Knowledge they have worked out from a Transcendent Source. An individual (or an institution) is weighed by the accumulation of the quantum of overhead Divine Will, Divine Wisdom and Divine Love, that has descended to his purified vessel and that he will carry as accumulated Soul Force in successive births. The most conscious individual prepares himself to become a channel through which an incalculable amount of Divine Force, Love, Delight, Wisdom and Beauty rushes into the earth’s atmosphere. Thus, his Divine action is related with the enrichment and doing good of all creatures, sarvabhuta hiteratah, ¹² harmonisation of world problems and upliftment of the earth's obscure Fate. His Divine Wisdom is 'A lightning from the heights that think and plan,'⁵ 'Saw the unseen and thought the unthinkable, Opened the enormous doors of the unknown,'⁶ 'The Eternal’s truth shall mould his thoughts and acts, The Eternal’s truth shall be his light and guide.'⁷ His all-embracing, intimate universal Divine Love 'comes sea-like down to fill the image of our transience,'⁸ 'stilled all weeping with its hand of joy,'⁹ 'led things evil towards their secret good,'⁹ 'turned racked falsehood into happy truth,''⁹ and 'A constant touch of sweetness linked all hearts.'⁹ His transcendent Divine Love is a stranger to all human relations¹⁰ and this Divine Love labours in the depths of dark Inconscient and exults on the heights of Sachchidananda plane and shall remake¹¹ and rebuild this naked hardest material world. (Refer: 1: CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-718, 2: The Mother's Agenda-26.07.1960, 3: CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-631, 4: CWSA-19/Essays on the Gita/p-10, 5: Savitri-336, 6: Savitri-359, 7: Savitri-707, 8: Savitri-171, 9: Savitri-291, 10: Savitri-657, 11: Savitri-592,12: The Gita-5.25, 12.4, 13: CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-613, 14: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-11, 15: CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-724 ) “Who can understand Sri Aurobindo? He is as vast as the universe and his teaching is infinite... The only way to come a little close to him is to love him sincerely and give oneself unreservedly to his work. Thus, each one does his best and contributes as much as he can to that transformation of the world which Sri Aurobindo has predicted.” The Mother TMCW-12/On Education/p-397, 2 December 1964

Ashram News Question asked to Artificial Intelligence Gemini Question text: A new webpage INTEGRAL TRANSFORMATION is released in the link: https://www.srimatriniketanashram.com/objective/integral-transformation Will you kindly review this web page? Flower Offering on 17th December 2025 Past Editions “Science gives us the objective truth of existence and the superficial knowledge of our physical and vital being; but we feel that there are truths beyond which possibly through the cultivation of our subjective being and the enlargement of its powers may come to lie more and more open to us. When the knowledge of this world is ours, we are irresistibly impelled to seek for the knowledge of other states of existence beyond, and that is the reason why an age of strong materialism and scepticism is always followed by an age of occultism, of mystical creeds, of new religions and profounder seekings after the Infinite and the Divine. The knowledge of our superficial mentality and the laws of our bodily life is not enough; it brings us always to all that mysterious and hidden depth of subjective existence below and behind of which our surface consciousness is only a fringe or an outer court. We come to see that what is present to our physical senses is only the material shell of cosmic existence and what is obvious in our superficial mentality is only the margin of immense continents which lie behind unexplored. To explore them must be the work of another knowledge than that of physical science or of a superficial psychology.” SRI AUROBINDO CWSA/23/THE SYNTHESIS OF YOGA-458 November 2025 “The mental and physical sciences which examine into the laws and forms and processes of things, those which concern the life of men and animals, the social, political, linguistic and historical and those which seek to know and control the labours and activities by which man subdues and utilises his world and environment, and the noble and beautiful Arts which are at once work and knowledge, — for every well-made and significant poem, picture, statue or building is an act of creative knowledge, a living discovery of the consciousness, a figure of Truth, a dynamic form of mental and vital self-expression or world-expression, — all that seeks, all that finds, all that voices or figures is a realisation of something of the play of the Infinite and to that extent can be made a means of God-realisation or of divine formation. But the Yogin has to see that it is no longer done as part of an ignorant mental life; it can be accepted by him only if by the feeling, the remembrance, the dedication within it, it is turned into a movement of the spiritual consciousness and becomes a part of its vast grasp of comprehensive illuminating knowledge.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga-141-143, October 2025 “To see, know, become and fulfil this One in our inner selves and in all our outer nature, was always the secret goal and becomes now the conscious purpose of our embodied existence. To be conscious of him in all parts of our being and equally in all that the dividing mind sees as outside our being, is the consummation of the individual consciousness. To be possessed by him and possess him in ourselves and in all things is the term of all empire and mastery. To enjoy him in all experience of passivity and activity, of peace and of power, of unity and of difference is the happiness which the Jiva, the individual soul manifested in the world, is obscurely seeking. This is the entire definition of the aim of integral Yoga; it is the rendering in personal experience of the truth which universal Nature has hidden in herself and which she travails to discover. It is the conversion of the human soul into the divine soul and of natural life into divine living.” Sri Aurobindo CWSA/23/The Synthesis Of Yoga-63 December 2025 Hello I’m a paragraph. This is where people can read more to learn about a subject written in this article. This is a great place to get readers hooked with an attention getter. read more Forthcoming Events Event 1 New year-2026, Midnight Meditation Event 2 Ashram Foundation Day-01.02.2026 Event 3 Publication of Amazon Kindle Book: "The Integral Yoga and Sanatana Dharma" on 01.02.2026 Its free circulation from 01.02.2026 to 05.02.2026 Announcements Announcement 1 A Souvenir-4th National Sri Aurobindo Women Study Circile (Mahila Pathchakra) Conference -1,2 December 2025 is published by Sri Aurobindo Nivas, Vadodara, Gujarat. In that Souvenir, our paper 'The Mother's Consciousness' is published. The Souvenir is attached here: Attachment “If you want to know what is really happening in the world, you should not read newspapers of any sort, for they are full of lies." “To read a newspaper is to take part in the greatest collective falsehoods.” The Mother TMCW-17/More Answers from the Mother/p-323 “Question by a disciple: Z told me that if I had no time to read newspapers, I should at least glance at them. I asked him, “Is it a law that we must read newspapers?” He answered, “I have to know what is going on in the world too; I am not a sannyasi .” Answer given by The Mother: I am not a sannyasi and I never read a newspaper! ... I don’t have time for it. It is difficult to read newspapers without having the consciousness descend to a very ordinary level. Only when the consciousness is firmly established in union with the Divine is it possible to read newspapers without any risk of falling into a lower consciousness.” The Mother TMCW-17/P-19, 5 December 1933 "Sweet Mother, How can we know the truth of the facts when reading newspapers? What is the best way of knowing the truth of the world? The best way is to find the truth in ourselves — then we shall be able to see the Truth wherever it is.... Blessings." The Mother TMCW-16/Some Answers from the Mother/P-419, “Rules like these [not reading newspapers, eating a fixed diet, keeping only a few things] are intended to help the vital and physical to come under the discipline of sadhana and not get dispersed in fancies, impulses, self-indulgences; but they must be done simply, not with any sense of superiority or ascetic pride, but as a mere matter of course. It is true also that they can be made the occasion of a too great mental rigidity — as if they were things of supreme importance in themselves and not only a means. Put in their right place and done in the right spirit, they can be very helpful for their purpose.” Sri Aurobindo CWSA-29/Letters on Yoga-II/p-383, “If one is always in the inner consciousness, then one can be not dispersed even when doing outward things — or if one is conscious of the Divine at all times and in all one does, then also can one read newspapers or do much correspondence without dispersion. But even then though there is not dispersion, yet there is less intensity of consciousness when reading a newspaper or writing a letter than when one is not putting part of oneself into quite external things. It is only when the consciousness is quite siddha that there is not even this difference. That does not mean one should not do external things at all, for then one gets no training in joining the two consciousnesses.” Sri Aurobindo CWSA-31/Letters on Yoga-IV/p-324-325

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

Objective in Brief “The ascent to the divine Life is the human journey, the Work of works, the acceptable Sacrifice. This alone is man’s real business in the world and the justification of his existence, without which he would be only an insect crawling among other ephemeral insects on a speck of surface mud and water which has managed to form itself amid the appalling immensities of the physical universe... To discover the spiritual being in himself is the main business of the spiritual man and to help others towards the same evolution is his real service to the race; till that is done, an outward help can succour and alleviate, but nothing or very little more is possible... The growth of the god in man is man’s proper business ; the steadfast turning of this lower Asuric and Rakshasic into the divine nature is the carefully hidden meaning of human life. As this growth increases, the veil falls and the soul comes to see the greater significance of action and the real truth of existence. The eye opens to the Godhead in man, to the Godhead in the world; it sees inwardly and comes to know outwardly the infinite Spirit, the Imperishable from whom all existences originate and who exists in all and by him and in him all exist always. Therefore when this vision, this knowledge seizes on the soul, its whole life-aspiration becomes a surpassing love and fathomless adoration of the Divine and Infinite... This is what a true subjectivism teaches us, — first, that we are a higher self than our ego or our members, secondly, that we are in our life and being not only ourselves but all others; for there is a secret solidarity which our egoism may kick at and strive against, but from which we cannot escape. It is the old Indian discovery that our real “I” is a Supreme Being which is our true self and which it is our business to discover and consciously become and, secondly, that that Being is one in all, expressed in the individual and in the collectivity, and only by admitting and realising our unity with others can we entirely fulfil our true self-being.... The true business of man upon earth is to express in the type of humanity a growing image of the Divine; whether knowingly or unknowingly, it is to this end that Nature is working in him under the thick veil of her inner and outer processes.” Sri Aurobindo CWSA-21/The Life Divine/p-48 CWSA-22/The Life Divine/p-917-918 CWSA-19/Essays on the Gita/p-327 CWSA-25/The Human Cycle/p-47-48 CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p- 193 “This object (1: A discovery of the Divinity in oneself; 2: discovery of the Divinity in the world behind the appa rent denial; 3: a total discovery of the dynamism of some transcendent Eternal) of the integral Yoga must be accepted wholly by those who follow it, but the acceptance must not be in ignorance of the immense stumbling-blocks that lie in the way of the achievement; on the contrary we must be fully aware of the compelling cause of the refusal of so many other disciplines to regard even its possibility, much less its imperative character, as the true meaning of terrestrial existence.” Sri Aurobindo CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-170 Man’s attraction towards world strengthens the knowledge of the Becoming, this terrestrial existence; attraction towards heaven strengthens