TABLE - CWNKG
A TABLE OF CONTENTS FOR:
CWNKG 1-8
(COLLECTED WORKS OF NOLINI KANTA GUPTA)
THE COMING RACE AND OTHER ESSAYS
THE COMING RACE i
AND OTHER ESSAYS i
Publishers’ Note i
Contents ii
THE COMING RACE 1
The New Humanity 3
The world is in the throes of a new creation 3
- The New Man – The divine race of humanity is already among us 3
Humanity is being shaken to bring out a new expression and articulation 3
The days of inner preparation are at an end – Today the shell is ripe enough to break 3
- Another humanity is rising out of the present human species 4
What will this new order of being be like? 4
- The New Man will be Master – and not slave 4
It will not be Nietzschean "will to power" – It will rather be a Divine Power 4
- By being Swarat, Self-Master, the New Man will become Samrat, world-master. 4
This mastery will be effected not merely in will, but in mind and heart also 5
- The New Man will know not by the intellect, but by direct vision 5
- The new society will be based not upon competition, nor even upon co-operation 5
It will be the organic expression of the collective soul of humanity 5
- The New Humanity will supply the link that we see missing between gods and men 6
The question we have to answer is who among us are ready to be its embodiment 6
The Creative Soul 7
Creation in some form or other must be the core of everything that seeks delight 7
- The whole of existence is real because it is eternally creative 7
- The riddle that humanity has to solve is how to find out and follow the path of creativity 7
A misconception is that creativity is an aristocratic virtue 7
Every individual being lives to discover and to create 7
- The matrix of creativity is the soul itself 8
Common souls are carried away in the flux and tumult of life 8
Let each take cognisance of the godhead that is within him and create his universe 8
In one's own soul lies the very height and profundity of a godhead 9
- Each soul by bringing out the note that is his, makes for the most wondrous symphony 9
- The individuals are the channels through which flows the Universal and the Infinite 9
Not to be anything but the very cosmic and infinite divinity of your soul – Creativity 9
Rationalism 10
What is Reason – What is the value of knowledge that Reason gives? 10
- Reason has three component elements – Observation, classification and deduction 10
The limitations are the inherent limitations of the component elements 10
- Observation is a relative term – Observation is limited by its scope 10
- Classification may hold good for certain immediate ends 10
- Deduction cannot escape the fundamental vices of observation and classification 10
- There is, in fact, an inherent unity and harmony between Reason and Reality 11
Reason, being as it is, is none the less a successful and trustworthy agent 11
- Now the question is, does Reason never fail? – There is ground for serious misgivings 11
Reason – A faculty which gives us progressive knowledge of the reality 12
But in knowledge it is precisely finality that we seek for 12
Reason is, at best, an organ of self-criticism – Criticism is one thing, creation, another 12
- Does this mean that real knowledge is irrational or against Reason? Not so necessarily 13
There is a super-rational power for knowledge – Reason may be a channel or an obstacle 13
Reason is an attempt to express on the mental level a power that exceeds it 13
-Reason is the section of a vast and unitarian Consciousness-Power 13
The Intuition of the Age 14
All movements proceed from a fundamental intuition which lies in the background 14
Now, what is the intuition that lies behind the movements of the new age? 14
- We must first recognise it and develop it along its proper line of growth 14
The change has been in the soul of man himself – It is this which one must envisage 15
- Two basic principles of the past age, the Scientific age or the age of Reason 15
The new age has entered its protest 15
- In face of Humanism, Nietzsche has posited the Superman 15
- In face of Reason Bergson has posited Intuition 15
Humanism and Scientism go together – The whole spirit and mentality of the age 16
- Greece when it died was reborn in Rome. Rome, in its return, found new life in France 16
What that epoch did not understand was that Reason could be overstepped 16
- What is the insufficiency of Reason? How does it limit man? 17
Reason does not and cannot embrace life as a whole 17
So the civilisation that has its origin in Reason has been mechanical 17
- So instead of the rational principle, the new age wants the principle of Nature or Life 18
Nietzsche's definition of the Superman – The embodiment of life-force 18
- Nietzsche's conception of the Superman is full of obvious lacunae 18
- Instead of the ethical and intellectual man, we get the vital and aesthetic man 19
Bergson's definition of the faculty of Intuition – A community of feeling or sensibility 19
- But Intuition is also purified vision and knowledge 19
- To Bergson the dynamic flow is the ultimate reality – The flux of vital Mind-Energy 19
- Above the élan vital there is yet the domain of the Spirit 20
- In the Spirit lies the real transformation and transfiguration of the humanity of man 20
This is the truth that is trying to dawn upon the new age – The secret Intuition 20
- Only, the truth is being interpreted, as we have said, in terms of vital life 20
- The cosmic order does not mean mentalised vitalism. It means the order of the spirit 21
The Nietzschean Antichrist 22
Nietzsche as the apostle of force is a name now familiar to all the world 22
There is another aspect of Nietzsche – What he aims at is health and vigour and beauty 23
- What Nietzsche wanted was a world purged of littleness and ugliness 24
On Communism 25
Communism is the synthesis of collectivism and individualism 25
- The past ages of society were characterised more or less by a severe collectivism 25
In India, the position and function of the State or Nation was taken up by the society 25
- The human mind rose in revolt and the result was Individualism 25
The first movement of the reaction, was a run to the other extremity – Competition 25
Individuality and ego are not the same – Individuality fulfils itself by fulfilling others 26
- The fundamental oneness of individuals and their spiritual impulsion to unite 26
- Individualism has given us self-determination – Freedom to follow one’s own line 27
- Collectivism signifies that the individual should not look to himself alone 27
A spiritual communism embraces individualism and collectivism 27
- The individual increasing itself increases others and increasing others increases itself 28
- A commune is a group of individuals having a common self and a common life-intuition 28
- A commune, further, is also a process, an instrument to bring about the desired end 28
The individual must find himself and establish his secret god-head 29
- Unless individuals come together the separate godheads will not manifest totally 29
- The recluse is not an integral man, nor the vagabond an ideal personality 29
First the individual and then the commune is not the natural nor the ideal principle 30
- First the commune and then the individual would appear to be equally defective 30
- How to escape the dilemma? – Only if we take the commune and the individual together 31
The Basis of Social Reconstruction 32
Any real reconstruction of society presupposes a permanent reformation of human nature 32
- The realisation must come first in nature and character – Then into laws and institutions 32
The French Revolution. The result – The Socialistic Revolution. The results 32
Even a revolution in the educational system will not bring about the desired millennium 32
Finally, look to all the religions of the world 32
Are we then to say that human nature is irrevocably vitiated by an original sin? 33
- Many spiritual souls declaring that theirs is not the kingdom upon this earth 33
- Great lovers of humanity have sought only to mitigate the ills of life – The Reformists 33
- Our ideals have been mental constructions, rather than spiritual realities 34
The mental, the vital and the physical form a nexus of reality 34
Of these three strata, it is the vital which holds the key to man's nature 34
So long as we remain within the domain of the triple nexus – An original sin 34
Man can go beyond, transcend himself and find a higher poise 34
- What then is required is a complete spiritual regeneration in man 35
The Divine Nature only can permanently reform the vital nature that is ours 35
- To attain to that God Nature – The only way which man has to try and test 35
A Theory of Yoga 36
Yoga is another form of a normal function in man 36
- Mind is an arena where different and divergent forces continually battle 36
- We must first of all know the fundamental nature of the struggle 36
The vital urges of life – The instinct of self-preservation and that of self-reproduction 36
Man has often to check himself and throw a veil over his sheer animality 36
A biological necessity has evolved in man a third primary instinct, that of the herd 37
- We will recognise the fact of control and try to have a glimpse into its mechanism 37
There are three lines along which this control or censuring of the primary instincts acts 37
- First, the line of Defence Reaction – An attitude directly contrary to the impulse 37
- Secondly the line of Substitution – To divert the impulse into other channels 38
- Thirdly, the line of Sublimation – The impulse is lifted up into a higher modality 38
- Yoga is, we may say, the fourth line of control – The power of Conscious Control 38
The method of unconscious or subconscious nature is fundamentally that of repression 39
In conscious control, the mind is aware of the presence of the repressed impulses 39
- The very recognition itself, as implied in conscious control, means purification 39
- The Fifth Line, the real and intimate path of yoga – A transformation of the instincts 39
What we may call Transubstantiation – To change the basic substance, the stuff of Nature 40
Man is not a mere instrument in the hands of Nature forces – The demands of the spirit 40
- Thus, tree types of control on three levels – The natural, the conscious, the spiritual 41
Yoga is the trans-substantiation of life-power into its spiritual substance 41
The Parting of the Way 42
To be divine or to remain human, this is the one choice that is now before Nature 42
- In what consists the humanity of man? 42
The inorganic, the vegetable, the animal and finally man – The four great steps 42
The differentia, in each case, lies in the degree and nature of consciousness 42
Man is distinguished from the animal by his having the consciousness of self 42
- Is there no other higher mode of consciousness? 43
The glimpses of a higher form of consciousness we can see even now present 43
In poets and artists and seers and great men of action 44
- It is the awakening of the self to something which is beyond itself 44
- It is not the supreme Reality in its static being – It is the Truth-world 44
- The inflatus of something vast and transcendent we do feel sometimes within us 44
- This passage from the self-conscient to the super-conscient – The divine creature to be 45
It is a divine creature that should be envisaged on the next level of evolution 45
Nature is now at the parting of the ways – She is now looking forward 45
Principle and Personality 46
It is asked of us why do we preach a man and not purely and solely a principle 46
- Many evils attendant upon the system of preaching a man 46
- The evils that beset the system of preaching the principle alone 46
A single individual, the founder – The entire structure is but the shadow of that light 46
- When the great man’s presence is gone, the whole edifice crumbles 47
- Principles only can embrace and unify the whole of humanity 47
By placing the man in front, we erect a wall between the Principle and men at large 47
We shall have to strike a balance between opposite extremes 47
What are principles unless they take life and form in a particular individual? 48
- Principles require personalities for their fluctuation and vital functioning 48
- It is always through a particular individual that a great principle manifests itself 48
An Avatar, a Messiah or a Prophet is the centre 48
- The principle is there to make people self-knowing and self-guiding 49
- The man is there to serve as the hope and prophecy of achievement 49
Those who swear by principles, swear always by some personality or other 49
The Basis of Unity 51
I 51
A modern society or people cannot have religion as the basis of its collective life 51
- It was mediaeval society and people that were organized on that line 51
- The truth behind a credal religion – When mankind had not attained a certain level 51
- Not religion, but culture is the basis of modern collective life, national or social 51
In India – Two major affiliations have today almost cut the country into two 52
- The rise of the mediaeval spirit in modern times is a ghost that has come out 52
- In Europe such a contingency did not arise – The spirit of the Renaissance 52
- In India the spirit of renascence came very late and it could not flood the whole 52
The religious spirit is closest to India's soul – India's and the world's future demands it 52
Only, the religious spirit has to be enlightened by the spirit of the renascence 53
II 53
India's historical development is marked by a special characteristic 53
- The diversity and divergence have culminated here in mutual exclusion 53
The first extremes that met in India and coalesced were the Aryan and the non-Aryan 53
A catholic religious spirit embraced a variety of approaches to the Divine – Hinduism 54
- Buddhism was a great denial – India's synthetic genius knew how to bridge the chasm 54
- A more serious and fiercer contradiction – The Islamic impact on India 55
History abounds in instances of racial and cultural immixture 56
India today presents the problem on a larger scale and on a higher or deeper level 56
- Islam comes with a full-fledged spiritual soul and a mental and vital formation 56
- The clash of spiritual or religious loyalties has taken such an acute form in India today 57
The solution – By going to the true religion of the Spirit and by bringing down this Spirit 57
- Let the few then practise and achieve the ideal. The mass will have to follow 57
- Strong nuclei are needed where the integrated spiritual consciousness is a fact 58
- Nature demanded of India that she should discover a greater secret of human unity 58
Three Degrees of Social Organisation 59
Society based on or living by the principle of Right becomes a competitive society 59
- Right is not the only term on which an ideal or a decent society can be based – Duty 59
Not to think and act in terms of claims and rights but in terms of duties and obligations 59
There is a considerable difference between duty and fanaticism 60
- On behalf of the doctrine of Right – One's liberty equal to the measure of others' liberty 60
The line of demarcation between one's own rights and the rights of others is undefinable 60
What is required is an inner outlook of nature – By learning to live by the sense of duty 61
- Neither Duty and Right can give a clear guarantee of perfect harmony 61
Indian wisdom has found the mystic factor, Dharma, the law of the Self 61
The three terms Right, Duty and Dharma as degrees of an ascending consciousness 61
- In the earliest and primitive society men lived totally in a mass consciousness 62
The conception of Right had to appear to bring out the principle of individuality 62
The growth of independent individuality – A violently competitive society is the result 62
- The conception of duty can develop in man and his society toleration and harmony 62
The conception of duty cannot solve the problem – An element of constraint in duty 62
This leads us to the high and supreme conception of Dharma 62
- The principle of Dharma – Each individual must find out his truth of being 63
Absolute harmony and perfect synthesis between all the units 63
The future society – Each one able to give full and free expression to his self-nature 63
TOWARDS A NEW SOCIETY 65
The World War 67
The world war – Even spiritual seekers can hardly remain indifferent with impunity 67
- The divorce between the spiritual and the worldly – The world remains worldly 67
- The sole secret of changing man's destiny – A supreme spiritual Conscious-Power 67
The spiritual consciousness must needs govern and fashion man in his entire being 68
Spiritual seekers have a say in a matter which looks so mundane as this war 68
- The main work of an Avatar is often to subdue the evil-doers 68
- Now, it is precisely with the Asura that we have to deal in the present war 69
The present war is a conflict between two ideals – Different planes and different orders 69
The lower vital level – An uprush of similar forces to possess and throw man back 70
Those that have stood against this Dark Force now carry the whole future of humanity 71
- Asura-nature means a fundamental ego-centricism, violent and concentrated self-will 71
Man can often act very much like the Asura – Yet there is a difference 71
The Asura triumphs everywhere for a while because his power is well-built 73
Man triumphs over the Asura – If he moulds himself in the ways of the divine power 73
- But in the world, the Divine and his powers remain behind – The grasp of the Asura 73
Today, the Asura himself with the whole band of his army has descended upon the earth 73
- The whole future of mankind depends upon the issue of the present deadly combat 73
The war of today is a war between the Asura and men, human instruments of the gods 74
- The fate of India too is being decided in this world-crisis – The choice of her path 74
A great opportunity is offered to India's soul – If she chooses rightly 75
- Spirituality placed at the service of terrestrial life for the deliverance of mankind 75
The Allies have stood on the side of the Truth – We have to stand by them 75
- This war is a great menace. It is also a great opportunity offered to man 76
The change is to be for or towards the birth of a spiritual consciousness in earthly life 76
The Message of the Atomic Bomb 77
The atom bomb is a boomerang likely to turn back upon the whole of humanity 77
- Man's invention of death-dealing weapons – The history of growing civilisation 77
This march of machinery means man's increasing mastery over physical nature 77
- This meant immense possibilities for good, but for evil also 77
- So, rules and regulations were framed to control and canalise the new-found capacities 77
- The second World War has given the go-by to all ethical standards and codes of honour 78
Unless man changes, becomes master of himself, he cannot be truly master of the world 78
The Bomb has shaken the physical atmosphere of the earth – The moral atmosphere too 79
- Reason and moral sense could not move man – Fear has been sent by the Divine Grace 79
National and International 80
The nation has to live today in and through the life of humanity as a whole 80
- Kurukshetra is a turning-point in history 80
Krishna came to evolve a higher and larger unit of collective life – A League of clans 80
- We have just passed through a catastrophic Kurukshetra 81
Humanity is one and all nations are free and yet interdependent members 81
No nation can hope henceforth to stand in its isolated grandeur 81
The Right of Absolute Freedom 82
A nation cannot claim the right, even in the name of freedom, to do as it pleases 82
- The ideal of a nation or state supreme all by itself leads to the cult of the Super-state 82
Viewing a nation only as a member in a comity of nations forming the humanity at large 82
- There are times and circumstances when even an enslaved nation has to bide its time 82
All nations who have stood and fought on the side of humanity – The right to freedom 82
- In mutual aid and self-limitation lie the fulfilment of each collective individuality 83
Federated Humanity 84
The last great war threw up a mantra for the human consciousness – Self-determination 84
The present world-war has likewise cast up a mantra that is complementary 84
- The problem of the unification of the whole human race has become imperative 84
The original unit, the family, was taken up into the clan, the tribe and finally the nation 84
The first concept of a larger federation, the League of Nations, could not come to fruition 85
- The principle of self-determination yet needed its absolute justification 85
A commonwealth of nations is the larger unit that Nature is in travail to bring forth 85
- The empire of the past, of the Roman type, was a crude and abortive attempt 85
- The drive of Nature – To find a greater and larger unit for the collective life of mankind 86
- That unit today has to be a federation of free peoples and nations 86
- It does not seem possible at this stage to go straight to the whole of humanity at large 86
An intermediate step is still necessary – Nations should combine to form groups 86
Vansittartism 87
Germany is considered now as the arch criminal among nations 87
- The whole nation is said to be corrupt to the core – The peculiar German character 87
Germany stands for a philosophy of life, for a definite mode of human values 87
- That philosophy in its outlook has been culturally anti-Latin, religiously anti-Christian 87
Such is the position taken up by Lord Vansittart – A new ideology of anti-Germanism 88
- A compromise solution – There is the Eastern Germany and the Western Germany 88
The Western Germany is the Germany of light and culture 88
- The more liberal elements among the Allies – For a new and regenerated Germany 88
The re-education of Germany must come from within, if it is to be effective 89
India One and Indivisible 90
India is one and indivisible, culturally and spiritually; politically too she must be one 90
- There are diverse and even contradictory elements in the make-up of a modern nation 90
France, for example, was not one, but many to start with and for long 90
- What we see rampant in India today is the mediaeval spirit 91
- To be and remain free and strong and invincible, India must be and remain indivisible 91
The days of small peoples, of isolated independence are gone 91
India can be and is to be a federation of autonomous units 91
- The Units must be geographical and cultural (or spiritual – not religious) wholes 91
The Basic Unity 92
There is one unity which cannot be denied to India – The geographical, the physical unity 92
- The physical unity that is India may harbour many and diverse independent elements 92
The problem that is set in such a case is the problem of the integration of personality 92
- A firm physical unity presupposes an integral unity, economic, political 92
- Fissures of late have opened again – The political unity, it is said, is an impossibility 93
That an Indian consciousness is there is a fact to which history bears testimony 93
The Way to Unity 94
Common love, common labour and, above all, common suffering welds a nation 94
- Hindus and Muslims in India must be made to come in contact with each other 94
Unity is established automatically and irrevocably by a dynamic living together 95
The present war is a great opportunity for all centrifugal elements to come together 95
Independence and its Sanction 96
Independence is not a gift which one can receive from another, it is a prize to be won 96
- The lead Sri Aurobindo gave in this connection – The best way to acquire the sanction 96
We must command a strength that is calm, collected, poised, organised 96
The present war brings the opportunity to the development of this power and strength 97
Power is best gained and increased through work, in its painstaking execution 97
If we had united with the British against the common enemy – Our union with ourselves 98
- The war was providential to us – Our human intelligence refused to take it at its worth 98
New World-Conditions 99
One must change with the changing times – But how many can really do so 99
- He who cannot change is known as the ideologist, the doctrinaire, the fanatic 99
- Deeper world-currents in the conditions and circumstances that face us – Opportunities 99
The geographical revolution – All the nations and peoples thrown together to intermingle 100
The geographical revolution has led inevitably to the economic revolution 101
Certain forces are working inexorably – The principle of co-operation 101
- The Eastern hemisphere, can no longer be regarded as the field of exploitation 102
- The growing industrialism need not necessarily mean a further spell of keen competition 102
- A vast country like India can at once be industrial and agricultural 103
- With this perspective in view, one must help the course of evolution and progress 103
International co-operation has become a thing of immediate necessity 103
- The relation between India and Britain is peculiar and has an especial significance 104
America and Russia – Life movement in either seems to have a rigid mould 104
The British are more amenable to change – It has the spirit of a commonwealth 104
The unravelling of the Britain and India tangle – The solution of a world-problem 104
- The British people do not move by ideals and idealism, as the French do, for example 105
- The British are eager to have a settlement with India – A matter of self-interest 105
- India can envisage a law of universal harmony and solidarity, of conscious co-operation 106
Nature herself moves towards synthesis and harmony 106
Let India's freedom mean precisely this higher synthesis so much needed 107
The Ideals of Human Unity 108
The unification of humanity is also a thing decreed 108
- Man is a gregarious animal, a social being. He forms groups and collectivities 108
The earliest and the most persistent unit is the family – Clan, tribe are extensions 108
Other regional and parochial units developed – The nation absorbed all lesser unities 108
- Nationhood has now become almost a barrier to a further enlargement of the unit 109
On three different lines a greater and larger unification of mankind has been attempted 109
- First, the political leads to the formation of Empires – The faults and errors in this type 109
- Next, the racial line – It has the fatal fault of a basis that is uncertain and doubtful 109
- The third is the religious principle – Religious imperialism cannot unify humanity 110
- A new type of imperialism has been developing – The Dictatorship of the Proletariate 110
There seems to be growing here too a movement towards decentralisation 110
- A different type is also being experimented – A federal grouping of national units 111
A free association of independent nations that choose to be linked together 111
- The family unit remains. The nation too. The other types seem to be experiments 111
What would be the intermediate grouping between the nation and humanity at large? 111
Anarchism presages an agglutinative type of humanity – No hierarchy of groupings 112
- However, a hierarchical form of groupings need not be barred out2 112
On Social Reconstruction 113
I 113
One of the great errors of the human mind – To take equality as identical with uniformity 113
- It is the recognition of the personal worth of each individual that gives him true equality 113
A social organization – The central purpose is to serve and help the individual 113
- This service is twofold 113
Each individual must find his proper vocation, in accordance with his nature 113
Each, while fulfilling his Dharma, must have the opportunity to grow and increase 113
- Mechanical and totalitarian equality does injustice to the individual 114
- The result is evident also in a modern society based on open competition and struggle 114
At times a remedy was tried on the principle of "Career open to talents" – Not enough 115
Individual or personal worth should be the chief concern of the social governance 115
- Under the competitive system the apparent freedom is only apparent, a make-believe 115
- The problem then is how to arrive at the inner freedom – The Divine in man 116
That which all schemes of social reconstruction must have constantly in view 116
The majority – Upon this mass of uniformity the totalitarian regimentation bases itself 116
- What the totalitarian system does is to fix and eternise the mould 116
In ancient times too there were conscious attempts to build and remould human society 117
In modern times also – We tried to found and organise a government of all talents 117
- But again, who are the talents and where are they? – Very few great souls if at all 117
- Centres of forces, with creative vision and power – Mankind sorely needs at this hour 117
II 117
The economic status is not the only or even the chief or real status of man in the society 117
- The money power – In the modern age, to the first agents in the production of wealth 118
A man's worth is not and need not be commensurate with his wage-earning capacity 118
- Personal value will mean then not productive value, but the capacity to create values 118
The thing in human society which makes it valuable – Its culture and civilisation 119
- The decline of culture and civilisation – The displacement by the economic man 119
In the older order the creators of values had the necessary freedom and leisure 119
- The downward curve started with the advent and growth of the bourgeoisie 119
Very few intellectuals are free to follow their inner trend and urge 119
- One is truly rich or poor in accordance with one's needs and the means to meet them 120
- People whose needs are intrinsically greater – They require preferential treatment 120
- The psychological status should alone, at least chiefly, determine the economic status 121
- In the old Indian social organisation – Based upon living psychological forces 122
The Four Orders – The Brahmin, the Kshattriya, the Vaishya, the Sudra 122
- The Brahmin was considered as the head of the social body 122
- Fundamentally all human society is built upon this fourfold classification 122
A normally healthy society is a harmonious welding of these four elements 122
- A society becomes diseased when only one member gets inflated and all-powerful 122
The cure is the creation of a new life and soul – A new Brahminhood 122
- The value of the individual has to be found and recognised by a spiritual outlook 123
- When man rises into his divine status – The chance of a perfect social system 123
Panacea of “Isms” 125
COMMUNISM 125
Communism cannot save humanity – For if it means the Dictatorship of the Proletariat 125
- Then again, if communism means also materialism, that also cannot satisfy 125
- Communism is best taken as a symptom of the disease and not as a remedy 126
- A perfect or ideal communism – When man's nature has undergone a radical change 126
SOCIALISM 126
Nor can socialism remedy all the ills society suffers from 126
- State Socialism, only another name of Totalitarianism, is hardly an unmixed good 126
A collective or global enterprise means uniformity, often a dead uniformity 126
- A nation as a whole can very well be moved by greed and violence 127
NATIONALISM 127
Nationalism has become a stumbling-block to a fairer solution of human problems 127
- An internationa1 solution – A happier solution for the nation too 127
- The more significant urge today is towards the greater aggregation 127
INTERNATIONALISM 128
And yet internationalism is not the one thing needful either 128
- Internationalism in the economic sphere seems to have a greater utility 128
Economics is forcing peoples and nations to live together and move together 128
- But economic forces are not the only deciding or directing agents in human affairs 128
- Mere economics tends to work more for uniformity 128
HUMANISM 129
So the cry is for greater human values – The ideal of Humanism 129
- Mind and sensibility must be free to discover and create – An all-round culture 129
A harmonious working of all the members of the system at a high level of consciousness 129
THE MORE BEYOND 130
Until and unless man surpasses himself he cannot enjoy a perfect life on earth 130
- Man has to reach his divine status, become the Divine 130
- Nature herself is moving inexorably towards that consummation 130
The Malady of the Century 133
I 133
WHAT is the malady of our age? It is that man has lost touch with his soul 133
- The Eternal Enemy spread out before our enchanted eyes earth's riches and glories 133
Busy about too many things we have left out of account the one thing needful 133
Movements of consciousness not organized – The personality of the modern man 134
II 134
A peculiar aridity has invaded the modern consciousness – The lust for life, not the joy 134
- Human nature has been rent in twain and life has lost its unity of rhythm 134
- The old-world had no experience of this self-division, this unregenerate life-impulse 135
We have eaten of the fruit of knowledge and our youth is the price that we have paid 135
- This knowledge is the product of the meddlesome superficial brain-mind 135
III 136
We of the modern age are never content with the knowledge that we have at the moment 136
- There lacks the sense of assurance and achievement – A certain unrest or malaise 136
The ancients knew not many things, but they were sure of their knowledge 136
The ancient Rishis were clear in their thought, direct in their perception 136
- To the moderns truth is merely relative; the absolute is an ever-receding reality 137
The ancients, on the other hand, aimed and worked at definite and final achievement 137
- Ours is an age of hunger for knowledge, for power, for enjoyment 137
But we do not know the conditions under which such hunger can really be appeased 137
We must first draw back and re-establish the lost connection with our soul 138
Aspects of Modernism 139
Every age has claimed to be modern and sought to establish its characteristic newness 139
How then does the twentieth century propose to mark out its difference from the past? 139