the knowledge of our Source, the Supracosmic origin; attraction of heaven on earth strengthens the knowledge of the intermediate Supra-terrestrial link of subtle, Superconscient, Universal and Supramental plane and attraction towards His ecstatic oneness, order and harmony transforms Matter into image of the Spirit or material transfiguration , eliminating the permanent division between terrestrial, Supra-cosmic and Supra-terrestrial world or bridging the gulf between, the Creation and the Creator. It is true that the deficiencies of the above four institutions are to be rightly related to the total harmony of Existence. In the past, the above evolutionary synthesis had failed due to exaggeration and exclusive importance of either one or another school of thought and now a time has come in the recent development of integral Yoga, as another opportunity and a trying ground of equal importance and regard for all four schools of thought and their utmost Spiritual consummation. The secret truth behind the material existence of physical Science and the truth of pure devotion of all Religious movements are to be reconciled with the Ascetic affirmation of a pure Spiritual impulse. The Ascetic or Sannyasin aspiration upward to unite with the Divine is to be rightly and sufficiently related with the ancient Vedantic approach of descending movement of the Divine Shakti to embrace its manifestation. The ancient Vedantic quest to reconcile Matter and Spirit, One and Many in its comprehensiveness is to be sufficiently related with the Vedic representation of the Divine Mother, the daughter of the Sun, Savitri , who is concerned with the final aim of the Vedic discipline, Divine perfection of material life and physical Immortality of the mutable substance. Thus, earth life can be transformed into an ecstatic playfield of her Divine children. In Integral Spiritual Evolution, Supracosmic is accepted as a source, origin and support , the Supra-terrestrial or other intermediate world for a condition and connecting link of bridging the gulf between Supracosmic Source and the nether material life and the Terrestrial for its field and circumstance , and with human Body, Life and Mind for its nodus, turning point and dynamic mould into which Divine existence can be poured in for a higher and even highest perfection. The whole aim of the evolution is the continuous enlargement of the existing human vessel. The force or energy that moves the stars and planets, the same force also moves our thoughts and actions. When this inrush of ‘energy is the highest in kind and the fullest in amount’³⁴ and works in a perfected human vessel, then he has attained the complete and utmost development. To this height all humanity is aspiring, knowingly or unknowingly. Mother Nature attempts through each individual formation to bridge the gulf between the existing material living and the future Supramental world. She attempted and reattempted this with her best Master Souls and succeeded with Sri Aurobindo . Now, after Mother Nature’s success in creating a single Sri Aurobindo , who is a symbol of the movement of comprehensive Consciousness, her next great and difficult task is ‘to reproduce, multiply and ultimately universalise it in others.’²⁸ Now it is time for her to universalise her success, by providing the best surrounding atmosphere to the receptive human Souls with perfected minds and bodies who will be able initially to unveil the transcendent activities of the Spirit and finally hold and carry Sri Aurobindo’s Consciousness or the total consciousness of the Eternal by the simple formula though difficult to execute, that of initially living and experiencing all the norms of Integral Yoga, Dharma, and finally, the outer law is substituted by the inner plastic Psychic, Spiritual and Supramental Law. This intensive evolution of the individual must be preoccupied in entirely changing the mind, life and body in conformity with the truth of the Spirit. This multiplication of total Consciousness of the Eternal may be understood in Sri Aurobindo's language, "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. "³³ After bridging the gulf between ordinary living and Supramental life, Mother Nature attempted again to experience the cellular transformation of her animal evolutionary form through The Mother’s body. This is another intermediate adventure which has opened for the race another possibility of physical change and a journey toward the ultimate adventure and victory of Spirit over Matter. The simple formula to repeat The Mother’s Cellular transformation experience or discovery of immortal principles concealed within the body's cells is to purify the physical substance to the extent of bearing the pressure of All Delight and the burden of the earth’s Inconscient negations. Or “The dire delight that could shatter mortal flesh,”³⁰ and “Almighty powers are shut in Nature’s cells.”³¹ The next difficult task of Mother Nature related to the multiplication of individual Cellular transformation may be understood in The Mother’s language, “If, for any reason this body (The Mother’s body) becomes unusable, the universal Mother will again start manifesting in hundreds of individualities according to their capacity and receptivity, each one being a partial manifestation of the Universal Consciousness .”²⁹ Now, most of humanity is suffering from the slavery of lower Nature and the slavery of ordinary action. So, first, very few should go beyond these two slaveries by ascending their consciousness to the Psychic, Spiritual and Universal planes and their Spiritual Influence should spread beyond the individual Soul Centre. Sri Aurobindo confirms, "whenever even a single soul is liberated, there is a tendency to an extension and even to an outburst of the same divine self-consciousness in other individual souls of our terrestrial humanity..."³² Thus, in the long run, the whole of humanity can be liberated and their life can be Divinised. OM TAT SAT The References of the above extraction are taken from the manuscript ‘The Integral Yoga and Sanatana Dharma ’ (Page-27, 120) THE PSYCHIC & SPIRITUAL TRANSFORMATION "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. " Sri Aurobindo CWSA-22/The Life Divine/p-943 “As the psychic change has to call in the spiritual to complete it, so the first spiritual change has to call in the supramental transformation to complete it.” Sri Aurobindo CWSA-22/The Life Divine/p-951 “The psychic transformation after rising into the spiritual change has then to be completed, integralised, exceeded and uplifted by a supramental transformation which lifts it to the summit of the ascending endeavour.” Sri Aurobindo CWSA-21/The Life Divine/p-242 "A purified mind and heart and a strong and fine psychical intuition may do much to protect from perversion and error, but even the most highly developed psychical consciousness cannot be absolutely safe unless the psychical is illumined and uplifted by a higher force than itself and touched and strengthened by the luminous intuitive mind and that again raised towards the supramental energy of the spirit." Sri Aurobindo CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-896 It has been observed that there is wide misuse of the word ‘Supermind’¹ and ‘transformation of Nature’¹ by devotees and disciples in their writings and orations. This was not acceptable to Sri Aurobindo as they are related with the last perfection of integral Yoga and can be attained only after the long movement² of Consciousness between Psychic and Spiritual planes and after the universalisation of Psychic and Spiritual Consciousness. So, as we understand, an isolated individual transformation is not practicable. ‘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 .’³ ‘It would therefore be a waste of time and energy which should be devoted to the preliminary work psychicisation and spiritualisation of the being and nature without which no supramentalisation is possible.’⁴ He further confirmed that at present, the Psychic and Spiritual transformation and perfection is possible ‘only by a small number of human beings .’⁵ What Sri Aurobindo proposes to them is, ‘one must first have the self-realisation, the full action of the spiritualised mind and heart, the psychic awakening, the liberation of the imprisoned consciousness, the purification and entire opening of the adhara. Do not think now of those ultimate things (Overmind, Supermind), but get first these foundations in the liberated nature.’⁶ ‘At present the necessity is to prepare the physical consciousness; for that a complete equality and peace and a complete dedication free from personal demand or desire in the physical and the lower vital parts is the thing to be established.’⁶ There are very few Sadhakas who are concerned with Supramental energy that The Mother and Sri Aurobindo intended to call down to earth’s atmosphere. Apart from it, most of the Ashramite Sadhakas ‘are seeking realisation through meditation, through love and worship or through activity and work.’⁷ In this Yoga, if a Sadhak will not learn the lesson sufficiently to transform the nature by movement of ascending and descending Psychic and Spiritual Consciousness, then he will have to be satisfied with partial intermittent Divine union. The vision of complete and constant Divine union through activation of the Supramentalised Psychic Self will remain as a distant and remote objective of integral Yoga. Spiritual life is for those who are not satisfied with life as it is. They enjoy Divine’s single protection by partial Psychic opening (“Only were safe who kept God in their hearts:” Savitri-211), double protection by full opening of Psychic being which can discover Ocean of Light above the head and bellow the feet (“Our life is entrenched between two rivers of Light,” Savitri-531) and multiple protection by opening all the ten Selves. (“It (dynamic Spirit) is within, below, without, above.” Savitri-98, "Heaven’s leaning down to embrace from all sides earth," Savitri-716) OM TAT SAT References: 1(59 is the reference in the Manuscript): “Transformation is a word that I have brought in myself (like supermind) to express certain spiritual concepts and spiritual facts of the integral Yoga. People are now taking them up and using them in senses which have nothing to do with the significance which I put into them…” CWSA-29/Letters on Yoga-II/-p-403, CWSA-35/Letters on Himself and the Ashram/p-174, “The words supermind and supramental were first used by me, but since then people have taken up and are using the word supramental for anything above the mind.” CWSA-28/Letters on Yoga-I/p-144, ‘It is a common mistake. Even the word supermind (which I invented) has been taken up by several people (writers in the Prabuddha Bharata and elsewhere) and applied generally to the spiritual consciousness.” CWSA-35/Letters on Himself and the Ashram/p-142-143, “People talk very lightly of the overmind and the supermind as if it were quite easy to enter into them and mistake inferior movements for the overmental or supramental, thereby confusing the Truth and delaying the progress of the sadhana .” CWSA-30/Letters on Yoga-III/p-408, "For if it is some inferior state that we thus mistake for the supermind, it lays us open to all the dangers we have seen to attend a presumptuous egoistic haste in our demand for achievement. If it is one of the higher states that we presume to be the highest, we may, though we achieve much, yet fall short of the greater, more perfect goal of our being; for we shall remain content with an approximation and the supreme transformation will escape us. Even the achievement of a complete inner liberation and a high spiritual consciousness is not that supreme transformation; for we may have that achievement, a status perfect in itself, in essence, and still our dynamic parts may in their instrumentation belong to an enlightened spiritualised mind and may be in consequence, like all mind, defective even in its greater power and knowledge, still subject to a partial or local obscuration or a limitation by the original circumscribing nescience." CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-284, "If spiritual and supramental were the same thing, as you say my readers imagine, then all the sages and devotees and Yogis and sadhaks throughout the ages would have been supramental beings and all I have written about the supermind would be so much superfluous stuff, useless and otiose. Anybody who had spiritual experiences would then be a supramental being; the Asram would be chock-full of supramental beings and every other Asram in India also. Spiritual experiences can fix themselves in the inner consciousness and alter it, transform it, if you like; one can realise the Divine everywhere, the Self in all and all in the Self, the universal Shakti doing all things; one can feel merged in the Cosmic Self or full of ecstatic bhakti or Ananda. But one may and usually does still go on in the outer active parts of Nature