- Strictly speaking, science was the key-note of the nineteenth century 139
Science indeed gave a very decided turn to the slowly advancing humanity 139
The scientific spirit is rationalisation of Mind as well as of Life 140
- Mechanistic efficiency, whether in the matter of knowledge or of life 140
The contemporary urge is not towards rationalisation, but towards irrationalisation 140
- Intuition and instinct are now welcomed as surer and truer instruments than reason 140
- Another special feature of the modern consciousness is its "multiple sightedness" 141
The cult of Relativity is a significant expression of the modern consciousness 141
- Intimately connected is the principle of fragmentation or atomism 141
The universe is now found to be a concourse of vagrant electric charges 141
Even likewise, human personality is a composite of innumerable personalities 141
- This pluralisation has resulted in a necessary polarisation in the human consciousness 141
The modern mind can take in many view-points, even contrary ones, at the same time 141
- The reign of multiplicity is working towards a discovery of enhanced unity 142
A unity that brings forth out of each its components its fullness of individuality 142
- Our modern consciousness – To make up in width what it has lost in depth and height 142
Simplicity and intensity, sublimity and profundity – Man's achievement in the past 142
Human endeavour in the present is wideness, richness, complexity 142
- The modern age has neglected the penetrative and intensive movement 143
That intensive and in-gathering movement was a sixth sense – The Behind or Beyond 143
Modernism: An Oriental Interpretation 144
The domination of the mind and the heart over life – The characteristic stamp in the past 144
Modernism means the release of life from this subjugation – Life's self-determination 144
- The history of the emancipation of the different psychological domains in man 144
The heart and the mind too were not always free and autonomous – The religious sense 144
- The domination of the religious sense reached its apogee in the Middle Ages 144
- The Reason, declaring its independence – This was the Renaissance 144
Mind exercised in its turn a domineering control over man's entire nature 145
The new poise of humanity was the advent of the heart, the coming in of the Romantic 145
Life, pure life first declared its autonomy in art – The Realists and Naturalists 145
Something of the mystery of Life's own rhythm was first revealed by the Impressionists 145
Life as it is – This is the supreme secret of which we of the modern age are worshippers 146
- Thus life has come to mean today the life exclusively of the senses 146
- In pursuit of the mystery of life we have entered into darker and more obscure regions 146
It appears then that we have come down perilously near the level of the sheer animal 147
Not quite so – The self-consciousness and the growing sense of individuality are assets 147
- Life has found a self-light – To develop into the Soul-light and the Supreme Light 147
The Other Aspect of European Culture 148
Two cultures, of Europe and of Asia, contending to have sway over humanity 148
- Whether a synthesis, at least a reconciliation of the two is possible or not 148
Europe's distinctive trait is her hold upon life and the actualities of material existence 148
The thing that characterises Asia is her grasp of the Spirit, the realities of a subtle world 148
- It is contended by some that Europe and Asia are belong to categories as poles asunder 148
- But is it after all an incontrovertible fact that Europe is Europe and Asia Asia? 149
Asia was no less efficient than Europe in matters worldly and material 149
The godless and mechanistic civilisation today in Europe is a distemper of recent growth 149
- The mediaeval age was not after all so dark and unregenerate – Christian Europe 149
- The Græco-Latin Europe was not so materialistic and profane as modern Europe 150
- This Classical culture – Its descendants were the builders of the Christian civilization 150
- Herein lay Europe's soul – Her more fundamental life-intuition 151
In this connection the history of Ireland's destiny affords an instructive study 151
- The natural idealism, the inborn spiritual outlook which Ireland possessed of yore 151
- The voice of the Irish Renaissance heralds a new dawn 151
- Is it meant that "Mediaeval obscurantism" was Europe's supreme ideal? 152
The revolt launched against it by the heralds of the Modern Age was inevitable 152
The Renaissance has gone a little too far in its career of correction 152
- If Europe can seek that which she herself once knew and esteemed – Unity with Asia 152
The Truth that Europe carried in her bosom – Under the main current of life 152
It is Asia who grasps the Truth in its full and absolute truth 152
Europe's spiritual soul itself will be found to be only a derivative of Asia's own self 153
Europe in accepting Asia comes back to the fountain-head of her own inner being 153
The Spiritual Genius of India 154
What is it that we precisely mean when we say that India is spiritual? 154
- Was not Europe also as largely spiritual and as fundamentally religious as India? 154
The whole world, in fact, was more or less religious in the early stages of its evolution 154
- Europe today stands clean shorn of all religion or spirituality 154
- Indian spirituality is nothing but consolidated mediaevalism 154
- A comparing glance on two types of spirituality – India and Europe in the Middle Ages 155
Religion and Spirituality are very different things and may be even contradictory 155
- Religion starts from and usually ends with a mental and emotional approach 155
- Spirituality goes straight forward to direct vision and communion with the Beyond 155
Europe, when she is non-materialist, is primarily religious and only secondarily spiritual 156
India is always primarily spiritual and only secondarily religious 156
- It is not so much a question of concrete realisation but a question of ultimate valuation 157
- The psychological atmosphere in India is of a luminous zone of spiritual consciousness 157
In Europe the division between this world and the other is more rigorous 158
- The average European is heavily enclosed in his physical sheath 158
- The Indian, both physically and psychically, has a more delicate frame 158
- The Indian has his soul as his most characteristic possession – This one thing needful 158
The French have developed a fine, clear and subtle, rational, artistic and literary mind 159
The Japanese have developed the sense of beauty, especially as applied to life and living 159
The British people – The practical, successful life instinct of the Anglo-Saxon races 160
- India – What was single and definite in her case was a mode not of living but of being 160
There was no department of life or culture in which India was not great 161
Yet, the real nature and genius of the Indian people – The domain of the Spirit 161
- In the history of India – The unbroken continuity of the line of her spiritual masters 161
- Other peoples may be the arms and the feet and the head of Humanity. India is its soul 161
Divine Humanism 163
Many Europeans have found Indian spirituality and Indian culture lacking in 'humanism' 163
- First of all we must know what exactly is meant by humanism 163
Humanism – To be interested in man as man and in all things that interest man as man 163
- Humanism – A protest against whatever concerned itself with the supra-human 163
- The Græco-Latin culture was essentially and predominantly humanistic 164
- The mediaeval culture too had a strong basis in humanism – The religion itself 164
- The Indian outlook – Not the pagan Græco-Roman nor the religious humanism 164
The religious or Christian humanism of the West – The pagan and profane humanism 164
In the East the liberated man may work for the good and welfare of the world 164
- Not benevolence or philanthropy, nor the ethical sense of duty 164
- The Indian sage is not and cannot be human in the human way 165
- The feeling he has towards the entire creation is one of identity in the One Self 165
- A gradation in the humanistic attitude – From grosser forms to those less and less so 165
The lowest rung is what is called altruism, or more especially, philanthropy 165
In an altruism refined and sublimated we have what is humanism proper 165
Humanism is transfigured when we ascend to cosmic feeling – Buddhistic Compassion 165
A status even beyond – Beyond the cosmic reality lies the transcendent reality 166
- The humanism with which Europe is familiar – Too human from an Indian standpoint 167
The liberated soul is he who has taken up the superior divine nature 167
And yet there is a humanism that is proper to India – A 'divine humanism' 168
The cult of the Divine Human – Man as the Divine Person in his human norm 168
When such a Man lives and acts on earth – A manner that does not belong to humanity 168
Some Thoughts on the Unthinkable 170
God is not an autocrat – God is more like a constitutional sovereign 170
The Divine does not announce his presence or advent by miracles 170
- The Divine does not compel, he persuades 170
The Divine Will in the cosmos acts as a continuous pressure 170
The Divine has two aspects – The Reality that is and the reality that becomes 171
- Both the Divines are to be envisaged and established in one single undivided realisation 171
The actual manifestation, the world as it stands, is in the hands of the Undivine 172
- The Undivine means the obscure separativeness of the Ignorance 172
- The elements and forces of the Ignorance are gradually led to evolve and change 172
- A day will come when it is the Divine that will reign upon earth 172
The Standpoint of Indian Art 174
Indian art is not in truth unreal and unnatural, though it may so appear 174
- The classical artist surveys his field with the physical eye 174
- Indian art – It is not the physical eye, but an inner vision 174
- All art is based upon this – The mind transforms or distorts the objective world 175
The classical artist selects a position as close as he can to the photographer 175
The art of the East followed a different line – A psychological standpoint 175
- It does not copy physical Nature – A faithful reproduction of a psychological Nature 175
- Indian art is pre-eminently the art of this inner re-formation and revaluation 176
- The fundamental truths and realities behind this universe of apparent phenomena 176
- The view of reality 177
European art –The Far Western art gives a front-view of reality 177
Japanese art – The Far Eastern art gives a side-view 177
Indian art gives a view from above 177
European art embodies experiences of the conscious mind and the external senses 177
Japanese art gives expression to experiences that one has through the subtler touches 177
Indian art proceeds through spiritual consciousness and records experiences of the soul 177
A Raphael Madonna – A Japanese Madonna – An Indian Madonna 178
- Indian art – To bring out the universal and the transcendent element 179
Indian art had to be unnatural, because its very atmosphere was the supra-natural 180
Art and Katharsis 181
Art is concerned with the Beautiful – Intimately connected with the True, the Good 181
- There is a didactic Art – But great art is essentially a-moral in the sense of supra-moral 181
Art does not tend towards the Good in the manner of the moralist – A higher good 181
The uplifting power of Art is inherent in its nature – A heightened consciousness 182
- The alchemy of poetic transformation – The bliss of the invisible and the beyond 183
- The voice of Art is sweetly persuasive – The beauty of poetic creation works a change 183
Hamlet : A Crisis of the Evolving Soul 185
The tragedy of Hamlet – The destiny of the human soul at a most fateful crisis 185
- In the progressive gradient so pursued, there are certain stages or level-crossings 185
- King Lear, Macbeth, Hamlet – A triology with the Karma of the soul at different crises 185
King Lear represents human consciousness low down in the scale of evolution 185
- King Lear – Man is the Rakshasa – It is a world ruled by the mode of tamas 185
In Macbeth, something of the mental being enters into the purely vital creature 186
- In Macbeth we have the world of the Asura, a creation of the mode of rajas 186
Hamlet is the third stage – A vision of sattva-guṇa, a creation attempted by that vision 186
- The graces of a truly rational being make Hamlet the flower of an evolving humanity 186
- The counterfeit ideal, the philistine, is the man of Reason but without the higher inflatus 187
What is the obstacle that the Idealist has to face, the danger zone? 187
- The original and aboriginal humanity is not wholly obliterated 188
- This disillusionment is the crisis at which the soul has arrived 188
The crisis in Hamlet reminds us of the Gita – Arjuna sinks down in gloom and dejection 188
- One has to face the evil and fight it – Arjuna's initiation into the secret of Deliverance 189
- A poignant vision or experience of evil in God's world – The turning-point of many 189
Hamlet and Faust were souls that faced the Sphinx but could not answer her riddle 189
The contradiction can be resolved only by passing into a higher domain of consciousness 190
Modernist Poetry 191
The modern consciousness, it is said, is marked with two characteristics 191
- First, it is polyphonic – A composite of many planes and strands in space and in time 191
A modern artist will have to express this peculiar cosmopolitanism or universalism 192
- Second – The amalgam in modern art of the highly serious and the keenly comic 192
In a modern poet the tragic and the comic are blended together 192
A true poet creates out of the fullness of an inner experience 194
- It may be very true that the modern poetic spirit is seeking a new path 194
- A new creation is new because of a new, a fresh and living inspiration 194
It is a simple truth that we have missed in the present age 194
- Let the modernist find out his own inmost being and he will have the newness he seeks 195
Tagore – Poet and Seer 197
A great literature seems to have almost invariably a great name attached to it 197
Such a great name is Rabindranath Tagore in Bengali literature 197
- Tagore has brought out the very soul of the race in various modes in the utterance 197
- Humanity has gone wrong with the modern world since it lost touch with its soul 198
Tagore is a modern, inspired and moved by the spirit of the Time, but not a modernist 198
- One is modern when one is inspired and moved by the spirit of the Time 198
- One is modernist when one is bound to the external formulas – A mannerism 198
- The passage of mediaevalism to modernism 199
The mediaeval consciousness is a segmented or linear consciousness 199
The modern consciousness – A global view-point, a circular consciousness 199
- The relativity of all experiences is the great modern discovery 199
- Tagore is modern in respect of all these higher aptitudes that man has gained today 199
The breath of modernism that Tagore has brought is suffused with a soul-feeling 200
- Tagore is modern, because his modernism is based upon a truth eternal and universal 200
Tagore is also ancient – The great truths, the basic realities formulated by the ancients 200
- He has never forgotten the one thing needful. He has not lost the moorings of the soul 200
- The great triads – The True, the Beautiful and the Good, or God, Soul and Immortality 200
The modernist does not ask “ is it good? is it beautiful?” He asks “is it effective?” 201
- A strange recklessness and shamelessness, an unhealthy and perverse curiosity 201
- In such a world Tagore is a voice and a beacon from over the heights of the old world 201
Tagore is a great poet. He is a great Seer 201
THE MARCH OF CIVILISATION 203
The March of Civilisation 205
We know of the appearance of individuals with a special mission and role 205
There is an upsurge in which a whole race or nation is carried and raised to a higher level 205
- Greece and Rome representing two types of culture – One of light, the other of power 206
The Renaissance was really a New Illumination – The threshold of the modern epoch 206
The Romantic Revival – The Ray touched the heart, the feelings and emotive sensibility 206
The manifestation of Power in the great French Revolution – The Russian Revolution 206
In modern India, the movement – A mighty evocation of both Light and Power 207
- The spiritual awakening of India – The harbinger of the new epoch 207
- These larger human movements are in a sense anonymous – No single nucleus 207
The cosmic spirit – As embodied in a single personality and as an impersonal movement 208
- When it is an intensive work, then the individual is called up 208
- When the truth is to be spread wide the larger anonymous movements have sway 208
These movements are two limbs of a global evolutionary process 208
- In the earliest stages the light and power of consciousness – Among a few only 208