thinking with the intellect or at best the intuitive mind, willing with a mental will, feeling joy and sorrow on the vital surface, undergoing physical afflictions and suffering the struggle of life in the body with death and disease. The change then only will be that the inner self will watch all that without getting disturbed or bewildered, with a perfect equality, taking it as an inevitable part of Nature, inevitable at least so long as one does not withdraw to the Self out of Nature. That is not the transformation I envisage. It is quite another power of knowledge, another kind of will, another luminous nature of emotion and aesthesis, another constitution of the physical consciousness that must come in by the supramental change." CWSA-28/Letters on Yoga-I/p-273-274 2 (147): "There to reach and thence to bring down a supramental dynamism that can transform the Ignorance is the distant but imperative supreme goal of the integral Yoga." CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-148, “It must also be kept in mind that the supramental change is difficult, distant and ultimate stage; it must be regarded as the end of a far-off vista; it cannot be and must not be turned into a first aim, a constantly envisaged goal or an immediate objective. For it can only come into the view of possibility after much arduous self-conquest and self-exceeding, at the end of many long and trying stages of difficult self-evolution of the nature. One must (1) first acquire an inner Yogic consciousness and replace by it our ordinary view of things, natural movements, motives of life; one must revolutionise the whole present build of our being. (2) Next, we have to go still deeper, discover our veiled psychic entity and in its light and under its government psychicise our inner and outer parts, turn mind-nature, life-nature, body-nature and all our mental, vital, physical action and states and movements into a conscious instrumentation of the soul. (3) Afterwards or concurrently we have to spiritualise the being in its entirety by a descent of a divine Light, Force, Purity, Knowledge, freedom and wideness. (4) It is necessary to break down the limits of the personal mind, life and physicality, dissolve the ego, enter into the cosmic consciousness, realise the self, and acquire a spiritualised and universalised mind and heart, life-force, physical consciousness. (5) Then only the passage into supramental consciousness begins to become possible, (6) and even then there is a difficult ascent to make each stage of which is a separate arduous achievement.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-281-282, "It follows that the psychic and the spiritual transformation must be far advanced, even as complete as may be, before there can be any beginning of the third and consummating supramental change; for it is only by this double transmutation that the self-will of the Ignorance can be totally altered into a spiritual obedience to the remoulding truth and will of the greater Consciousness of the Infinite. A long, difficult stage of constant effort, energism, austerity of the personal will, tapasya , has ordinarily to be traversed before a more decisive stage can be reached in which a state of self-giving of all the being to the Supreme Being and the Supreme Nature can become total and absolute." CWSA-22/The Life Divine/p-963-964, "If (1) this first (Psychic) change establishing the being in the inner and larger, a Yogic in place of an ordinary consciousness has not been done, the greater transmutation is impossible. Moreover the individual must have sufficiently universalised himself, he must have recast his individual mind in the boundlessness of a cosmic mentality, enlarged and vivified his individual life into the immediate sense and direct experience of the dynamic motion of the universal life, opened up the communications of his body with the forces of universal Nature, before he can be capable of a change which transcends the present cosmic formulation and lifts him beyond the lower hemisphere of universality into a consciousness belonging to its spiritual upper hemisphere. (2) (second Spiritual change ) Besides he must have already become aware of what is now to him superconscient; he must be already a being conscious of the higher spiritual Light, Power, Knowledge, Ananda , penetrated by its descending influences, new-made by a spiritual change. It is possible for the spiritual opening to take place and its action to proceed before the psychic is far advanced or complete; for the spiritual influence from above can awaken, assist and complete the psychic transmutation: all that is necessary is that there should be a sufficient stress of the psychic entity for the spiritual higher overture to take place. But the third, the supramental change does not admit of any premature descent of the highest Light; for it can only commence when the supramental Force begins to act directly, and this it does not do if the nature is not ready. For there is too great a disparity between the power of the supreme Force and the capacity of the ordinary nature; the inferior nature would either be unable to bear or, bearing, unable to respond and receive or, receiving, unable to assimilate. Till Nature is ready, the supramental Force has to act indirectly; it puts the intermediary powers of overmind or intuition in front, or it works through a modification of itself to which the already half-transformed being can be wholly or partially responsive." CWSA-22/The Life Divine/p-965-966 3 (143): CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga-622, “The individual must be the instrument and first field of the transformation; but an isolated individual transformation is not enough and may not be wholly feasible. Even when achieved, the individual change will have a permanent and cosmic significance only if the individual becomes a centre and a sign for the establishment of the supramental Consciousness-Force as an overtly operative power in the terrestrial workings of Nature, — in the same way in which thinking Mind has been established through the human evolution as an overtly operative power in Life and Matter. This would mean the appearance in the evolution of a gnostic being or Purusha and a gnostic Prakriti , a gnostic Nature. There must be an emergent supramental Consciousness- Force liberated and active within the terrestrial whole and an organised supramental instrumentation of the Spirit in the life and the body, — for the body consciousness also must become sufficiently awake to be a fit instrument of the workings of the new supramental Force and its new order. Till then any intermediate change could be only partial or insecure; an overmind or intuitive instrumentation of Nature could be developed, but it would be a luminous formation imposed on a fundamental and environmental Inconscience. A supramental principle and its cosmic operation once established permanently on its own basis, the intervening powers of Overmind and spiritual Mind could found themselves securely upon it and reach their own perfection; they would become in the earth-existence a hierarchy of states of consciousness rising out of Mind and physical life to the supreme spiritual level.” CWSA-22/The Life Divine/p-997-998, "A perfect self- expression of the spirit is the object of our terrestrial existence. This cannot be achieved if we have not grown conscious of the supreme Reality; for it is only by the touch of the Absolute that we can arrive at our own absolute. But neither can it be done to the exclusion of the cosmic Reality: we must become universal, for without an opening into universality the individual remains incomplete. The individual separating himself from the All to reach the Highest, loses himself in the supreme heights; including in himself the cosmic consciousness, he recovers his wholeness of self and still keeps his supreme gain of transcendence; he fulfils it and himself in the cosmic completeness. A realised unity of the transcendent, the universal and the individual is an indispensable condition for the fullness of the self-expressing spirit : for the universe is the field of its totality of self-expression, while it is through the individual that its evolutionary self-unfolding here comes to its acme." CWSA-22/The Life Divine/p-706, " But this experience with X was really interesting. I learned many things that day, many things ... If you concentrate long enough on any one point, you discover the Infinite (and in his own experience he found the infinite), what could be called your own Infinite. But this is not what WE want, not this; what we want is the direct and integral contact between the manifested universe and the Infinite out of which this universe has emerged. So then it is no longer an individual or personal contact with the Infinite, it’s a total contact. And Sri Aurobindo insists on this, he says that it’s absolutely impossible to have the transformation (not the contact, but the supramental transformation) without becoming universalized – that is the first condition. You cannot become supramental before being universal. And to be universal means to accept everything, be everything, become everything – really to accept everything. And as for all those who are shut up in a system, even if it belongs to the highest regions of thought, it is not THAT." The Mother's Agenda/20.09.1960, "He must accept everything, but cling to nothing, be repelled by nothing however imperfect or however subversive of fixed notions, but also allow nothing to lay hold on him to the detriment of the free working of the Truth-Spirit. This equality of the intelligence is an essential condition for rising to the higher supramental and spiritual knowledge." CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-718, 4 (133): "It is not intended to supramentalise humanity at large, but to establish the principle of the supramental consciousness in the earth-evolution. If that is done, all that is needed will be evolved by the supramental Power itself. It is not therefore important that the mission should be widespread. What is important is that the thing should be done at all in however small a number ; that is the only difficulty…It would therefore be a waste of time and energy which should be devoted to the preliminary work psychicisation and spiritualisation of the being and nature without which no supramentalisation is possible.” CWSA-28/Letters on Yoga-I/p-288-290, “The questions about the supermind cannot be answered profitably now. Supermind cannot be described in terms that the mind will understand, because the terms will be mental and mind will understand them in a mental way and mental sense and miss their true import. It would therefore be a waste of time and energy which should be devoted to the preliminary work psychicisation and spiritualisation of the being and nature without which no supramentalisation is possible. Let the whole dynamic nature led by the psychic make itself full of the dynamic spiritual light, peace, purity, knowledge, force; let it afterwards get experience of the intermediate spiritual planes and know, feel and act in their sense; then it will be possible to speak last of the supramental transformation.” CWSA-28/Letters on Yoga-I-289-290, “Otherwise what will be ultimately accomplished is an achievement by the few initiating a new order of beings, while humanity will have passed sentence of unfitness on itself and may fall back into an evolutionary decline or a stationary immobility; for it is the constant up ward effort (of the few) that has kept humanity alive and maintained for it, Its plays in the front of creation.” CWSA-22/The Life Divine/p-752, “All that [ideas such as “everything will soon be spiritualised”] is absurd. The descent of the supramental means only that the Power will be there in the earth consciousness as a living force just as the thinking mental and the higher mental are already there. But an animal cannot take advantage of the presence of the thinking mental Power or an undeveloped man of the presence of the higher mental Power — so too everybody will not be able to take advantage of the presence of the supramental Power. I have also often enough said that it will be at first for the few, not for the whole earth, — only there will be a growing influence of it on the earth life. ” CWSA-28/Letters on Yoga-I/p-290, "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, "When external difficulties subside, when the body becomes passive and quiet, when it is not constantly demanding attention, then you can LIVE in this supramental consciousness and it does not seem so difficult; you feel it is so victorious in its essence that it will end all difficulties ." The Mother’s Agenda/ December 13, 1960, 5 (144): “The Psychic transformation and the first stages of the spiritual transformation are well within our conception; their perfection would be the perfection, wholeness, consummated unity of a knowledge and experience which is already part of things realised, though only by a small number of human beings. But the supramental change in its process carries us into less explored regions; it initiates a vision of heights of consciousness which have indeed been glimpsed and visited, but have yet to be discovered and mapped in their completeness.” CWSA-22/The Life Divine/p-953, “But the real soul, the real psychic entity which for the most part we see little of and only a small minority in mankind has developed, is an instrument of pure love, joy and the luminous reaching out to fusion and unity with God and our fellow-creatures. This psychic entity is covered up by the play of the mentalised Prana or desire-mind which we mistake for the soul; the emotional mind is unable to mirror the real soul in us, the Divine in our hearts, and is obliged instead to mirror the desire-mind.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-351 6 (76): CWSA-29/Letters on Yoga-II-p-413, CWSA-32/The Mother and Letters on the Mother/p-492, 7 (10): “There are very few among the sadhaks here who at all concern themselves with the supermind or know anything about it except as something which the Mother and I will bring down some day and establish here. Most are seeking realisation through meditation, through love and worship or through activity and work. Meditation and silence are not necessary for everyone; there are some, even among those spoken of by you and others as the most advanced sadhaks, who do their sadhana not through meditation, for which they have no turn, but through activity, work or creation supported or founded on love and bhakti . It is not the credo but the person who matters. We impose no credo; it is sufficient if there is an established and heart-felt relation between ourselves and the disciple.” CWSA-29/Letters on Yoga-II-p-210, “I may say generally that to bring down the supermind is my aim in the yoga or that to do that one has first to rise out of mind into overmind, but if on the strength of that, anybody and everybody began trying to pull down the supermind or force his way immediately out of mind into overmind, the result would be disaster.” CWSA-32/The Mother with Letters on the Mother/p-349, The References of the above extractions are taken from the manuscript ‘The Mother's Manifestation ’ (Page-267) Download this WEB PAGE as a PDF file: OBJECTIVE IN DETAIL "To be conscious of him (Divine) in all parts of our being and equally in all that the dividing mind sees as outside our being, is the consummation of the individual consciousness. To be possessed by him and possess him in ourselves and in all things is the term of all empire and mastery. To enjoy him in all experience of passivity and activity, of peace and of power, of unity and of difference is the happiness which the Jiva, the individual soul manifested in the world, is obscurely seeking. This is the entire definition of the aim of integral Yoga ..." Sri Aurobindo CWSA/23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-63 THE DIVINE CENTRE “There must be, first, the effort towards at least an initial and enabling self-transcendence and contact with the Divine; next , the reception of that which transcends, that with which we have gained communion, into ourselves for the transformation of our whole conscious being; last , the utilisation of our transformed humanity as a divine centre in the world...It is when this identification and this self-merging are complete that the divine centre in the world is ready. Purified, liberated, plastic, illumined, it can begin to serve as a means for the direct action of a supreme Power in the larger Yoga of humanity or superhumanity, of the earth’s spiritual progression or its transformation.” Sri Aurobindo CWSA/23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-58 THE AGENDA OF COLLECTIVE LIVING “Therefore, whenever even a single soul is liberated, there is a tendency to an extension and even to an outburst of the same divine self-consciousness in other individual souls of our terrestrial humanity and, who knows?—perhaps even beyond the terrestrial consciousness.” Sri Aurobindo CWSA-21/The Life Divine/p-45, “We have to recognise once more that the individual exists not in himself alone but in the collectivity and that individual perfection and liberation are not the whole sense of God’s intention in the world. The free use of our liberty includes also the liberation of others and of mankind; the perfect utility of our perfection is, having realised in ourselves the divine symbol, to reproduce, multiply and universalise it in others." Sri Aurobindo CWSA/23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-29 "The goal is not to lose oneself in the Divine Consciousness. The goal is to let the Divine Consciousness penetrate into Matter and transform it." The Mother The Mother's Centenary Works-15/Words of the Mother-III/p-84 “Then I thought: now, Sri Aurobindo , it is 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 realisation of which will stretch over thousands of years. So it must come in stages.” The Mother The Mother’s Agenda-4/p-101 “We find that it progresses towards a greater completeness in proportion as we arrive at two kinds of perfection; (1) first, a greater and greater detachment from the control of the lower suggestions; (2) secondly, an increasing discovery of a self-existent Being, Light, Power and Ananda which surpasses normal humanity…The movement of perfection is (1) away from all domination by the lower nature and (2) towards a pure and powerful reflection of the being, power, knowledge and delight of the Spirit and Self in the buddhi. The Yoga of self-perfection is to make this double movement as absolute as possible .” Sri Aurobindo CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-668-669 "But on the other hand incapacity of force is also an imperfection. Laxity and weakness, self-indulgence, a certain flabbiness and limpness or inert passivity of the psychical being are the last result of an emotional and psychic life in which energy and power of assertion have been quelled, discouraged or killed. Nor is it a total perfection to have only the strength that endures or to cultivate only a heart of love, charity, tolerance, mildness, meekness and forbearance. The other side of perfection is a self-contained and calm and unegoistic Rudra -power armed with psychic force, the energy of the strong heart which is capable of supporting without shrinking an insistent, an outwardly austere or even, where need is, a violent action. An unlimited light of energy, force, puissance harmonised with sweetness of heart and clarity, capable of being one with it in action, the lightning of Indra starting from the orb of the nectarous moon-rays of Soma is the double perfection . And these two things saumyatva, tejas , must base their presence and action on a firm equality of the temperament and of the psychical soul delivered from all crudity and all excess or defect of the heart’s light or the heart’s power." Sri Aurobindo CWSA-24/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-736-737

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In all countries there are people who know it, at least feel it. To them we call: “Will you collaborate?”” The Mother TMCW-15/Words of the Mother-III/p-62 “For those who are eager to get rid of falsehood, here is a way: Do not try to please yourself, do not try either to please others. Try only to please the Lord…Because He alone is the Truth. Each and every one of us, human beings in our physical body, is a coat of falsehood put on the Lord and hiding Him…As He alone is true to Himself, it is on Him that we must concentrate and not on the coats of falsehood.” The Mother TMCW/15/Words of the Mother-III/80, TMCW/14/Words of the Mother-II/196, “A decisive choice has to be made between lending the body to nature’s ends in obedience to her demand to perpetuate the race as it is, and preparing this very body to become a step towards the creation of a new race. The two cannot go together; at every minute you have to decide whether you wish to remain within the manhood of yesterday or belong to the supermanhood of tomorrow .” The Mother TMCW/Vol-14/Words of the Mother-II/p-127, TMCW/Vol-12/On Education/p-54-55 Those who are deeply dissatisfied with life as it is, those who have gone through and overcome the extreme adversity of life, those who have gone ‘through a period of brutal handling before it can be ready to get away more sincerely from slavery to activity,’ 'those who face even the hardest conditions of life,' out of them some have ‘intensest aspiration’ and a life of hard sacrifice; they are considered fit to lead a higher Spiritual life in a Divine Centre; others are satisfied with easy and comfortable normal human existence. It 'is a dullness, a tamas, a lack of aspiration, a miserable laxity, an I-don’t-care attitude' that 'hinders people from consecrating themselves to an inner realisation.' (Refer The Mother’s Agenda- September 16, 1964, The Mother's Centenary Works-8/Questions and Answers-1956/160-161)

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) Four-fold 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, Savitri book proposes a Sadhaka to develop single-minded devotion, ekabhakti, or "Her consciousness grew aware of him (Satyavan) alone...Give me back Satyavan , my only lord." (Savitri-410, 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 provided 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,) 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,26 twilight and grey inhibitions. She leans with pity over earth-bound men in order to share the burden of ‘earth’s struggle and fate.’24 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’5 or first dual Incarnation and the Supreme had promised to grant physical immortality in all life when the first Avatara’s ‘heart dared death and suffered life.’6 He continued his life in many successive births and bodies as ‘twin souls born from one undying fire’5 of this mortal existence to endure in his human heart a million wounds representing the delegate Soul of earth. Through his long suffering in human form the God’s debt is paid. His Godhead status does not prevent him from living ‘in one house with the primal beast’17 in the forest, colloquies with the Djinn and Asuras of the Subconscient world; thus in the Divine’s single plan he reveals solidarity with antagonist powers; ‘high meets the low’17 or ‘God’s summits look back on the mute Abyss.’17 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 wheel14 of earth’s doom and before bridging the gulf between Heaven and Earth in order to balance the dark account of mortal Ignorance then this would be a great loss for humanity. Or an Avatara, as a delegate Soul of Heaven lent to earth must live a brief period in human history in order to trace and build a passage in intermediate ranges 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’23 with her ‘flame of radiant happiness.’23 Like all human fathers, he aspires that her mortal life be unwounded and to serve humanity with ‘glad and griefless days.’23 His capacity to unite with new bliss and flame-white Love came by annulling all ‘the contact formed with time-born things.’18 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,’21 ‘meet the Omnipotent in this house of flesh,’21 ‘Out of Immortal’s substance you were made’21 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’13 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’1 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’16 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’15 for the whole of suffering humanity and of changing all future time by unlocking the doors of human Fate. King Aswapati’s Palace and Kingdom, Madra, stands as a symbol of Supreme Self and Savitri left this Heaven permanently and had chosen the darkest forest of Shalwa as the symbol of 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 Divine sage.) 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 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.’10 This Divine stationed in the heart centre is also projected as ‘greater than the God,’7 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.’35 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 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.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 falsehood of mind, vital, body, surrounding world and Subconscient plane. The Practice of Integral Yoga through Savitri Handbook I The Handbook II of Savitri 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 Truth of The Life Divine The Central Truth of The Divine Life Or The Book of Consciousness “A spiritual evolution, an evolution of consciousness in Matter in a constant developing self-formation till the form can reveal the indwelling spirit, is then the key-note, the central significant motive of the terrestrial existence .”