- Next a stage came when we have a large group, a whole class or section of society 208
- The light and culture filters down further and embraces larger masses of people 208
The secret sense and justification of the Proletarian Revolution of today 209
That is how in modern times all movements are practically world-wide 209
- The world has become one, homogeneous 210
- The benefit of the descending Light is now open equally and freely to each 210
There has not only been a quantitative but also a qualitative development 210
- Culture movements have grown in the significance of the consciousness involved 210
Not only the establishment of the global consciousness – The supreme consciousness 210
- The process here too is one of graduation 210
First the realm of thoughts and ideas, of idealism, imagination and aspiration 210
We find at the source the Græco-Roman culture 211
- The light that was Greece was at its zenith a power of the higher mind and intelligence 211
- The practical and robust Roman – His was applied intelligence 211
- In the post-Roman age – The superficial and more formal faculties of the brain 211
- The Renaissance raised the mind of Europe – The creative intelligence 211
- It gave place to an age of consolidation, organisation, stabilisation, the classical age 211
- The following century – A further decline of the Intuition and higher imagination 211
- The nineteenth century brought in Romanticism – Man opened his heart 211
- Next, the age of Naturalism, Realism, Pragmatism, Scientism – The economic man 212
- From the heart and emotions we drop down into the sphere of the body – Today 212
That is how the spirit of evolution has advanced in the European world 213
We have left out the great event of Christ and Christianity in European civilisation 213
- Christ brought an otherworldly mode – A living and dynamic contact with the soul 213
- Also, the Christ revelation came as a large, almost a mass movement 213
- This episode links up with the inner story of mankind, its spiritual history 213
Not only an outgoing and widening movement – Also a heightening, an ascent 213
- The existence of a line of culture which is known in India as Yoga 213
This knowledge remained at the outset confined to a few, a company of adepts 214
The systematisation and propagation was attempted in the Hebrew Old Testament 214
The Christ with his New Testament – The unalloyed urge of the soul 214
The Church sought to build up society on that basis – The City of God 214
The remodelling of the whole human society in spiritual terms – Mohammed 214
- Turning to India we find a fuller and completer picture of the whole movement 215
Epochs dealing each with one domain in the hierarchy of man's consciousness 215
The epochs – Vedic, Upanishadic, Darshanas, Shankara, Puranic, Bhagavata, Tantric 215
- In the Vedic epoch, the force of consciousness was Revelation 215
- Intuition is Upanishadic knowledge – A pure and direct Ideation 215
- Next, rational understanding and discursive argumentation – The Age of the Darshanas 215
- Shankaracharya – A mental, even an intellectual body to the spiritual light 215
- In the Puranic Age the vital being was touched by the light of the spirit 215
- The whole emotional being was taken up – The age of the Bhagavatas 215
- Finally remains the physical, the most material – The task of the Tantras 215
- The Indian consciousness – An intensive and inner, a spiritual process 216
In Europe – The unfoldment and metamorphosis of the forms and expressions 216
To sum up then – Man progresses through cycles of crest movements 216
- An ever-widening circle of the descent of Light, the growth of consciousness 216
In the Indian terms of the Four Orders – Brahminic, Kshatriya, Vaishya, Sudra culture 216
From the standpoint of intensiveness – Touching mind, heart, lower vital, feet 217
Man is becoming integrally conscious in and of all parts of his being 218
- The Light as it descends gets diminished, modified, even deformed 218
The work of purification certainly goes on – The Dark Night of the soul 218
A Chapter of Human Evolution 219
The appearance of the Greeks on the stage of human civilisation is a mystery to historians 219
- Whatever has gone before the Hellenic culture is ancient 219
- Human evolution took a decisive turn with the advent of the Hellenic culture 219
What the Greeks brought in was the Mind, the luminous Reason, the logical faculty 219
- Reason mediating between Intuition and Instinct, and the perception given by the senses 219
- Reason, the intermediary faculty, is the formative power of the Mind 220
There was indeed a hiatus in the human consciousness of the earlier period 221
- The Vedic culture of India – A gap between an almost occult world and this world 221
- The Mind of Reason brought in the age of philosophy, of pure and abstract ideas 221
- In India we meet a characteristic movement 221
The Vedas represented the Mythic Age – Vision and Revelation 221
The Upanishadic Age followed next – The higher reaches of the Mind 221
The Rational Mind proper – The Mahabharata, the Brahmanas, Buddha 221
- Buddha being almost a contemporary of Socrates and also of Confucius 221
- The Greek Mind is the bridge between the intuitive and the sensuous, the physical 222
- In India – An unbroken continuity in the cyclic change of the human consciousness 223
That is how India still lives – To embody some supreme truth and reality of the future 223
The Eternal East and West 224
I 224
The East and the West – The relation between them is somewhat in dispute 224
- According to one view the two are quite separate and irreconcilable entities 224
- The other view is that they are complementary or supplementary to each other 224
- There is in the East an atmosphere that is predominantly spiritual 224
- In the West it is the mental and material culture that predominates 224
Recognising the difference, the question is what should be our next move 225
- It is asserted that the so-called spiritual outlook of the East is only a mediaeval outlook 225
This view finds its justification if this trenchant division is made 225
And yet mankind has always sought for an integral fulfilment 226
- There was always this double aspiration in man, one of ascent and the other of descent 226
- This double aspiration – In the East and the West, each concentrating on one line 226
- But this division or incompatibility need not be there and must not be there 226
- A new conception of the Spirit and a new conception of Matter are gaining ground 226
The East seeks today more and more for a hold upon the physical realities 226
The West – Physical Scientists compelled to bend towards metaphysics 226
The spiritual is not mere silence and status, it is expression and movement also 227
Matter is energy that conceals within it life and consciousness 227
- The West is looking to the East for this revelation towards which it is groping 227
The status must be made supremely dynamic – What the West brings to the East 227
The East starts from the summit and surveys reality from above downwards 227
The West starts from below and works upward 227
The whole history of creation – The interaction of this double movement 228
II 228
Another interesting contrast between the East and the West 228
- We usually attach the word "freedom" or "liberty" to Western culture 228
It is bondage, submission of individuality, when we think of Eastern culture 228
The West measures human progress by the amount of rights gained 229
The East asks the individual never to protest and assert his individuality – Duties 229
But the individual, if he chooses freedom as his ideal, can become the spiritual "outlaw" 229
- The contrast points to a synthesis – A solidarity among the individuals 229
The progress of one means the possibility of progress for others in the same direction 229
Unless the collectivity rises to a certain level the individual too cannot go very far from it 229
The normal individual in its normal development cannot go very far 230
The ego-bound normal individuality must transcend itself – What the East teaches 230
This transcendence – Not an abolition of all individuality, but a transformation 230
A universalised individual, who has attained a supreme unitary consciousness and being 231
- Towards that consummation East and West, are moving carrying each its own truth 231
A Global Humanity 232
A global view of humanity is becoming more and more insistent – Humanity is one 232
- There is an aim, a goal to which humanity moves in accordance with a cosmic law 232
The principle of progress is the psychological name for evolution 232
There is in man and in the world a progressive unity and harmony in manifestation 232
The idea of progress was very much in vogue at one time – There has been a setback 233
Yet an imperious necessity of the idea exists – A modern form in the Marxian gospel 234
The fraternity and unity of mankind has been a constant dream and aspiration 234
- If we review the history of mankind – The unfoldment of a collective fulfilment 234
Man's advance has been marked out in a few very definite stages 234
- Man, individually and collectively, has passed and is passing through these steps 235
- The last one is his goal at the present stage – Man must be a god 235
This progress means also the formation of larger and larger aggregates 235
- The highest, the largest aggregate attained is that of the nation 235
- The nation is on the move again towards a yet more enlarged aggregate 235
- Man's attempt to surpass himself can be successful only through a willed discipline 236
A supranational unity will be possible as a parallel eventuality to the same process 236
Man will take his seat in the status of his soul where he is one with all beings 237
- As a consequence the nature too in each will undergo a divine transmutation 237
- Humanity as a race will then present the figure of a homogeneous unit 237
- An overall harmony and integration containing a rich variety of gradations 237
The Immortal Nation 238
The theory of an inescapable cycle of birth, growth, maturity, decline and disintegration 238
- At least two human groups or peoples – India and China have not vanished 238
Periods of decline and almost total disintegration in India – She survived and revived 239
- The spirit and even the fundamental outline of the form remained constant 239
- What is the cause of this strange longevity or stability that India or China enjoys? 239
Another curious phenomenon may throw some light – The life-span of peoples 239
- It might seem that the older the nation the longer it lived 239
- The Asiatic peoples or nations endured generally longer than their European brethren 240
The reason for a long life must necessarily be in the mode of life itself 240
- The life lived by later nations had a very dominant politico-economic bias 240
- In all the Eastern countries, the main stream of life was cultural and ideative 240
The stronger the inner life a nation builds up and organises, the longer it lives 241
- The older people were in living contact with principles of existence more fundamental 241
- India – Whatever the outer vicissitudes, she maintained her spiritual life and realisation 241
- A nation has a soul apart from its political, economic and cultural life 242
It is this immortal reality in the individual man that reincarnates in life after life 242
- Only those individuals that live consciously a soul-life maintain a true individuality 242
- Something of the same kind is likely to happen in the case of collective groups too 242
- One may note three or four crises, practically rebirths, in India's life history 243
The first shock or blow was from the Greeks and then the Huns and Scythians 243
The next major shaking came with the Islamic inundation 243
The last and perhaps the most dangerous assault came from the Europeans 243
- It may be argued that all nations and peoples are a mixture of various races 244
The whole conscious personality of Europe seems to have been cut across by hiatuses 244
Europe has not been able to develop a wholly unified or one-pointed spiritual personality 244
India possesses a more unified soul than Europe 244
Even Asia possesses a more unified and integrated soul-personality than Europe 244
- A nation or people then possesses or is composed of several souls or several layers 245
When one lives in any of the inferior souls, one has precarious and disintegrated life 245
When one is conscious of one's inmost self – Some kind of immortality 245
- A nation, however, that has made a strong formation in the mental or in the vital world 245
The formation remains in the terrestrial atmosphere – Ancient Greece, Augustan Rome 245
- The revival or renaissance of a nation is quite possible 246
The normal curve of life, birth and growth and death, is not the ineluctable destiny 246
Evolution of the Spiritual Consciousness 247
Even the Vedic Rishis used to refer to the ancients, more ancient than they themselves 247
- The idea is that the fundamental spiritual realisation remains the same 247
Pathways have been well marked out – No serious alterations and deviations. Is it so? 247
- Human civilisation is seen as moving through progressive stages 248
On each plane the normal life is planned according to the law of that plane 248
One can have the religious or spiritual experience on each of these planes 248
There is a physical, a vital, a mental Divine – Beyond the mind there are other modes 248
- As long as man was chiefly preoccupied with his physico-vital – A movement of escape 248
- When the human being has been mentalised – A higher status is inevitable 249
- We need at present a complete and precise science of the Divine Consciousness 249
The highest description of the Divine is perhaps the formula Sat-chit-ananda 249
- But even so, it is a very general and, after all, an inadequate description 249
- Sri Aurobindo's charting of that vast unknown is the required science 249
- One can see the graded stages of the evolution of the spiritual consciousness 250
Now the time is come for the spiritual consciousness to arrive at the Supermind 250
A progressive revelation of states of spiritual consciousness – The process of evolution 250
The call of the present age – A complete incarnation of the spiritual consciousness 250
Matter Aspires 251
Matter holds and expresses material energy – The highest form is electric energy 251
About mental energy and thought movements – Can they be made a function of Matter? 251
- It is asked now if the computing machine is capable of poetic creation 251
The question will be with regard to the quality and standard of the poetic creation 251
- All genuine creation is a movement of freedom, of incalculable spontaneity 252
- Poetry, art, all creative act is an intrusion of a truth, a reality from another plane 252
But the attempt of the machine indicates an involved pressure in Matter 252
All this reveals a will or aspiration in Matter to embody and express the Spirit 252
An Evolutionary Problem 254
What is there at the outset in the evolutionary urge is a life-force 254
- A secret sense of the life-force to what is useful and needful guides the living organism 254
Evolution is purposive – The purpose is latent and is gradually unrolled and worked out 255
- The whole articulation of the external organism is within the cell 255
A rhythm and vibration of life energy is the origin of the material form 255
Behind the blind instinctive urge of life, there is a supernal self-conscious energy 255
Values Higher and Lower 257
1 257
The problem – Which is more important, Spirit or Matter, Body or Soul? 257
- In fact, Spirit and Matter are one. Matter is Spirit involved and Spirit is Matter evolved 257
Without Spirit, Matter does not exist. Without Matter, Spirit does not manifest 257
It is the pressure of the Inner Being that brings about the organisation of the outer life 257
- At the summit of being the two are identical, absolutely one and the same 257
- In Inconscience everything is made to stand and depend on the grossest reality 257
- The taste for the higher life belongs to a more developed consciousness 258
To the spiritual seeker the higher values are the first things that come first 259
To the ordinary man lower values come first and claim topmost priority 259
2 259
It is again a point of view to say that things are fundamentally values only 259
- Values and things are aspects, polarisations of one single reality 259
Value refers to the particular poise or status, the mode of being or function of a thing 259
- The object and its function, the thing-in-itself and its attribute are not to be separated 259
3 260
That man is not the term of evolution – The views regarding human destiny held today 260
- We see the movement accepted and advanced more in the West than in the East 260
The East has been habituated to a static view of things 260
In India those who advocate this new view are considered Europeanised 260
- The hoary spiritual tradition of India has still something to teach us moderns 261