¹ Sri Aurobindo “If consciousness is the central secret , life is the outward indication, the effective power of being in Matter; for it is that which liberates consciousness and gives it its form or embodiment of force and its effectuation in material act.”² Sri Aurobindo “But also the central Consciousness in its turn will take up more and more the outer mental activities of knowledge and turn them into a parcel of itself or an annexed province; it will infuse into them its more authentic movement and make a more and more spiritualised and illumined mind its instrument in these surface fields, its new conquests, as well as in its own deeper spiritual empire.”¹⁷ Sri Aurobindo “For the gulf between mind and supermind has to be bridged, the closed passages opened and roads of ascent and descent created where there is now a void and a silence. This can be done only by the triple transformation to which we have already made a passing reference: there must first be the psychic change, the conversion of our whole present nature into a soul-instrumentation; on that or along with that there must be the spiritual change, the descent of a higher Light, Knowledge, Power, Force, Bliss, Purity into the whole being, even into the lowest recesses of the life and body, even into the darkness of our subconscience; last, there must supervene the supramental transmutation, — there must take place as the crowning movement the ascent into the supermind and the transforming descent of the supramental Consciousness into our entire being and nature.”⁸ Sri Aurobindo The central thought, the central secret and central truth of Integral Evolution is identified as Consciousness, which is the real creative Power, the universal Witness, the force of awareness, a play of Energy, an infinite, indivisible Existence moves out of its fundamental purity into the varied play of Force; for whom the world is a field and condition of Divine Life; life is the exterior and dynamic sign and index of that revelation and effectuation; all life is the fundamental poise of its own constituting Consciousness in possession both of unity and of diversity where the former contains and governs the latter; the physical, vital, mind, soul and Supermind are instruments of Consciousness; the accessories or subordinate energies of these instruments are identified as elements of Consciousness; following this line the individual Consciousness fulfils itself by that which is beyond his obscured and limited ego, beyond the thought and speech, a centre of the Divine Life and of the universal Consciousness embracing, utilising and transforming all individual determinations into the Divine harmony; universal Consciousness fulfils itself by variations of numberless individuals and not by suppressing the variations; the Transcendent Consciousness fulfils, contains, manifests, constitutes the cosmos and the individual by its own infinite harmonic varieties and it is the true truth and source of both the Individuality and the Cosmic Being. Consciousness or the power of Being is like the nave of a wheel works through the individual centre, with the Divine Life or transformed Becoming is its circumference, the wheel. The spokes, the radiating bars connecting the wheel and the nave are the instruments of Consciousness responsible for rightly relating the existence with the Supreme through change of consciousness and thus the evolutionary growth of life is accelerated. Consciousness: “An integral consciousness will become the basis of an entire harmonisation of life through the total transformation, unification, integration of the being and the nature…An integral consciousness with a multiform dynamic experience is essential for the complete transformation of our nature.”⁷ Sri Aurobindo “Consciousness is the breath that makes everything live.”¹⁴ The Mother The Highest Consciousness is an awareness of the Spirit by Identity, subordinated by the awareness of the Spirit by Inclusion of Psychic opening and Indwelling of Spiritual opening, which is the very stuff of the Spirit’s triple self-knowledge. We have two fundamental facts – a fact of pure Existence or Being and a fact of world existence or Becomings; to deny one or the other is to bring either narrow limitation to our Spiritual order or an incompetent and restricting physical life and to recognise the facts of Consciousness is to find out their true and fruitful relation. Consciousness is only a bridge of transition in which initially the Spirit becomes partially aware of itself and finally becomes the normal waking trance of luminous Superconscience. The extension of this consciousness can be satisfied by an inner enlargement from the individual consciousness into the cosmic existence and in the Transcendent Consciousness, both the individual and universal find its own fullness, freedom of reality and perfect harmonisation. Therefore, man’s importance in the world is recognised by the development of a comprehensive Consciousness in which Silence and cosmic Activity are reconciled and a transfiguration by a perfect self-discovery becomes possible. We must note that what we mean ordinarily by the superficial man6 is not the inner self, but only a sum of apparent continuous movement of consciousness-force concentrated on the surface in a certain stream of superficial workings or an unequal concentration of consciousness in which there is the beginning of self-division, which does all his works, thinks all his thoughts, feels all his emotions. Behind this stream of energy there is the whole sea of consciousness, the vast sea of Subliminal, Superconscient and Subconscient Self which is aware of the stream but of which the stream is unaware. Yet it is really the hidden sea and not the superficial stream which is doing all the action and the source of all his movement. Instruments of Consciousness: Consciousness is a self-aware force of existence whose middle term is Mind, below it, it sinks into Vital, Physical and Subconscient movements and above it, it rises to Subliminal, Spiritual and Supramental heights. This Consciousness is quite involved in Inconscient Matter, hesitating on the verge between involution and conscious evolution in the non-animal form of life, consciously evolving but greatly limited and hampered in the mind housed in the living body of man, destined to be fully evolved by awakening the Supermind in the embodied fully developed mental being and Nature. The phenomenon of Consciousness is certainly a Force, a formative movement of energies and all material forms are born out of meeting and mutual adaptation between unshaped forces. Subconscient consciousness is the Inconscient vibrating on the borders of consciousness, sending up its motions to be changed into conscious stuff, swallowing into its depths impressions of past experience as seeds of unconscious habit and returning them constantly but often chaotically to the surface consciousness; for surface consciousness is bound down to ego in all its activities and the first formation of egoistic consciousness is the dualities of life and death, joy and sorrow, pleasure and pain, truth and error, good and evil. The supraphysical plane of consciousness ³ is not governed by the law of Spiritual evolution and from this world, bright and dark forces cast their influence on the physical plane of existence. The enlargement of the superficially active surface consciousness is possible either by some kind of untaught effort and casual ill-ordered effect or by a scientific and well-regulated practice. The surface consciousness is having three appearances; firstly, the material consciousness is a submerged consciousness, self-oblivious, and is lost in the form but really obeys faultlessly the laws of Right and Truth fixed for it by the Divine Will concealed in its own superficial expressive action; this body consciousness is a patient servant and what it craves for is long life, good health, physical strength and comfortable easy life and the right action of the physical consciousness is distorted by the pressure of separative consciousness of physical mind; secondly, the vital consciousness is an emerging consciousness seen as an important part in animal life and intuitively evident in plant, it acts in the cells of the body for purposeful movements, automatic vital function and a process of the growth, activity, attraction, repulsion and decay of form to which our mind is a stranger; it has the same initial reactions of pleasure and pain, sleep and wakefulness as that of mental consciousness but different in constitution of its self-experience; thirdly, the mental consciousness is not the completely illumined consciousness emerged out of the obscuration of Matter but it is the emerged individual limited consciousness, aware of things and forces in their apparent division and opposition to each other but not in their real unity, reflects new ideas as facts of life, modifies comfortably the internal and the external existence of the being; delivers out of its imprisonment but it is not yet master of the act and form and is aware therefore only of a fragmentary movement of its own total progressive activities; it is a many-sided mental effort in order to arrive at an apprehensive knowledge. Apprehensive Consciousness, Prajnana, is a luminous mental activity in the body, sense mind and nerves unconsciously without any notice; it is active, formative of creative knowledge, originative, cognizant as the processor and witness of its own working; it is in its nature truth seeing, truth hearing and truth remembering; apprehensive active consciousness works as an energy throwing up knowledge and activity out of itself; an apprehensive passive consciousness does not act as an energy with absence of force of action; mental waking consciousness is only a small selection of the entire conscious being, it is a perceptive consciousness of waking state where the transcript of physical things and of our contacts with universe are recorded. If we develop our inner being, live more inwardly than most men do, then the balance is changed and a larger dream consciousness opens before us; our dreams can take on a subliminal and no longer a subconscious character and can assume a reality and significance; this is also subliminal consciousness, which is a witness to truth through truth vision, truth hearing, truth discernment, truth touch, truth thought and truth action and its testimony can be confirmed again and again in physical and objective field, it delivers us definitely from circumscription by the material and from the illusion of the obvious; on the border of subliminal consciousness there is Psychic Consciousness ,⁹ which can identify itself with other Souls, can enter into them, can realise its unity with them and this can take place in perfect waking state, observes all distinctions of objective world and exceeds them. Above it there is Spiritual Consciousness ,¹⁰ which is intrinsic, self-existent, more embracing, universal and transcendent, it can take up mind, life and body into its light and give them the immobile and featureless Divine touch; for it has a greater instrumentality of knowledge, a fountain of deeper light, power and will, an unlimited splendour and force of love, joy and beauty; its highest state is Overmind Consciousness , which can hold any number of seemingly fundamental oppositions together in a reconciling global vision. In Sleep Consciousness all the material and sensory experiences cease in the deeper trance when we enter into superconscience, no record from it or transcript of its contents can normally reach us; it is only by a special or an unusual development, in a supernormal condition or through a break or rift in our confined normality, that we can be on the surface conscious of the contacts or messages of the Superconscience. This Consciousness of the upper hemisphere, also known as the Supramental Truth Consciousness¹¹ is at once a total self-awareness and ordering self-knowledge of the Eternal and Infinite and a power of self-determination inherent in that self-awareness by which the One manifests the harmonies of its infinite potential multiplicity; its other name, the Gnostic Consciousness is that in which all contradictions are cancelled and fused into each other in a higher light of unified plasticity, self-knowledge and world-knowledge, instead of ego-insistence on personal ideas there would be a unifying sense of a common truth in many forms, a common self in many consciousness and bodies; it is extended as an original and ultimate Consciousness which is a power of unity in diversity, it is integral, all-accepting, all-embracing, all-discriminating, all-determining and an indivisible whole-vision. In this comprehensive Supramental Consciousness, it is equally possible to regard and rank waking, dream and sleep consciousness together as three different orders of one Reality or as three different grades of embodied contact of self-experience and world-experience. If we can develop a causal body or Supramental Sheath, which is not formed in most human beings, then this faculty will remain active in the conscious waking state. Beyond the Supramental Consciousness is the infinite Consciousness of Sachchidananda which must always find and achieve itself in the Divine Bliss, an Omnipresent Self-delight. This highest state of Consciousness of the Self is also called Turiya of pure existence and our absolute state of Being, with which it is difficult to have direct contact. Elements of Consciousness: There are some more terminologies through which the instruments of Consciousness are linked to the Divine Life and we have to understand all of them in relation to Consciousness. Ignorance is an unconsciousness, achiti , of the Truth and Right; it is the non-perceiving principle of our consciousness as opposed to the truth-perceiving conscious vision and knowledge; it can only come about as a subordinate phenomenon by some concentration of consciousness absorbed in a part knowledge or a part action of the being and excluding the rest from its awareness; this Ignorance is a frontal power of that all-consciousness which limits itself in certain field, within certain boundaries to a particular operation of knowledge, a particular mode of conscious working, and keeps back all the rest of its knowledge in waiting as a force behind it. Falsehood is a personal attachment to limited consciousness absorbed in part truth and a by-product of world movement. Its necessity becomes inevitable in the fragmentary evolution of Ignorance. Suffering , a great stumbling-block to understand the truth of the universe, is a failure of the consciousness in us to meet the shocks of existence, the incapacity to bear the touch of delight. Evil is a wrong consciousness governed by life ego. Death is a loss of consciousness or failure of consciousness to unite the cells of the body. It is a peaceful transition from one state of surface consciousness to another state of subtle consciousness and can destroy unconsciousness. All Death, Decay and Destruction are the outcome of the arrest of growth of consciousness or the distortion of consciousness. When one enters higher ranges of consciousness beyond mind, he experiences Divine action, creation and Ananda and when one enters lower ranges of consciousness below mind, he experiences undivine action, destruction and suffering. Tamas is the Sanskrit word for the principle and power of inertia of consciousness and the first born of inconscient force:²⁰ a less developed downward depressing consciousness, dull, obscure, sluggish, conservative, unwilling to enlarge itself, recalcitrant to new stimulus of Divine force, barks at all unfamiliar wisdom and light and incompetent in its play is said to be tamasic . Rajas is the principle and power of kinetic force of consciousness impelled by desire and instinct, an intermediate, slow-evolving consciousness, dynamic, possessive, ever restless, governed in its idea not by truth and light, passionate and active; it accepts enjoyment of desire as the ruling human motive. Sattwa is the principle of harmonious upward rising consciousness; a consciousness of limited light, relative freedom, inner satisfaction, happiness, balanced knowledge and eager to possess higher Divine faculties of limitless Wisdom, Love, Delight, Beauty and Silence. Ego is a practical construction of our consciousness devised to centralise the activities of Nature in us; this constant outer ego building is only a provisional device of the Consciousness-Force in things so that the secret individual, the spirit within, may establish a representative and instrumental formation of itself in physical nature; the individual ego is a pragmatic and effective fiction, a translation of the secret self into the terms of surface consciousness, or a subjective substitute for our true self in our surface experience; the limited ego is only an intermediate phenomenon of consciousness necessary for a certain line of development in Ignorance; the nature of the ego is a self-limitation of consciousness by a willed ignorance of the rest of its play and its exclusive absorption in one form, one combination of tendencies, one field of the movement of energies. Memory is only a process and utility of consciousness; it is also a poverty-stricken substitute for an integral direct abiding consciousness of self and a direct integral or global perception of things. Mind, life and body are different organisations and grades of one conscious force of Existence; they are inferior expressions of partial consciousness which strive to arrive in the mould of a varied evolution at that superior expression of itself already existent to the Beyond-Mind. Time experience varies with the variation of state of consciousness and Space is a category of consciousness which arranges the perception of phenomena. Reason is only a messenger, a representative or a shadow of a greater consciousness beyond itself. Mind is a degradation¹⁵ of Supramental Consciousness. (Mental) Maya is the inverse creative movement of the Divine Consciousness and (Supramental) Maya is the forward creative movement of the Eternal Consciousness. Yoga-Maya is the power of Supramental Consciousness-Force put out in self-manifestation. Intuition is a power of consciousness nearer and more intimate to the original knowledge by identity; it is a special movement of self-existent direct awareness of Knowledge and it brings to man the brilliant messages from the Unknown. Vision is an instrument of the Consciousness of the dream Self to approach and foresee the Divine action. All evolution is, in essence, a heightening of the force of consciousness in the manifest being so that it may be raised into the greater intensity of what is still unmanifest, from matter into life, from life into mind, from the mind into the Spirit. Nature is the unconscious God whose conscious part is the creative force of consciousness of the Being within us. Being, Purusha, is the conscious God working within Ignorance, is also the static status of the infinite Consciousness. Purusha is a consciousness that observes and can reserve its will power. (Apara) Prakriti is the dynamic state of finite surface consciousness acting within the boundary of three gunas. Prakriti is an energy full of the substance of consciousness that takes the form of knowledge, will and feeling. Para Prakriti, Shakti is the dynamic status of infinite indwelling and over-dwelling Consciousness. Soul is the inner consciousness that aspires to its own complete self-realisation and therefore always exceeds the individual formation of the moment. Brahman is integral and unifies many states of consciousness at a time and knows itself in all that exists. Divine Will is the potency of the power of consciousness applying itself to a work and a result. “If knowledge is the widest power of the consciousness and its function is to free and illumine, yet love is the deepest and most intense and its privilege is to be the key to the most profound and secret recesses of the Divine Mystery.”¹⁶ Tapas is the concentration power of consciousness. Samjnana or Supramental Sens e is the contact of Consciousness with its object; its action is the result of extension and vibration of consciousness in a supra-ethereal ether of light, power and bliss. It can be directly aware of all things in all the planes of consciousness without the aid of a sense organ. Knowledge is a potency of Light and Consciousness that possesses the highest Truth in terms of direct perception and self-experience. Knowledge and Will are dual aspects of one Consciousness or the twin power of actions of Consciousness. Ananda is the very substance of Consciousness and is the outcome of the interaction of Knowledge and Will. Equality is that power of consciousness which brings into the whole of our Nature and Being the sense of eternal tranquillity of Self. Life evolves through growth of consciousness or a greater consciousness means greater life. Integral Education , a utilitarian aspect of Integral Yoga, proceeds ahead with effort, askesis and tapasya , which are defined as the concentration energy of Consciousness. Consciousness is the central Truth of Divine Life which is a self-aware force of existence extended from the Inconscient Sheath to the Bliss Sheath. By movement of Consciousness, fullness of Being, fullness of Consciousness and fullness of Life can be attained. Harmony is the inherent Nature of infinite Divine Consciousness and disharmony or limited harmony is the nature of the finite Consciousness of the three gunas . The Law that descends from Psychic, Spiritual and Supramental Consciousness is known as Dharma . The Law that enters the human vessel from the tamasic and rajasic mind and from the surrounding world is known as Adharma . Vedantic Sraddha is the pouring down of Divine attributes of infinite Static consciousness into finite dynamic Consciousness of the three gunas through Purusha Yajna, Vedantic self-discipline. Vedic Sraddha is the pouring down of Divine attributes of infinite Dynamic Consciousness into finite dynamic consciousness of the three gunas by Prakriti Yajna . Sincerity is the concentration of finite dynamic Consciousness of the three gunas around the Psychic being. Exclusive concentration is a concentration of separative mental active consciousness absorbed in part knowledge or a part action of the being and excluding the rest from its awareness. Submission of finite dynamic consciousness to infinite static Consciousness is defined as (Vedantic) surrender. Integral Concentration of Consciousness, Tapas , is the inherent power of Consciousness Force. Submission of finite dynamic consciousness to infinite dynamic consciousness is defined as (Vedic) surrender . Equality is gained when the Consciousness goes beyond the finite consciousness of the three gunas. Renunciation is the rejection of finite dynamic consciousness represented by three gunas of apara-prakriti. 'Samyama is a process of pressure on the consciousness by which the secret Truth, the involved intuition is released…’¹³ The Divine Life:¹² “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 “If our souls could see and love and clasp God’s Truth, Its infinite radiance would seize our hearts, Our being in God’s image be remade And earthly life becomes the life divine.” Savitri-663 This world is real precisely because it consists of an observing consciousness and an objective reality and the world action cannot proceed without the witness because the universe exists only in or for the Consciousness that observes and has no independent reality. The individual can be a centre of the whole universal Consciousness and world transcending Consciousness superior to all cosmic existence and the form of the universe is occupied by the entire immanence of the Formless and Ineffable. So, to exist not as self of body only which is subject to death, desire and pain but to consider body as a minor outward arrangement of Self and an out-flowering of life by expansion and elevation of Consciousness is a first condition of the Divine life. The second condition⁴ of Divine Life is to transcend the ignorance, limitation and control of the surface formation of mind which is only a subordinate and instrument of Self. The third condition of the Divine life is to possess and govern the dynamic condition of becoming from an inner eternity of Being and its outcome is the Spiritual self-possession, self-mastery and the manifestation of Divine miracle. As the Consciousness turns more within all obstacles and resistances appear unreal, transient and extremely relative. Out of this living a fourth condition evolves which insists to withdraw from the absorption of material preoccupation, not by rejecting or neglecting life in the body but by a constant living on the inner and higher planes of Consciousness by an ascent and stepping back inward; both these movements are necessary in order to elevate life from the transient life from moment to moment into the eternal life of our immortal Consciousness. The fifth condition of Divine life is the widening of our range of Consciousness, field of action in time and a taking up and transcending of the existing state of our mental, vital and corporeal consciousness and consider them as the instrument and minor outward formation of the Self. Thus, in reality the world lives in us, thinks in us, formulates itself in us; but we imagine and misunderstand that it is we who live, think, formulate separately by ourselves and for ourselves and we claim the universal forces that act in us as our own. In the last condition of Divine living, the Consciousness is at once aware of the Law, Right and Truth of the Individual and All and the two become consciously harmonised in a mutual unity, One knowing itself as the Many and the Many knowing themselves as the One, life obeys the law of Unity and yet fulfils each thing in the diversity according to its proper rule and function; in this Divine Life all the individuals live at once as one conscious Being