For, although, the ideal is generally admitted in many places, the way to it is not clear 261
As a matter of fact, the goal itself is none too clear and definite 261
It is India's great achievement and speciality that she has found the way – It is Yoga 261
- Yoga is the science and art of discovering the highest reality and of living there 261
Sri Aurobindo's stand – The goal or end is clear, and with it the way too 262
- What Sri Aurobindo envisages is the transformation of Matter and material life 262
- The spirit dynamic is involved in Matter and as Matter 262
- The supreme creative power of the Spirit, Sri Aurobindo calls the Supermind 262
- The very nature of Matter makes its transformation absolutely inevitable 262
THE QUEST AND THE GOAL 265
Man and the Gods 267
1 267
The Earth symbolises and epitomises material Nature 267
- Light, Truth, Love and Life are the first and primal godheads with whom creation starts 267
- A line of independent and separate development brought forth exactly their contraries 267
- The Supreme himself came down and entered into the dead particles of earth's dust 267
The Earth received the Grace – The psychic being that is to grow and evolve 267
Thus earth became the representative of the material universe 268
Man takes up within himself the earthly life and leads it to the high fulfilment intended 268
2 268
The purpose of man's existence upon earth is the growth of his consciousness 268
- The individual soul evolves through a series of lives upon this earth 268
- Three courses are open to the perfected and completely developed soul 269
First, it may remain self-gathered and self-sufficient, dwelling in its own domain 269
Second – To take a share in the fulfilment of the Divine Purpose in the world 269
Third – The force of a higher destiny operates. A divinity descends into a human soul 269
The gods are especial powers and executive agents of the one Divine 269
Man has an experience which even the gods, strange to say, covet 270
- Man possesses characters that mark him as an entity sui generis 271
First the quality of endurance and patience, of humility and quietness 271
A quality of sympathy, compassion, comprehension, the psychic feeling 271
- The gods are, after all, egoistic. In their own domains, they are separate 271
- Man's egoism is thwarted at every step, from outside and from inside 271
Human mind has something to give which the overmind of the gods does not possess 273
- The intimate application of the divine inspiration to physical life and external conduct 273
3 273
The gods have no body, but they have a form which is supple and changeful 273
- The human frame is more fixed and rigid, being made of the material substance 273
- Yet the human body has considerable plastic capacities – As a fortress. As a weapon 273
The human body can suffer a sea-change not within the reach of the body of an immortal 273
4 274
Divine Love is something aloof, apart, beyond – This is the love proper to Maheshwari 274
- But there is another love more intimate, close, human, the love of Mahalakshmi 274
It has what we call the psychic quality that characterises the human feeling 274
- The gods do not possess a soul, a psychic core – The privilege of the terrestrial creature 275
The exquisiteness of this inner Heart is mostly derived from the journey – A sacrifice 276
- The Immanent Divine has to be realised as much as the Transcendent Divine 276
The gods too at times are not satisfied with their closed divine status 276
- The gods seek contact and unification for a change and transformation in themselves 276
Men ask the gods for wealth and plenty – The gods too ask from men the sacrifice 276
God's Labour 277
1 277
Sri Aurobindo's Yoga begins where other yogas end 277
- Other yogas end by the attainment of the transcendent Reality – The upward ascent 277
Sri Aurobindo's Yoga works for the descent of the Spirit 277
- The general idea of a descent of the Divine is not new 277
But Avatara was an intervention of God as God – Not raising the level of consciousness 277
- The Divine acts in three different ways in his three well-known aspects 278
As the transcendent Reality he is above and beyond creation, he is the Unmanifest 278
Next, the Divine is the manifestation, the cosmic or the universal 278
Finally, he has an individual aspect – A Person with whom relations of love and service 278
- The Divine incarnate as a human being is a manifestation of the Individual Divine 278
- The humanised personality of the Divine – Sri Aurobindo's solution of the world enigma 278
God, the individual Divine, does become man, one of them and one with them 278
- A double purpose – To show by example and to help concretely 278
- This help again is a twofold function 278
- The first is to make available the high realisations 278
- The divine attributes are made constituent elements of the earthly atmosphere 278
- Further, the help and succour come in another way more intimate 278
A great mystery of existence is the presence of Evil 279
- The aim of all spiritual seekers has been to rise out of it somehow – The path of ascent 279
- Sri Aurobindo says Evil can be and has to be conquered upon this earth and in this body 280
Hence God has to come down, show that this earth and this body can be transformed 280
- What has to be eliminated in Matter is called by Sri Aurobindo "Inconscience" 280
- The Divine descends into Matter precisely to work out that transformation 280
The root of the Cosmic Evil is in Matter – One must dig into Matter 281
- Another mystery – Inconscience is simply consciousness asleep 281
It is itself the best weapon to bring about its own transformation 281
2 282
The Divine comes here below – The power of the consciousness works out the change 282
- The working of Grace has been beautifully envisaged in esoteric Christianity 282
This way too has indeed been the way of escape – No reformation of earthly life 283
- Sri Aurobindo aims at a power of consciousness that is integral 283
It is the supreme creative Power – It is the secret power in created things 283
The Divine incarnates this double aspect of the utter truth and reality 283
- There are, what may be called, intermediary incarnations, some representing powers 283
- But the integral Divine is an event of the future, perhaps of the immediate future 283
The integral Divine not merely suffers (as in the Christian tradition) a body material 284
- His work in and upon the material world and life – To divinise the body itself 284
- The heritage of an inconscient existence, the Divine takes into his incarnated body 285
- The Avatar carries on his shoulders the entire burden of earthly inconscience 285
- The aim – To make the material, vital and mental existence what they really are 286
- Man, when he becomes divine, realises what he is truly and integrally himself 286
Bypaths of Soul's Journey 287
Are the souls finite or infinite in number? 287
- The problem – The soul is considered almost something like the physical body 287
In fact, the soul individuality is characterised by comprehensiveness 287
- The creation and development of souls is a twofold process of ascent and descent 288
The process of growth from below, of manifestation or expression from above 288
- With evolution there arise sparks – They attain individuality and finally a personality 288
- The line of descent – Certain types or fundamental formations are put forward 288
- Gods and presiding deities too have emanations – Entering into human embodiments 288
- Many human embodiments may have so to say one common ancestor in the typal being 289
Souls meet, touch, interchange, interpenetrate, even coalesce 289
- We say commonly souls are immortal. In an occult sense souls are or may be mortal too 290
- One soul may unite with another and both form one single entity and embodiment 290
- Even on the higher reaches a merger is possible – A god descends. An Asura may also 291
- The birth of a soul does not happen at a given point of time 291
Neither can it be said that all souls originally were equal in all respects 291
The development too follows a chequered line 291
- There can be a fusion of souls, the descent and integration of a being or soul 291
- In this sense then there can be a birth of souls too – A spiritual birth 291
- There may also be subsidiary formations that are its emanations or are added to the soul 292
The soul can put out derivative or ancillary emanations 292
Similarly one can take into oneself such parts and elements from others 292
The other question whether men and women always follow different lines of growth 293
- Although the soul is sexless, on the whole there are two lines, masculine and feminine 293
The soul difference is not in the sex – A particular kind of work to be done 293
- Man represents the conceptual dynamism – Woman represents the executive dynamism 293
- Here too there may be a partial change – A part of a man. A part of a woman 293
The soul in its inner consciousness knows all its evolutionary formations 294
- The physical memory can partake of this reminiscence if it is organised around the soul 294
The Immortal Person 295
The whole purpose of man's life upon earth – To make an individuality of himself 295
- An ordinary man is a most disorganised entity and possesses no individual character 295
- Ego is the original instrument which Nature fashioned to carry out this object of hers 295
Ego assists the first formation but delays and obstructs the true and final formation 296
- The ego is of a piece with the cosmic movement, only bounded by a peripheral line 296
- The soul is an individual formation of the divine reality: 296
The whole purpose of earthly evolution is the evolution of this soul-formation 296
This growth is first in itself and of itself. Then, the growth is that of its instrumentation 296
- A growth of the mental being, the vital being and also of the physical being – Culture 297
- Modes of culture can be truly individualised when they subserve the culture of the soul 297
- A spiritual path that turns the soul away from its instruments is not our path 297
Mind is the first member of the lower sphere that is taken up and dealt with by the soul 297
- The mental individual persists the longest after the dissolution of the body 297
The vital being is next in the rung to be taken up, organised and individualised 297
- The individualisation of the vital being would mean an immortal formulation 297
Finally, it is the turn of the body to become individualised, personalised 298
- The first stage is that of a subtle body individualised – A radiant form 298
- The second stage is the reorganisation and individualisation of the material sheath itself 298
- The very cells of the body are impregnated with the radiant substance 298
- The individual body, physically too, shares in and attains the immortality of the soul 298
- In the process of making the body immortal, death may be a needed operation 299
- Perhaps this supreme and dangerous gesture only the Master can make – Has made 299
In Quest of Reality 300
The age of Positivism – Let us enquire a little into the nature of this 300
- Positivists are those who swear by facts attested in the end by sense-experience 300
To a positivist problems of the Good, of the Beautiful, of God are meaningless 300
There are two ways of facing the problem 300
First, the Kantian way – There are two realms incommensurable. A dichotomy 300
The second is the positivist's way – Whether there are facts which point to the other side 301
- However, the scientist finds his laws often and perhaps usually in a flash of illumination 301
- The supreme role of an intuitive faculty in scientific enquiry – Poets and artists 301
- Unorthodox faculties of knowledge, super-natural powers – Science tries to explain 302
- First, a form of knowledge that is not strictly positivist has to be accepted 302
- Next, one is being slowly and inevitably led into a world which is hardly positivistic 302
The laws that hold good fail totally in the case of the infinite magnitudes, big or small 302
- The ancient distinction between matter and energy is no longer valid 303
- The energy in its essential and significant form is light 303
Is there nothing even remotely conscious or purposive in this field? 304
- The biological domain is a freak in the midst of a material universe 304
- The laws of life are not the laws of matter, very often one contravenes the other 304
- Again the very characteristic of life is infinite variety – What then is this energy? 305
- Is matter really so very different and distinct from life? – Life secreted within matter 305
Beyond matter there lies life and beyond life, consciousness, inherent in life 306
- In the domain of life-play teleology is a fact – The pattern of a consciousness 306
- Matter too must contain involved in it a form of consciousness 306
- An artistic layout in the composition and movement of material things – An Idea-Force 307
- Creation as a movement or expression of consciousness 308
We have arrived at a point where the substratum in Nature is consciousness-energy 308
Only one bold step is needed and Science will be transformed 309
Physics or philosophy 310
What is the world that we see really like? Is it mental, is it material? 310
- We see today even scientists forced to tackle the problem, give an answer to it 310
- Physical Science in the nineteenth century did presuppose a philosophy of its own 310
First, that this universe is made up of particles that push and pull each other 310
Secondly, that the laws governing the relations among the particles are simple mechanics 311
- The scientific view of things thus affirmed certain axiomatic constants of Nature 311
The whole business of experimental science was just to find the absolutes of Nature 311
- Facts and laws governing facts that do not depend upon anything but themselves 311
- Making observation and experiment absolutely impersonal and thoroughly objective 311
- The old-world spirit has had its revenge 311
The constants or absolutes of Modern Science were gradually found to be rather shaky 311
- The principle of conservation of matter – In the domain of the infinitesimals 311
- The law of conservation of energy – Particles that move with the speed of light 311
In the sub-atomic world, we find not the exact measures of things 311
- Probability has become the central theme of modern physical calculation 311
The principle of indeterminacy carries two revolutionary implications 312
- First, it is not possible to determine the movement of the ultimate particles of matter 312
- In this field of infinitesimals what we know is the total behaviour of an assemblage 312
- Second, the restoration of the "subject" to its place it had in the Mediaeval Ages 313
- Now it is observed that the fact of observation affects and changes the observed fact 313
- May not the laws of Nature be nothing else but a mental construct of the Scientist 313
This is a position which a scientist finds it difficult to maintain 314
Einstein's was, perhaps, the most revolutionary solution ever proposed 314
- Time is another co-ordinate or dimension necessary for all observation 314
- The absolute dependence of time and space upon each other 314
- It was no longer an objective law that governed the behaviour of things 314
- The generalised law of relativity did away also with the concepts of force and causality 315
Wave Mechanics leads us into no less an abstract and theoretical domain 316
- A wave is not a wave but just the probability of a wave – A calculus of probabilities 316
- So it is frankly admitted that what Science gives is not a faithful description of actuality 316
- Scientific laws are mental rules imposed upon Nature 316
- A modified form of mentalism – The world is objective. It is consciousness in vibration 317
A parallel line – The actual world conforms to a substratum of reality 318
- The relation of causality is between the substratum reality and the pattern that it bodies 318
Extra-sensory knowledge is not only possible, but is the right and correct knowledge 318
- Physical science has been forced to grope towards some kind of mystic perception 319
The difficulty that modern Science encounters of positing a real objective world 319
- The difficulty arises because of the attitude of a purely reasoning being 319
- The vitalist's view is also likewise vitiated by a similar bias 319
The integral reality is to be seized by the supreme spiritual consciousness 320
The Observer and the Observed 321
Science means objectivity – The isolation of the observer from the observed 321
- In the old world – No sufficient distinction between the observer and the observed 321
Personal feelings, ideas, judgments entered into the presentation of facts 321
- Science was born the day when the observer cut himself aloof from the observed 322
The first step – He must let the observed record itself, that is, be its own observer 322
The second step – The possibility of observations of all persons converging 322
- It was known how the view of the observer changed with his change of position 323