in many living Souls, one power of Consciousness in many minds, one joy of force in many lives, one reality of Delight fulfilling itself in many hearts and bodies. An integral evolution of Consciousness in Matter in a constant developing self-formation till the form reveals and manifests the indwelling Spirit is then the central significant motive of our terrestrial existence. Savitri and Supramental/Supreme Consciousness: “The All-Conscious ventured into Ignorance, The All-Blissful bore to be insensible.” Savitri-66-67 “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.” Savitri-271 “A great all-ruling Consciousness is there” Savitri-271 “A light was round him wide and absolute, A diamond purity of eternal sight; 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 “For one was there supreme behind the God. A Mother Might brooded upon the world; A Consciousness revealed its marvellous front Transcending all that is, denying none:" Savitri-313 “The one Consciousness that made the world was seen; All now was luminosity and force." Savitri-319 Consciousness is a yearning,⁵ an exploration, an action and a search through every movement, gesture and cry and it hunts in the Inconscient depths and Superconscient heights to find some lost felicity, missed sweetness and manifests itself as Knowledge and limiting that knowledge to such extent to create phenomena of Ignorance acting upon surface consciousness. We are in search of that single beginningless and endless Consciousness for whom this creation is a small incident, which mind cannot touch, speech cannot utter, thought cannot reveal; it has no home on earth and no centre in man and yet is the fount of creation, source and origin of all truth, all things thought and all action done. Delight is the original nature of Consciousness and its deepest form is manifested as Divine Love. This Love labours in the depths as established Consciousness which maintains a growing but firm light in the darkness of original Nescience and exults on the heights and its feet can walk in the naked hardest world. Savitri teaches us this lesson that if the highest Consciousness of Divine Love can be called down to the lowest plane of Inconscient, then the perishable stuff of our body can be transformed into immortal Divine Life and harmonise all the obscure forces of existence that surround and press upon the body. This inner movement of ascension and descent of Consciousness can be carried out by the support of Vedantic and Vedic action of Sacrifice and Faith and can be further intensified by the support of Divine Love. Through the movement of Consciousness, Divine Love can be activated which needs no hand to feel and clasp but this mighty vibration can destroy the falsity in human love and heighten the intimacy of Soul with Soul, which no human love can imagine. OM TAT SAT References: 1: CWSA-22/The Life Divine-856, 2: CWSA-22/The Life Divine-1054, 3: CWSA/19/Essays on the Gita-473, 4: CWSA-22/The Life Divine-1062, 5: “A consciousness that yearned through every cry Of unexplored attraction and desire, It found and searched again the unsatisfied deeps Hunting as if in some deep secret heart To find some lost or missed felicity.” Savitri-674 “He (King) neared the still consciousness sustaining all.” Savitri-32, “The one Consciousness that made the world was seen;” Savitri-319, 6: “Yes, the ordinary consciousness is like an axis with everything revolving around it. An axis fixed somewhere, and everything revolves around it – that's the ordinary individual consciousness. And if the axis shifts, one feels lost. It's like a big axis (more or less big, it can also be tiny) planted straight up in time, with everything revolving around it. The consciousness may be more or less extended, more or less high, more or less strong, but it always turns on an axis. And now for me there is no more axis. ” The Mother's Agenda/14th July 1962, 7: CWSA-22/The Life Divine/p-753, CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-114, 8: CWSA-22/The Life Divine/p-924, "All the works of mind and intellect must be first heightened and widened, then illumined, lifted into the domain of a higher Intelligence, afterwards translated into workings of a greater non-mental Intuition, these again transformed into the dynamic outpourings of the Overmind radiance, and those transfigured into the full light and sovereignty of the supramental Gnosis. It is this that the evolution of consciousness in the world carries prefigured but latent in its seed and in the straining tense intention of its process; nor can that process, that evolution cease till it has evolved the instruments of a perfect in place of its now imperfect manifestation of the Spirit." CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-149, 9: “The soul, the psychic entity , then manifests itself as the central being which upholds mind and life and body and supports all the other powers and functions of the Spirit; it takes up its greater function as the guide and ruler of the nature. A guidance, a governance begins from within which exposes every movement to the light of Truth, repels what is false, obscure, opposed to the divine realisation: every region of the being, every nook and corner of it, every movement, formation, direction, inclination of thought, will, emotion, sensation, action, reaction, motive, disposition, propensity, desire, habit of the conscious or subconscious physical, even the most concealed, camouflaged, mute, recondite, is lighted up with the unerring psychic light , their confusions dissipated, their tangles disentangled, their obscurities, deceptions, self-deceptions precisely indicated and removed; all is purified, set right, the whole nature harmonised, modulated in the psychic key, put in spiritual order.” CWSA-22/The Life Divine-941, 10: “This, effected little by little or in a succession of great and swift definitive experiences, is the process of the spiritual transformation . It achieves itself and culminates in an upward ascent often repeated by which in the end the consciousness fixes itself on a higher plane and from there sees and governs the mind, life and body; it achieves itself also in an increasing descent of the powers of the higher consciousness and knowledge which become more and more the whole normal consciousness and knowledge. A light and power, a knowledge and force are felt which first take possession of the mind and remould it, afterwards of the life part and remould that, finally of the little physical consciousness and leave it no longer little but wide and plastic and even infinite. For this new consciousness has itself the nature of infinity: it brings to us the abiding spiritual sense and awareness of the infinite and eternal with a great largeness of the nature and a breaking down of its limitations; immortality becomes no longer a belief or an experience but a normal self-awareness; the close presence of the Divine Being, his rule of the world and of our self and natural members, his force working in us and everywhere, the peace of the infinite, the joy of the infinite are now concrete and constant in the being; in all sights and forms one sees the Eternal, the Reality, in all sounds one hears it, in all touches feels it; there is nothing else but its forms and personalities and manifestations; the joy or adoration of the heart, the embrace of all existence, the unity of the spirit are abiding realities.” CWSA-22/The Life Divine-947, 11: “If the spirit could from the first dwell securely on the superior heights and deal with a blank and virgin stuff of mind and matter, a complete spiritual transformation might be rapid, even facile: but the actual process of Nature is more difficult, the logic of her movement more manifold, contorted, winding, comprehensive; she recognises all the data of the task she has set to herself and is not satisfied with a summary triumph over her own complexities. Every part of our being has to be taken in its own nature and character, with all the moulds and writings of the past still there in it: each minutest portion and movement must either be destroyed and replaced if it is unfit, or, if it is capable, transmuted into the truth of the higher being. If the psychic change is complete, this can be done by a painless process, though still the programme must be long and scrupulous and the progress deliberate; but otherwise one has to be satisfied with a partial result or, if one’s own scrupulousness of perfection or hunger of the spirit is insatiable, consent to a difficult, often painful and seemingly interminable action. For ordinarily the consciousness does not rise to the summits except in the highest moments; it remains on the mental level and receives descents from above, sometimes a single descent of some spiritual power that stays and moulds the being into something predominatingly spiritual, or a succession of descents bringing into it more and more of the spiritual status and dynamis: but unless one can live on the highest height reached, there cannot be the complete or more integral change .” CWSA-22/The Life Divine-948, 12: "As it is, the physical body is really only a very disfigured shadow of the eternal life of the Self, but this physical body is capable of a progressive development; the physical substance progresses through each individual formation, and one day it will be able to build a bridge between physical life as we know it and the supramental life that is to manifest." The Mother/ The Mother's Agenda/28.11.1958 “The only hope for the future is in a change of man’s consciousness and the change is bound to come....But it is left to men to decide if they will collaborate in this change or if it will have to be enforced upon them by the power of crushing circumstances... So, wake up and collaborate.” The Mother/ The Mother’s Agenda-Vol-5/p-46, “In my Yoga also I found myself moved to include both worlds in my purview, the spiritual and the material, and to try to establish the divine Consciousness and the divine Power in men’s hearts and in earthly life, not for personal salvation only but for a life divine here . This seems to me as spiritual an aim as any and the fact of this life taking up earthly pursuits and earthly things into its scope cannot, I believe, tarnish its spirituality or alter its Indian character. This at least has always been my view and experience of the reality and nature of the world and things and the Divine: it seemed to me as nearly as possible the integral truth about them and I have therefore spoken of the pursuit of it as the integral Yoga. Everyone is, of course, free to reject and disbelieve in this kind of integrality or to believe in the spiritual necessity of an entire other-worldliness excluding any kind of this-worldliness altogether, but that would make the exercise of my Yoga impossible. My Yoga can include indeed a full experience of the other worlds, the plane of the supreme Spirit and the other planes in between and their possible effects upon our life and material world ; but it will be quite possible to insist only on the realisation of the supreme Being or Ishwara even in one aspect, Shiva, Krishna as Lord of the world and Master of ourselves and our works or else the universal Sachchidananda , and attain to the essential results of this Yoga and afterwards to proceed from them to the integral results if one accepted the ideal of the divine life and this material world conquered by the Spirit. It is this view and experience of things and of the truth of existence that enabled me to write The Life Divin e and Savitri . ” CWSA-29/Letters on Yoga-II-375, 13: CWSA-35/Letters on Himself and the Ashram-308, 14: The Mother’s Agenda-29.06.1966, 15: “Man and the animal are both mentally conscious beings: but the animal is fixed in vital mind and mind-sense and cannot exceed its limitations, while man has received into his sense-mind the light of another principle, the intellect, which is really at once a reflection and a degradation of the supermind, a ray of gnosis seized by the sense-mentality and transformed by it into something other than its source: for it is agnostic like the sense- mind in which and for which it works, not gnostic; it seeks to lay hold on knowledge, because it does not possess it, it does not like supermind hold knowledge in itself as its natural prerogative. In other words, in each of these forms of existence the universal being has fixed its action of consciousness in a different principle or, as between man and animal, in the modification of a lower by a higher though still not a highest-grade principle.” CWSA-22/The Life Divine-739, 16: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga-149, 17: CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga-147, 18: “For, as a matter of fact, while the very keyword of the ideal creation is a plenary self-consciousness and self-possession in the infinite Soul and a perfect oneness, the keyword of the creation of which we have present experience is the