The method proposed was experiment, testing the observation under given conditions 323
- But the operation of observation proved to be not a simple process 323
Each observer has his own unit of space and time measure 323
In the field of the infinite and the infinitesimal, accurate observation cannot be made 324
- So, scientific calculation gives us only the average result 324
The mind comes into the field with certain presuppositions – A cause of interference 324
We discover that it is not easy to extricate the observed from the observer 325
- The scientific observer is only the mental purusha – Objectivisation is not possible 325
- To rule out all local view-points is possible only to the cosmic Purusha 325
2 325
Is it then to say that science has now been converted into philosophy? 325
- The objective reality of the scientific field stands, it is asserted 326
- There are four positions possible with regard to the world and reality 326
The first two are extreme positions 326
- One holding the subject as the sole or absolute reality – Monistic spirituality 326
- The other considering the object as the true reality – Materialism 326
In between lie the other two intermediate positions 326
- The first – The object considered as an expression or embodiment of the subject 326
- Both the subject and the object are made of the same stuff of consciousness 326
- The second – The subject as imbedded into the object, part of the object 326
- The first – The world is a movement in and of the consciousness of a universal subject 327
- The other – The world exists in its own reality, outside all apprehending subject 327
The scientific outlook started with the extreme objective standpoint 327
- We seem to have entered into the second of the intermediate positions 327
- Science has yet to decide the implications of that position 327
The most revolutionary step would be the discovery of the eternal observer seated within 328
An Age of Revolution 329
Physical Science – The unity and uniformity of Nature is now being called in question 329
- The search for a universal principle of Nature 329
For a time we had found in Electric Energy the one sovereign principle in Nature 329
- The ultimate units reacting uniformly to the same forces that act upon them 329
It is now found that movement is something incalculable – The particle that is shot out 330
- We have come to posit a principle of uncertainty, as a very fundamental law of Nature 330
We have been led almost to the threshold of a will, of a life principle, of a consciousness 330
- The root-reality is consciousness and all that exist are vibrations of that consciousness 331
This is the truth which modem science would like to admit but dare not 331
The Changed Scientific Outlook 332
A considerable body of scientists frankly hold the "idealist" view 332
- The change has been basic and fundamental 332
- The definitions and postulates with which we once started have been called in question 332
"Matter is that which has extension." – Well, an electric charge 332
"two material particles cannot occupy the same place" – The proton and neutron 332
The notion of the indestructibility of Matter – The electron transmuted into a photon 332
The idea of the constancy of mass is considered today to be a superstition 332
- Does this mean that Science after all is veering to the Idealist position? – Not quite so 333
Science by itself cannot arrive at the spiritual 334
Science admits of the possibility of more things there being in heaven and earth 334
Certain of its conclusions seem to echo the spiritual outlook 334
- Matter, Science says today, is energy 334
- One step farther – Matter is a mode of the energy of consciousness 334
Knowledge by Identity 336
Sri Aurobindo says, true knowledge comes always by identity 336
Prof. Das says, when there is complete identity there is no knowledge 336
- The Sankhya position – The Purusha or witness always separate from Prakriti 336
- Sri Aurobindo holds in this respect the Vedantic position 336
- The Upanishad says, one who knows Brahman becomes Brahman 337
There is no contradiction between knowing and becoming 337
Consciousness has a twofold power – Of apprehension and of comprehension 337
- The consciousness as the apprehending Purusha does not exclude identification 337
Purusha and Prakriti are not exclusive – Dual aspects of the same consciousness 337
- Consciousness involved and lost to itself and in itself is Prakriti 337
- Consciousness evolved and looking out at itself is Purusha 337
- Prof. Das brings in on his side the copula disjoining the subject and the predicate 338
Language being conceived as the very image of thought – That it is and it is not so 338
The original pattern of knowledge – A single homogeneous movement of apperception 338
There is no sanctity or absoluteness in the logical disposition of thought structure 338
- The Vedantic fusion of the knower, the knowledge and the known in identity remains 338
The Place of Reason 339
Another point troubles Prof. Das – The exact nature and function of Reason 339
- Sri Aurobindo – The inherent incapacity of Reason for the discovery of the Absolute 339
- Prof. Das's failure to perceive any distinction between types or gradations of "thinking" 339
He thinks that all must think in the same way and through the same function 339
- In Sri Aurobindo, Reason and Intuition possess a dual relation 340
One negates the other in the sphere of ignorance but in knowledge one affirms the other 340
- Reason can be purified – Then it becomes what it really is and should be 340
The Revealer and the Revelation 341
How the horizontal view limits and maims one's spiritual perception 341
- A somewhat trenchant distinction between the Revelation and the Revealer 341
"The God of religion is rather the revelation than the revealer.” 341
- God, the supreme Reality, is apprehended in and through other channels than mind 341
But a brain mind passive and transparent can be a faithful mirror 341
- One knows the Revealer for one becomes it – Knowledge by identity 342
The Revealer reveals himself and not merely in or as his phenomenal formulations 342
Darshana and Philosophy 343
There is a mental approach to spiritual truths and there is a direct and immediate contact 343
- The mind cannot apprehend or represent the truth as it is 343
The mind can be made transparent – It too can translate faithfully the reality beyond 343
- European thought takes its stand within the Mind to reach out to truths and realities 343
- The Indian standpoint – To contact the truth by a direct realisation and then to express it 343
Mind becomes a channel, a vehicle and not a veil 343
- Philosophy here is fundamentally a recording of one's vision – This is Darshana 343
- European philosophy – The reason or the mental light is the starting-point 344
As a matter of fact this philosophy is only a rationalisation of an inner prejudgment 344
We shall take the case of one such philosopher and try to illustrate our point – Whitehead 345
- The living intuition that is behind his entire philosophy is that of an Immanent God 345
- The other original perception – A synthetic view in which contraries find their harmony 345
There is another concept in Whitehead, after a parallel concept in Sri Aurobindo 345
- Two principles that guide the world process – Of limitation and of ingress 345
- Sri Aurobindo – The principle of concentration. The principle of descent 345
One concept in Whitehead rather strange to us – God is not the creator. The Redeemer 346
- According to Sri Aurobindo, God creates – A farther process of God's self-unfoldment 346
- In Europe at one time philosophy was considered only as a handmaid of Religion 346
Today in Europe, Philosophy has become the handmaid of Science 346
- Reason is mediatory – Ancillary either to Revelation or to sense-perception 346
The Sanctity of the Individual 348
The individual personality exists, Existentialists say, and its nature is freedom 348
- This freedom may lead man to the perception and realisation of God 348
- According to others, the same may lead to Nothingness 348
The second alternative – The individual existing only in relation to individuals 348
- Jean-Paul Sartre – The individual as the image formed in other individuals 348
- Here we have an exclusively level or horizontal view of the human personality 348
To be a person, it is said, one must be apart from the crowd 349
- It is only in and through the Divine that one enters into true relation with others 349
- The truth of the personality is not to be found in its horizontal, but vertical dimension 350
- Real transcendence is not so much in coming out as in going up and beyond 350
Sartrian Freedom 351
Sartre – The poise of the ego, the consciousness of the psycho-vital Purusha 351
- According to Sartre, the reality is an assemblage of discrete units of energy 351
So freedom acts in a disconnected fashion and it is absolute and unconditional 351
Man's being then consists of a conglomeration of such freedoms 351
- This conception of freedom – The abolition of all ties and obligations and relations 352
Sartre cannot ignore the fact that the free being is not an isolated phenomenon 352
The mutual dependence of egos is a constant theme in the novels and plays of Sartre 352
- Society means a curtailment of this absolute liberty – This is not resolved in Sartre 352
The way out lies in transcendence, in a vertical uplifting of the consciousness 352
A Modernist Mentality 353
André Gide – “The world can only be saved, if it can be, by the rebels” 353
- It is true that the rebel is a necessary agent in the economy of human evolution 353
The best way to destroy is to construct – Man in his work of reformation or regeneration 353
Further Monsieur Gide says, God is nowhere, he has to be created 354
- God has to be made patent in the physical world also, in the everyday human affairs 354
If one begins with oneself one will be best equipped to deal with the others and the world 354
A deeper sense of truth – You have no right to break unless you have the power to make 354
- Then only you will have secured full authority – If you have not, then you must obey 354
It is only when things are done in the ideal way that the ideal can be established fully 354
Evolution or Special Creation 356
Whether evolution is truly the fact behind the origin of species or is it special creation 356
- The most serious lacuna in the concept of evolution is the missing link 356
So the theory of mutation, sudden change, has been advanced – A special creation 356
- Evolution is a movement upward – There happens a descent of consciousness 357
The gap or missing link means the irruption of a new mode of consciousness 357
From below the scene presents itself as Evolution – From above, a series of intervention 357
Man to be Surpassed 358
Nietzsche – "Man is a thing that shall be surpassed" 358
Erich Kahler posits that man's humanity is to be preserved and fostered 358
- The Greek ideal brought in the ideal of the rational man 358
- The Greek ideal was for the culture and growth of the individuality in man 358
- The integral man is not the rationalistic man and he is not predominantly individualistic 358
- Man's true humanity, says Kahler, consists precisely in his capacity to surpass himself 358
The surpassing enjoyed by him Kahler – Going beyond one's natural or normal self 358
- Surpassing should not mean going beyond, up and away – Christianity 358
It means coming out of one's self and finding one's kinship and unity with others 359
- Individualism meant clash of personalities – A good part of the story of the old-world 359
- Modern collectivism tends towards a uniform levelling down of individual eccentricity 359
- Human humanism – A humanity of developed individuals living in broad commonalty 359
- The limitation of such a human ideal is for us evident 360
We demand a total surpassing of man – We are for utter transcendence 360
- A new world has to be recreated, a new humanity reshaped 360
Lone to the Lone 361
The quintessence of spirituality is said to consist in the flight of the lone to the lone 361
- The world, in this view, is an excrescence, an epiphenomenon 361
- Man must isolate himself from his phenomenal being, certainly 361
But also he must first find or become his real self before he can reach God 361
It is only a freely and truly formed individual being that can give itself to the Divine 361
- When one is a member of the crowd, he has no personality or individuality 362
When one possesses oneself integrally, one can move up and arrive at a positive status 362
For when the divine selfhood is attained, one is no longer sole or solitary 362
- We find the same self in men and things and we have no more revulsion for them 363
The Urge for Progression 364
In the process of the expression and embodiment of the innermost truth 364
The first condition is sincerity – A constant reference to the demand of that truth 364
The second condition is progression – The law of the Truth that it is expressing itself 364
- The past marks the stages of progress, but must not mean stagnation 364
- You must not linger at wayside illuminations however beautiful or even useful 364
- The soul continues to be an ever new expression or instrumentation of the Infinite 364
Being or Becoming and Having 366
The normal ideal is that man should become something and possess something 366
- Now, a soul can be and even express itself perfectly without formulating itself 366
- A soulful man, whatever he says, thinks, feels or acts, always embodies the Divine 366
Success and its Conditions 367
Success in any undertaking can come only by the application of a quiet force 367
- The first condition is self-confidence – A full faith that one is able to do the thing 367
A pessimist, a half-hearted doubter, a defeatist can never achieve anything in the world. 367
- There must be modesty – The consciousness of one's limitation 367
- Man can break through his limits and establish contact with the illimitable – Yoga 368
Even then – Tranquillity and self-confidence and a new degree of modesty and humility 368
The Base of Sincerity 369
The greatest secret of life – The contact with the centre of our being 369
- Once this centre has been aspected, one has always to come back to it 369
One must think, feel or do nothing that is contrary to the truth it is – Sincerity 369
The only way by which there can be realised in you the harmony demanded of you 369
- The perfect organisation of the individual life in and through the inherent harmony 369
Process of Purification 371
There are three well-marked stages in the process of the purification of nature 371
- A phase of divided consciousness and life – "The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak." 371
- The next stage is one of external control and of modification of behaviour 371
- Finally, one rises into the integral and unadulterated life of the Spirit 371
There are two types, which mean two stages, of control 372
- You can control your nature by the force of your will – This control is precarious 372
- The other control comes from the inmost being – It is automatic and it is occult 372
Even if the desires are there, the occasions for their satisfaction are withdrawn from you 372
The next poise comes when the wish-impulses also melt and disappear 372
- That is the beginning of the integral spiritualisation of the nature 372
Sweet Adversity 373
"So long we lived in anxiety, now at last we are going to live in hope." 373
- A danger is a danger so long as it is away and has not reached us 373
- Once the danger is right upon us, there are then two issues possible 373
One is that of absolute helplessness and hopelessness 373
Another – For the hero-soul to stand out and declare its freedom and immortality 373
- Adverse circumstances tend to throw us back upon our inner truth and reality 373
- It is the nature of that truth and reality to be free and happy and hopeful absolutely 373
- Our fear calls for the object feared and makes it a reality 374
- To live in hope is to react against the danger apprehended 374
- Hope is a bridge-head leading to victory and fulfilment 374
The Soul in Anguish 375
A range of mystics and philosophers have made much of the sentiment of "anguish" 375
- It is not the usual feeling of grief or sorrow, nor is it the "repentance" 375
Repentance or grief has a definite cause and therefore the possibility of an ending 375
The new Anguish spoken of is causeless and it is eternal, woven into the stuff of the being 375
- The famous parable of the Taittiriya Upanishad – Bhrigu in his quest for Brahman 376
First Matter, next Life, third Mind appeared to him as the Reality 376
Science is at the first step, the "vitalist" in the second, the idealist emerging into the third 376
The School of Anguish is on the borderland between the second and the third stage 376
- It is the emergence of the Purusha consciousness in its pure status 376
- The Purusha that has risen completely into the mental zone becomes wholly a witness 376
- The being that has still one foot in the vital – The mentalised vital Purusha suffers 376
- Sartre's outlook is shot through with experiences of this intermediary zone 376
The real meaning of the Anguish at a certain stage of the ascending consciousness 377
The solution – One should take another bold step, into the Vast Knowledge 378
The Nature of Perfection 379
True perfection is not an extreme growth – It is the harmony of an all-round growth 379
- This does not involve a forced diminution of any capacity 379
- Neither the utmost possible development of each and every capacity 379
How is the harmony to be brought about in the human system 379
- It is not possible if one tries to make them accommodate each other 379
- For true harmony one has to go behind and beyond to a secret status of consciousness 379
That bed-rock is one's inmost spiritual being 380
- With that as the nucleus and around it the whole system has to be organised 380
God Protects 381
The protection that man naturally needs and asks for is that of life and property 381
- Why on earth should God care for the life and property of any individual? 381
Life and death, loss and gain are dualities – The warp and woof of human existence 381
- Have life and property then no value in the eye of God? – They become valuable 381
Life and property become sacred when they are put at the disposal of the Divine 381
The conditions under which the Divine's protection can come 382
- Trust and reliance, tranquillity and fearlessness, unreserved self-giving 382
- Various gradations of the conditions fulfilled – The protection is variable accordingly 382
- Another aspect of the thing is to be taken into consideration 383
Asura – The dark passage through which the ignorant human soul cuts out its march 383
- Finally divine protection means the soul's welfare 383
Death and privation are necessary sometime for that growth and well-being 383
Vengeance is Mine 384
Enmity cannot be appeased by enmity, it can be appeased only by the want of enmity 384
- Forces are conquered by forces that belong to a higher level of being or consciousness 384
The only force that can succeed against a lower or undivine force is God's own force 384
The world is not changed because man is always taking to human means 385
- The right attitude for a sadhak – To aspire towards the help and guidance from above 385
If you have to take to the field of actual battle you must first receive God's commission 385
There's a Divinity 386
“There's a Divinity that shapes our ends” 386
- What man can do at his best, and even at his worst – Superficial, strait and narrow 386
Whether one is for or against the Divine, each contributes to the Cosmic Purpose 386
- At the end of all human efforts, the finishing touch always comes from the Divine Grace 387
Divine Intervention 388
Intervention – The element of the incalculable and the unforeseen in Nature 388
- Nature seems to be a rigid mechanism – Earlier scientists spoke or the Law of Nature 388
The idea of Karma is a parallel conception in the domain of human nature and character 388
- Today, this old-world view has to be discarded – The indeterminacy in physical Nature 388
We say that it is the intrusion in the field of the forces from a higher, a subtler level 388
- What is called miracle – The higher or subtler the plane, the greater will be the change 388
- These phenomena are the real causes of all progress, cosmic as well as individual 388
- Man is not bound to the present pattern or complex of his nature and character 389
What we call "opening" means the possibility of the descent of a higher force 389
- Great souls, Vibhutis, Avatars themselves are incarnations of such descents 389
The miracle of miracles – When the supreme consciousness of the Divine will descend 390
Yoga as Pragmatic Power 391
About the practical value of Yoga – Yoga is nothing but a downright practical affair 391
- The very definition of Yoga is that it is skill in works – Most effectively done 391
- Man knows to utilise only a fraction of the energy collected in a system – Waste 391
The Yogi views all energy as various forms and gradations of consciousness 391
- The higher the consciousness, the greater the effectivity, the pragmatic value 391
- The Supermind – The supreme peak of consciousness that is absolute energy 391
- The Spirit is power, not merely consciousness – It is consciousness-energy 392
And it is this consciousness-energy that is at the source of all cosmic activities 392
- A thought force, a vital force, a nervous or physical force are only lower values 392
Caesar versus the Divine 394
"Render unto Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's." – We do not subscribe 394
- We do not admit that the world and the spirit are irreconcilables and incommensurables 394
The spiritual man – The secret of mastering the forces that work out mundane things 394
- In the past it is worldly men alone who were dynamically active in the world 394
Spiritual men were men of inaction whose role was to withdraw from the world 394
- Spirituality in one of its forms at an early stage – A movement of withdrawal 394
- When the animal is still dominant, a rigorous asceticism and self-denial is needed 394
Mankind has advanced sufficiently on the vital level – A different course of development 394
- To try to control and utilise the physico-vital for higher diviner purposes in the world 394
- In reality, spirituality is ever dynamic 395
The spiritual soul is most active in the material field 395
- The spiritual guide is the dynamo of the power spiritual 395
- The disciple becomes a channel and instrument 395
In the future a yet greater source of spiritual power is destined to be tapped 395
- A radiant consciousness will have breathed a new life into our very bodily cells 396
Light, more Light 397
Modern knowledge has reduced the material universe to light particles 397
The virtues of the outer light only translate something of the nature of the inner light 397
- The light is in one's own consciousness, one has simply to become aware of it 397
A sincere good-will is all that is required 397
- There is in man a spark that directs to the right and warns against the wrong 398
Usually we do not pay attention to it – If we care to look at it, we will find it still there 398
- A touch of the truth, a step towards it will be always accompanied by a sense of relief 398
- On the contrary, with a wrong movement you are ill at ease 398
- To the aspiring soul, the truth unveils its body – The unveiling is gradual 399
The question of false light or of wrong perception need not trouble you too much 399
- If you are sincere, if you have the correct attitude, things will come always right to you 399
This spontaneous recognition of the light in you is also called openness 399
- Something in you is ready to accept the light when it presents itself before you 399
INDEX 401
ESSAYS ON MYSTICISM
ESSAYS ON MYSTICISM i
Publisher’s Note i
Contents ii
THE APPROACH TO MYSTICISM 1
The Approach to Mysticism 3
Mysticism is not only a science but also, and in a greater degree, an art 3
- The mystic domain has to be apprehended by the right temperament and character 3
Mysticism is not merely an object of knowledge – An ideal that has to be achieved 3
- The spiritualists' approach to Mysticism is not the right one – Dangers 3
- Mystic realities cannot be reached by the scientific consciousness 4
The mystic domain is of infinitely greater potency than the domain of intra-atomic forces 4
- Without the necessary preparation – One can lose the mind, one's body even 4
The mystic forces are of immense potency either for good or for evil – Conscious forces 5
The path of pure scientific inquiry, in relation to the mystic world, is a dangerous thing 5
II 6
The mystic truth has to be approached through the heart 6
- If the mind is utilised as an instrument of knowledge, the heart must be there behind 6
- True knowledge comes of, and means, identity of being 6
- The mystic's knowledge is a part and a formation of his life 6
- The mystic heart is the inner heart – The centre of the individual consciousness 6
Mystic knowledge begins with the awakening or the entrance into this real being 6
The knowledge without the heart's instrumentation or co-operation is liable to be Asuric 7
- There are modes of knowledge that are occult, belonging to an intermediate region 7
- The mystic's knowledge and experience is delightful and blissful – Also to those around 7
Mystic Symbolism 8
The Mystics have clothed their sayings in figures and symbols – The reason behind it 8
- The Mystics are those who are in touch with supra-sensual things 8
- These other worlds are constituted in other ways than ours – Very many unseen worlds 8
- To speak of these other worlds, we must employ terms as figures and symbols 8
Not unoften the same or similar figures and symbols representing an identical experience 9
A distinction here between two types of expression, figures and symbols 9
- Figures are mere metaphors and similes – A robe that can be dropped or changed 9
- The symbol is not mere analogy – It is one with the very substance of the experience 9
The materialization of something that is fundamentally not material 9
Echoing images extended in a series along the whole gradation of the inner planes 10
A certain identical, at least similar, quality or rhythm or vibration 10
A great diversity of symbols 10
- At the one end is the mere metaphor or simile or allegory – Figure, as we have called it 10
- At the other end is the symbol identical with the thing symbolized 10
Upon this inner character of the symbol depends also to a large extent its range and scope 10
- There are symbols which are universal and intimately ingrained 10
- There are other symbols that are limited to peoples and ages 10
- There are symbols which are true of the individual consciousness only 10
Symbols are a translation of experiences that are beyond the mind and the sense 11
Upanishadic Symbolism 12
The Upanishadic symbols – As an example a story from the Chhāndogya 12
- The Upanishads speak of things experienced – A world and consciousness 12
Like the world of dreams, the world of spiritual experiences is significant 12
- Here also the right key has to be found 13
- The interpretation of the story cited – The dog of the story 13
The dog is a symbol of the keen sight of Intuition 13
Dawn is the opening and awakening of the consciousness 13
- Symbols form part of a psychological alchemy – The vision of a third eye 13
The several lights – The Brihadaranyaka speaks of several lights that man possesses 14
- The progression indicated – We begin by the senses and move towards the Spirit 14
The Sun is the first and the most immediate source of light that man has 14
We retire from the senses and rise into the mind, whose divinity is the Moon 14
When the Moon sets, the Fire is kindled – The light of the ardent and aspiring heart 14
The Fire is to be quieted and silenced – An inner hearing opens, the Word reaches us 14
When utter silence, calm and quietude reign, there appears the Atman in its own body 14
The four oblations – To Swahakar, Vashatkar, Hantakar, Swadha 15
- The duty of life – Repaying the debt to the Gods, to Men and to the Ancestors 16
The Gods are the Powers that rule the world and beyond 16
The service to society or good citizenship entails the worship of humanity 16
Lastly, man belongs to the family – The continuous line of ancestors 16
- From the psychological standpoint, the four oblations are movements of consciousness 16
Svāhā is the offering and invocation – One must dedicate everything to the Divine 16
In invoking the Truth and consecrating oneself to it, one begins to ascend – Vaṣaṭkāra 17
Hantakāra is the appearance, the manifestation of the Divinity 17
Finally, once the Truth is reached, it is to be held fast, firmly established – Svadhā 17
- The Gods feed upon man's self-giving and aspiration 17
In response the Gods descend and approach and enter into the aspiring human soul 17
- The Gods are the multiple individualisations of the One spirit 17
The Pitris are the Divine Fathers – A more concrete help and guidance 17
The path of the Fathers and the path of the Gods 18
- The Path of the Fathers enjoins the right accomplishing of the dharma of Life 18
- The Path of the Gods lifts man out of the terrestrial cycle – The path of knowledge 18
- Man dwells in two worlds – The manifest world, the world of Sat, Chit and Ananda 18
The Path of the Fathers concerns itself with man as a mental being 19
The Path of the Gods – To pass on to the Immortal Life 19
- They who are thus lifted up into the Higher Orbit enjoy the supreme Liberation 19
- When they descend into the Inferior Path, it is to work out a special purpose 19
The triple Agni, Garhapatya, Dakshina and Ahavaniya – Agni is the divine spark in man 19
- The mind, the life and the body – Each has his own portion of the Soul's Fire 20
Garhapatya is the Fire in the body-consciousness, the fire of Earth – The fire of the sun 20
Dakshina is the Fire of the moon or mind – The fire of the stars 20
Ahavaniya is the Fire of life – Its symbol in lightning, electric energy its vehicle 20
Agni in the physical consciousness is called gṛhapati – He is guardian and lord 20
The fire in the mental consciousness is called daksinā – It gives discernment 20
The fire in the life-force is called āhavanīya – Power and dynamism 20
The five great elements – Earth, water, fire, air and ether or space are symbols 21
- Earth represents the material world itself – In man it is his body 21
- Water represents the vital world, the world life-force 21
- Fire represents the Heart – The ardour of our central being that lives in the Truth 21
- Air is Mind, the world of thought, of conscious formation 22
The Vedic Maruts are thought-gods 22
Indra, the Luminous Mind, is called the Fashioner of perfect forms 22
- Ether or Space is the infinitude of the Spirit, that dwells in and yet transcends 22
The Science of the Five Agnis (Fires) describes the advent of the child 22
- The process of the birth of the body, the passage of the soul into earth existence 22
The first Agni is Heaven or the Sky-God – One calls Soma or Rasa or Water 22
The second Agni, the Rain-God, sends down Rain 22
The third Agni, the Earth, brings forth Food 22
The fourth Agni, the Father or Male, elaborates in himself the generating fluid 22
The fifth Agni, the Mother or the Female, delivers the Child 22
- The esoteric sense goes beyond the outer symbols 23
The sky seems to be the region where the soul awaits its next birth – The region of Soma 23
When the time or call comes, the soul stirs and journeys down – That is the Rain 23
Next, it enters the earth atmosphere and clothes itself with the earth consciousness 23
The father and the mother unite and the material body is formed – The soul incarnates 23
- The idea of a cosmic cycle that proceeds through the principle of sacrifice 23
The Upanishadic view concerning sex and food – Into the cosmic spiritual whole 23
Man is taught to consider and to mould all his movements in this light and rhythm 23
The central secret of the transfigured consciousness – The mystic rite or law of Sacrifice 24
- Sacrifice consists of two elements – The offering or self giving and the descent 24
- Even movements relating to food and to sex should be dedicated to the Cosmic Being 24
The cosmic and the transcendental – The Brahman has two fundamental aspects 25
- The Universal Brahman – The cosmic movement, the cyclic march in its global aspect 25
The typical movement that symbolises is that of the sun – Five stages 25
Like the Sun, the sacrificial Fire can also be seen in its fivefold cyclic movement 25
Or again, we may take the cycle of five seasons or of the five worlds 25
- The All, the Universal – By losing one's individuality one lives the life universal 26
It is in and through an unimpaired global consciousness that one attains the All-Life 26
- Beyond the Cosmos lies the Transcendent – Various symbols 26
The world beyond the Sun, griefless and deathless, the supreme Selfhood 26
The number 100 – 99 represents the cosmic, the unity being the the Transcendent 26
- It is said that the sun has five movements of rising and setting – A sixth one is a status 27
Some scholars have tried to show that the phenomenon is an exclusively natural one 27
The Rishi's utterance cannot but refer to a fact of inner consciousness 27
- The five movements of the sun refer to the cycle of the Cosmic or Universal Brahman 28
- The sixth status where all movements cease is the Transcendental Brahman 28
- The five movements of consciousness that make up the Universal Brahman 28
A rising tier ruled respectively by the gods Agni, Indra, Varuna, Soma and Brahma 28
- Their emanations – The Vasus, the Rudras, the Adityas, the Maruts and the Sadhyas 28
- The six Chakras of Tantric system lie in the same line 28
Agni and the Vasus – Compared with the Muladhara of the Tantras 28
Indra and the Rudras – Swadhishthana of the Tantras (the navel centre) 28