very opposite; it is an original inconscience developing in life into a limited and divided self-consciousness, an original inert subjection to the drive of a blind self-existent Force developing in life into a struggle of the self-conscious being to possess himself and all things and to establish in the kingdom of this unseeing mechanic Force the reign of an enlightened Will and Knowledge.” CWSA-21/The Life Divine/p-501-502 19: “It is consciousness and life that must be the keywords to what is being thus worked out in Time; for without them Matter and the world of Matter would be a meaningless phenomenon, a thing that has just happened by Chance or by an unconscious Necessity. But consciousness as it is, life as it is cannot be the whole secret; for both are very clearly something unfinished and still in process. In us consciousness is Mind, and our mind is ignorant and imperfect, an intermediate power that has grown and is still growing towards something beyond itself: there were lower levels of consciousness that came before it and out of which it arose, there must very evidently be higher levels to which it is itself arising. Before our thinking, reasoning, reflecting mind there was a consciousness unthinking but living and sentient, and before that there was the subconscious and the unconscious; after us or in our yet unevolved selves there is likely to be waiting a greater consciousness , self-luminous, not dependent on constructive thought: our imperfect and ignorant thought-mind is certainly not the last word of consciousness, its ultimate possibility. For the essence of consciousness is the power to be aware of itself and its objects, and in its true nature this power must be direct, self-fulfilled and complete : if it is in us indirect, incomplete, unfulfilled in its workings, dependent on constructed instruments, it is because consciousness here is emerging from an original veiling Inconscience and is yet burdened and enveloped with the first Nescience proper to the Inconscient; but it must have the power to emerge completely, its destiny must be to evolve into its own perfection which is its true nature. Its true nature is to be wholly aware of its objects, and of these objects the first is self, the being which is evolving its consciousness here, and the rest is what we see as not-self, — but if existence is indivisible, that too must in reality be self: the destiny of evolving consciousness must be, then, to become perfect in its awareness, entirely aware of self and all-aware. This perfect and natural condition of consciousness is to us a superconscience, a state which is beyond us and in which our mind, if suddenly transferred to it, could not at first function; but it is towards that superconscience that our conscious being must be evolving.” CWSA-22/The Life Divine/p-1052-1053, 20: “Buddhi , which is simply the determinative power that determines all inertly out of indeterminate inconscient Force, takes for us the form of intelligence and will. Manas, the inconscient force which seizes Nature’s discriminations by objective action and reaction and grasps at them by attraction, becomes sense-perception and desire, the two crude terms or degradations of intelligence and will, — becomes the sense-mind sensational, emotive, volitional in the lower sense of wish, hope, longing, passion, vital impulsion, all the deformations (vikara ) of will. The senses become the instruments of sense-mind, the perceptive five of our sense-knowledge, the active five of our impulsions and vital habits, mediators between the subjective and objective; the rest are the objects of our consciousness, visayas of the senses.” CWSA-19/Essays on the Gita/p-97, “Therefore, since consciousness is always there even in an apparently inconscient Force, we must find a corresponding psychological power of these three modes which informs their more outward executive action. On their psychological side the three qualities may be defined, tamas as Nature’s power of nescience, rajas as her power of active seeking ignorance enlightened by desire and impulsion, sattwa as her power of possessing and harmonising knowledge.” CWSA-19/Essays on the Gita/p-427, “But it is dominated by a huge force and impulsion of mute rajasic kinesis which drives it, even in and even by its dispersion and disintegration, to build and create and again by a sattwic ideative element in its apparently inconscient force which is always imposing a harmony and preservative order on the two opposite tendencies. Rajas, the principle of creative endeavour and motion and impulsion in Prakriti, kinesis, pravritti , so seen in Matter, appears more evidently as a conscious or half-conscious passion of seeking and desire and action in the dominant character of Life, — for that passion is the nature of all vital existence.” CWSA-19/Essays on the Gita/428, “The old semi-Buddhistic , semi-Sankhya theory which saw only the Quiescent and nothing else in the world except a constant combination of the five elements (The Gita-18.14) and the three modes of inconscient Energy lighting up their false activity by the consciousness of the Quiescent in which it is reflected, is not the whole truth of the Brahman. We are not a mere mass of changing mind-stuff, life-stuff, body-stuff taking different forms of mind and life and body from birth to birth, so that at no time is there any real self or conscious reason of existence behind all the flux or none except that Quiescent who cares for none of these things. There is a real and stable power of our being behind the constant mutation of our mental, vital and physical personality, and this we have to know and preserve in order that the Infinite may manifest Himself through it according to His will in whatever range and for whatever purpose of His eternal cosmic activity.” CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-376 Download this file in PDF format: “There must grow up within us or there must manifest a consciousness more and more open to the deeper and the higher being, more and more laid bare to the cosmic Self and Power and to what comes down from the Transcendence, turned to a higher Peace, permeable to a greater light, force and ecstasy, a consciousness that exceeds the small personality and surpasses the limited light and experience of the surface mind, the limited force and aspiration of the normal life consciousness, the obscure and limited responsiveness of the body.” Sri Aurobindo CWSA-22/The Life Divine/p-938

Study Circle “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.” Sri Aurobindo CWSA-23/The Synthesis of Yoga/p-57 “It is always better not to listen to talks especially on so-called spiritual matters. Each one must follow his own way and the others have nothing to do with it.” The Mother TMCW-14/Words of the Mother-II/p-204 14 December 2025 00:00 / 1:13:35 23 November 2025 00:00 / 1:03:24 2 November 2025 Sri Matriniketan Ashram 00:00 / 1:04:07 19 October 2025 Sri Matriniketan Ashram 00:00 / 1:07:35 28 September 2025 Sri Matriniketan Ashram 00:00 / 1:07:16 14 September 2025 Sri Matriniketan Ashram 00:00 / 1:06:56 30 November 2025 Sri Matriniketan Ashram 00:00 / 1:04:11 16 November 2025 Sri Matriniketan Ashram 00:00 / 1:04:27 26 October 2025 Sri Matriniketan Ashram 00:00 / 1:05:57 12 October 2025 Sri Matriniketan Ashram 00:00 / 1:03:11 21 September 2025 Sri Matriniketan Ashram 00:00 / 1:15:55 7 September 2025 Sri Matriniketan Ashram 00:00 / 1:04:43 “The Blessed Lord said: The triple realisation of Brahman, atmani atmanam atmana or “of the self by the self in the self” reconciles the relation between Purusha (Spirit) and Prakriti (Matter); it comes by an inner meditation through which the eternal Self becomes visible, pasyanti, to us in our self-existence. Or it comes by the Yoga of the Sankhyas (the separation of the soul from nature). Or it comes by the Yoga of works. Others, who are unfit for these Dhyana, Jnana and Karma Yoga , may hear of the written Truth of Shastra from men of Spiritual attainment and mould the mind into the sense of THAT to which it listens with utter faith and concentration. But, however arrived at, it carries us beyond the limitation of death to a vast immortality of Spirit.” (The Gita-13.25, 26) “The Blessed Lord said: I am the birth of everything and from Me all proceeds into the development of action and movement; understanding thus, the wise adore Me in rapt emotion. Their consciousness full of Me, their life wholly given up to Me, illumining each other, mutually talking about Me, they are ever contented and joyful. To these who are thus in a constant union with Me, and adore Me with an intense delight of love, I give the Yoga of understanding, buddhi Yoga, by which they come to Me. Out of compassion for them, I, lodged in their self, lift the blazing lamp of knowledge and destroy the darkness which is born of the ignorance.” (The Gita-10.8, 9, 10,11) "The highest spiritual truth can be lived, can be seen, but can only be partially stated." Thus, Study Circle becomes for us a field of the larger significance of Prakriti Yajna , a means of collective Divine Union; if rightly performed, then it calls down vast rain of Divine Force or ‘sealike down pour of masses of a spontaneous knowledge’ ‘from heavenlier skies.’ Or 'Her mouth was seized to channel ineffable truths, Knowledge unthinkable found an utterance.' (Refer CWSA-19/Essays on the Gita/p-264, CWSA-21/The Life Divine-291, Savitri-284, 553) As per the Gita , the realisation of the Divine is an easier task of Study Circle or ' Easy the heavens were to build for God' (Savitri-653) and as per Savitri, the transformation of Nature appears as an impossible task of Study Circle or "E arth was his difficult matter, earth the glory" (Savitri-653) or "Earth saw my struggle, heaven my victory." (Savitri- 639) The greatest utility of Study Circle is not to limit it to Teachings alone but to utilise it as means of movement of the ascent of the Soul to travel ‘beyond the world’ (Savitri-319) to discover 'great impersonal speech' (Savitri-553) and descent of Divine Shakti 'Armed with the golden speech' (Savitri-681) to ‘save the world.’ (Savitri-319) Savitri also observed that the age-long grey restraints of earth cannot be broken by man’s slow impatient evolutionary life which is hurried towards a ‘sudden splendid path’ (Savitri-652) by the revelation, sermon and profound words of ‘human gods.’ (Savitri-652) Human words can only shadow the Divine Mother’s golden glorious Truth, to human thought ‘she is an unthinkable rapture of light,’ (Savitri-663) and to mortal speech she is an inexpressible marvel. (Savitri-663) Savitri felt that the most of the devotees or ‘tired Spirits’ (Savitri-647) are ‘tied to body and to mind’ (Savitri-647) and approach the God with the hope of satisfying their desire or lure of earthly boons and they are incapable of bearing the million ‘wounds of Time.’ (Savitri-647) She was further informed by the Divine that most of the human beings are built on Nature’s early evolutionary plan and ‘owe small debt to a superior plane;’ (Savitri-689) thus man’s ‘mind is closed between two firmaments’ (Savitri-690) of seeking truth through (1) sight and sound or images and words, and (2) surface and brute out sides or consciousness is projected outward, and is unwilling to plunge into the inner depth of Truth. So the Divine advised Savitri not to disturb the life of common man and their settled balance of created things by intervention of Spiritual energy and leave them to ‘heavy toil and slow aeonic steps’ (Savitri-690) and all shall be done for them ‘by the long act of Time.’ (Savitri-691) “However, one should not think that the value of spoken words depends on the nature of the subject of conversation. One can talk idly on spiritual matters just as much as on any other, and this kind of idle talk may well be one of the most dangerous. For example, the neophyte is always very eager to share with others the little he has learnt. But as he advances on the path, he becomes more and more aware that he does not know very much and that before trying to instruct others, he must be very sure of the value of what he knows, until he finally becomes wise and realises that many hours of silent concentration are needed to be able to speak usefully for a few minutes. Moreover, where inner life and spiritual effort are concerned, the use of speech should be subjected to a still more stringent rule and nothing should be said unless it is absolutely indispensable." The Mother TMCW-12/On Education/p-62-63 "“In Silence is wisdom” — it is in the inner silence of the mind that true knowledge can come; for the ordinary activity of the mind only creates surface ideas and representations which are not true knowledge. Speech is usually only the expression of the superficial nature — therefore to throw oneself out too much in such speech wastes the energy and prevents the inward listening which brings the word of true knowledge.” Sri Aurobindo CWSA-29/Letters on Yoga-II/p-159