- Indra is taken in his second aspect in the Vedas of dynamic force and drive 28
Varuna and the Adityas – Connected with Tantric Ajnachakra 28
Soma and the Maruts – The Anahata of the Tantras 28
Brahma and the Sadhyas – The Overmind status 28
Beyond, you pass into the ultimate status of the Sun – The Transcendent 28
How many Gods are there? – The One Unique who wished to be many 29
- The gods are the various emanations of the One Divine 29
- In Yajnavalkya's enumeration 29
The number three – The principle of triplicity is of very wide application 29
The dual principle signifies creation, the manifesting activity of the Reality 29
The thousands and hundreds – The absolute fullness of the Reality 29
- An occult aspect in numerology 30
The multiplication of numbers represents in a general way the principle of emanation 30
- The Godhead is bi-une in respect of manifestation – The Divine and his creative Power 30
- This two-in-one reality may be considered as dividing into three forms or aspects 30
- Now, each one of them in its turn has its own emanations 30
Man, however, is an epitome of creation 31
- Yet each human being is a lineal descendant of one or other original Personality 31
- The psychic being in man is thus a direct descent along a definite line of devolution 31
- The secret affinity determines the choice and adherence – Faith 31
- Partisanship, sectarianism, fanaticism etc., are a deformation of the secret loyalty 31
- The number of gods depends on the level of consciousness on which we stand 32
The three boons asked for by Nachiketas from Yama, Lord of Death 32
- The three boons he asks for are in reference to the three fundamental modes 32
The first boon regards the individual identity and integrity 32
- To secure from Death the safety and preservation of the earthly personality 32
Agni is the secret divinity within, the Immanent Divine, the cosmic godhead 32
- The adoration and realisation of this Immanent Divinity – The second boon 32
The third boon is the knowledge and realisation of Transcendence 33
- The first step is to learn to distinguish between the Good and the Pleasurable 34
- The second step is the gradual withdrawal of the consciousness – To look for Agni 34
- Man has two souls corresponding to his double status – The inferior, the higher 34
The message is that of deliverance of the lower soul into the freedom and immortality 34
- The teaching of Yama in brief may be said to be the gospel of immortality 35
The first immortality is the preservation of the personal identity 35
The Inner Reality enshrines the eternity and continuity of the soul's life 35
The third and final immortality is the absolute and self-existent delight 35
The Beautiful in the Upanishads 36
The Rigveda – All will recognise at once that we have here beautiful things 36
The Spirit of beauty in the Upanishadic consciousness is more retiring and reticent 36
- The Upanishads came to lay stress upon what is beyond the form 36
The beauty of the formless suffuses the poetic creation of the Upanishadic seer 37
This veiled Name of Beauty – The Upanishads repeatedly refer to two attributes 37
- The first aspect or attribute is that of light – The second aspect is that of delight 37
- What else is the true character, the soul of beauty than light and delight? 38
- Light and joy – Sometimes these two are named as the solar and the lunar aspect 38
- The perception of beauty in the Upanishadic consciousness – Of concentrated essence 39
The beauty in the earlier Vedic seers returned again in the classical poets – Kalidasa 39
The Upanishads in this respect have a certain kinship with Vyasa and Valmiki 39
Art at its highest tends to become also the simplest and the most unconventional 40
- In the Upanishads the sense of beauty is involved in a deeper strand of consciousness 40
A Vedic Conception of the Poet 42
In the Vedas – 'Kavi' is an invariable epithet of the gods 42
- A human being can become a poet in so far as he attains to the status of a god 42
The Poet is he who by his poetic power raises forms of beauty in heaven 42
- This Heaven in the Veda means the luminous or divine Mind – Indra is the lord there 42
- Indra is the supreme Artisan of the poetic power – Also the master of the senses 42
- The substance, the material on which the Poet works, is Truth 42
- The form of beauty is the body of the Truth 42
- The poet is a trinity in himself 43
First of all, the poet is the Knower, the Seer of the Truth 43
Second – The Poet is Doer, the revealer or creator, the builder or fashioner 43
Delight is the third and the supremely intimate element of the poetic personality 44
- Heaven and Earth join and meet in the world of Delight 44
- All the gods are poets 45
Agni is the Seer-Will, the creative vision of the Poet 45
Mitra and Varuna are the large harmony, the vast cadence and sweep of movement 45
The Aswins, the Divine Riders, represent the intense zest of well-yoked Life-Energy 45
Soma is Rasa, Ananda, the Supreme Bliss and Delight 45
- The Vedic Poet is doubtless the poet of Life, the architect of Divinity in man 45
- Heaven upon earth – The Art as it was conceived by the ancient seers 45
POETS AND MYSTICS 47
Sri Aurobindo: 49
The Age of Sri Aurobindo 49
Someone has written to this effect "This is not the age of Sri Aurobindo" 49
- In fact, a poor or a prosperous life is in no direct or even indirect ratio to a spiritual life 49
- If one were to be busy about reforming the world – One would never take the turn 50
Not always the ideal nearest to the earth is the easiest or the thing to be done first 50
- We seek to cure the symptoms and not touch the root of the disease 50
- The deeper we go within, the nearer we come to the roots and sources of things 51
The highest ideal is not and cannot be kept in cold storage – The ideal of the Life Divine 51
- That ideal is a norm and a force that is ever dynamic and has become doubly so 51
Sri Aurobindo: 52
“Ahana and Other Poems” 52
WHAT is the world that Sri Aurobindo sees and creates in his poetry? 52
- What can be more poetic in essence than spiritual truth and spiritual realisation? 53
But poetry has been treated as the expression of human joys and sorrows 53
Presentation of spiritual truths has always been a rarity 53
- Sri Aurobindo has dealt with spiritual experiences in his poetry 53
He presents them in their nakedness, just as they are seen and realised 53
Something of the straightness and fullness of vision that characterised the Vedic Rishis 55
- The Vedic Rishis sought not to humanise the Divine, but rather to divinise the human 56
- Whatever there is of symbolism is transfigured into the expression of the truth 56
- The heart, the vital, the physical – It is these of which the poets sang 57
The mind proper was not given the right of citizenship in the domain of poetry 57
- The Upanishads bypass the mind and the mental powers – A direct contact with truth 57
- It was Buddha's credit to have forged this missing link in man's spiritual consciousness 57
- Socrates started a similar movement of rationalisation in Europe 57
Poetry as an expression of thought-power – The secret sense of modern technique 58
- In the spiritual domain the Gita achieved this miracle to a considerable degree 58
- Sri Aurobindo seems to have done the thing – The mental is the intermediary 58
Wrong to associate any cold ascetic nudity to the spiritual body of Sri Aurobindo 58
Wrong to suppose that there is want of sympathy in Sri Aurobindo for ordinary humanity 59
- Here the capital difference between the Hellenic spirit and the Indian spirit 60
The Indian spirit – To take stand upon divinity and thence to embrace what is human 60
The Greek spirit took its stand pre-eminently on earth and what belongs to earth 60
The Greek sings of the humanity of man, the Indian the divinity of man 61
- Poetry after all has a mission – Of inspiring, invigorating, elevating 61
Our Vedic poets could make divine poetry of humanity and what is of earth 61
- Sri Aurobindo has the same outlook – The old-world manner 61
The great poets are full of the ardours of poetry rather than the pleasures of poetry 62
Poetry is not merely beauty but power, not merely sweet imagination but creative vision 62
Mystic Poetry 64
A distinction between mystic poetry and spiritual poetry 64
- When the Spirit speaks its own language in its own name, we have spiritual poetry 65
- If the Spirit speaks a language of a profane consciousness, we have mystic poetry 65
The mystique of the senses – A feature of some of the best poetic inspirations of France 66
The mundane or human appearance – A pointer or symbol of the spiritual import 66
On the other hand the Vaishnava poetry hides the spiritual import 66
- An allegory is never mysticism 67
Neither is religious poetry true mysticism (or true spirituality) 68
- Apart from the individual genius of the poet, the greatness of the language is involved 69
The Sanskrit language was moulded and fashioned in the hands of the Rishis 69
- Lucretius at its highest pitch had the ring and vibration of something almost spiritual 70
He gave himself up to moralising and philosophising 70
- Metaphysically philosophical poets – Dante, Goethe, Wordsworth, Shelley 70
- The growth of a philosophical thought-content in poetry has been inevitable 71
Rationalisation of all experiences is the keynote of the modern mentality 71
- The philosophical trend in poetry has acted as a force of purification, of sublimation 72
- In the earlier stages of evolution the mental life is subordinate to the physico-vital life 72
- Man's consciousness is further to rise from the mental to over-mental regions 72
In the old-world spiritual and mystic poets some kind of direct contact was sought 72
- The result was a pure spiritual poetry or religious poetry of various grades 72
Vyasa was the great figure in India to build the missing link of Thought Power 72
- In Greece it was Socrates who initiated the movement of speculative philosophy 72
- The earliest preoccupation of man was religious – His last and ultimate preoccupation 73
The religious poet seeks to tone down or cover up the mundane taint 74
- The alchemy transforms the merely religious into the mystic poet 74
The truly spiritual poetry is still a higher grade of consciousness 74
- It is away from the merely religious, because it is naked of the vesture of humanity 75
- It is something more than the mystic – The presence and embodiment of the Beyond 75
- The ancient spiritual consciousness did not buttress itself with any logic 75
- The modern mind requires and demands a logical element in its perceptions 75
- The real spiritual consciousness developing in the poetic creation of tomorrow 76
- The evolution of the poetic expression – A progressive approach to the spiritual source 77
Poetry, actually however, has been, by and large, a profane and mundane affair 78
By sublimation man is growing into the mental, moral and finally spiritual consciousness 78
Religious means at bottom the colouring of mental and moral idealism 78
A parallel process of katharsis is found in the allegory 78
The mystic is the beginning of a considerable ascension of the lower into the higher 78
The philosopher poet follows another line for the same katharsis – By thought-power 78
The mystic can be of either type, the religious mystic or the philosopher mystic 78
Savitri – A new manner, revelatory of the truly and supremely spiritual consciousness 81
The Poetry in the Making 82
Is the artist when he is a genius conscious in his creation or is he unconscious? 82
- We say that genius is neither unconscious or conscious but superconscious 82
- One can be conscious with other forms of consciousness or in other planes 82
The mystic is conscious on a level which may be called the overhead consciousness 82
The mystic, the Yogi, can be conscious on infraconscious levels also 82
- The supreme artist is superconscious – The artist's mentality serves as an instrument 83
The supreme creators – In whom the instrumental faculties offer the least resistance 83
Artists themselves, almost invariably, speak of their inspiration 84
The passivity or neutrality of the intermediary is relative – There are infinite grades of it 84
- The absolute passivity is attainable, perhaps, only by the Yogi – The supreme poet 84
- The Yogi is a wholly conscious being – Is it possible for the poet to consciously create? 85
Conscious artistry means to be conscious on two levels of consciousness at the same time 85
- In general, if the artist dwells more in the one, the other retires into the background 85
- In reference to conscious artistry – The history of the evolution of Greek poetry 86
A harmony and fusion can and do happen in the Yogi – Likewise, an artist also 86
- The future development of the poetic consciousness – Such a consummation 87
The earliest and primitive poets were mostly unconscious – Without reflection 87
The later group usually goes by the name of "classicists." 87
The modern critical self-consciousness in the artist originated with the Romantics 87
The consciously purposive activity of the poetic consciousness – In two directions 88
- First of all with regard to the subject-matter – Away from the normal and the obvious 88
- Today the artist is much preoccupied with the technical aspect of his craft 88
The first discovery was that of the great Unconscious, the subconscient 89
What is wanted at present in the arts – The true inspiration from higher altitudes 90
- Here comes the role of the mystic, the Yogi – The future poet has to be a mystic 90
- As there is a spontaneity of instinct, there is likewise also a spontaneity of vision 90
- A conscious participation of a refined instrument – A superconscious truth and beauty 91
- The age of spiritual art – The sense of creative beauty in man will find its culmination 91
- The source of inspiration – Super-consciousness, but another is an inner consciousness 91
The inspiration that comes from the inner consciousness – By the path of the heart 91
The evolutionary urge – More and more light and self-consciousness into the heart too 91
- The mind and speech – A conscious development and remoulding of these two factors 92
First as regards the substance – A completely new domain of subject-matter 92
An overhauling of the vehicle of expression too – A mode of expressing the inexpressible 92
The subtler and higher ranges of consciousness are now the object of inquiry 93
Self-consciousness raised so often to the degree of self-torture – The travail of the spirit 95
- The poet – An intermediary between the higher and the lower lights and delights 96
The fullness of his role he can only play up when he is fully conscious 96
Rabindranath Tagore: A Great Poet, A Great Man 97
Tagore will be remembered as one of the greatest world-poets 97
His name has a higher value, a more significant potency for the future 97
- Tagore is in direct line with those bards who have sung of the Spirit 98
Tagore – Seeing things, in their essential spiritual reality, under the figure of beauty 98
The Spirit contemplated by the orthodox Vedantins, has been brought nearer in Tagore 98
- The spirit of the age demands this new gospel – The world and life are not an illusion 99
- Spirit and Flesh, Consciousness and Matter are only two poles of the same reality 99
- Tagore is sometimes called a Neo-Vaishnava 100
Tagore is not all Vaishnava or merely a Vaishnava. He is in addition a modern 100
- A Vaishnava looks upon the universe and human life as the play of the Lord – A witness 100
- A spiritual reformer – A dynamic union with the Divine Will and Consciousness 100
- Tagore was a poet in the service of the great cause for the divine uplift of humanity 101
He sang the divine truths of the Spirit in and through human values and earthly norms 101
- Thus, the Spirit is brought nearer home to us – Mere humanities are uplifted 101
Vivekananda 103
The gospel of strength that Vivekananda spread was very characteristic of the man 103
- The words are permeated with a vibration life-giving and heroic 103
- It was the soul that Vivekananda could awaken and stir in you 104
The spiritual leader, the Guide, goes straight to the spirit in you 104
- Vivekananda spoke specially to the Atman of India – India has the spiritual work to do 105
- Indeed, men are gods upon earth – Only, they have to be conscious of themselves 105
The only way of securing a harmonious and perfected humanity 106
The path to this higher harmonious divine life is that of untiring, conscientious work 106
- Work and not abstention from work is the way, but not work for ignorant enjoyment 106
Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) 107
Pascal's place in the evolution of European culture and consciousness 108
- Pascal, born in an atmosphere of doubt and disbelief, became the clarion of Faith 108
Faith and Reason, according to Pascal, are not contraries nor irreconcilables 109
- Because the things of faith are beyond reason, it is not that they are irrational 109
The process of conversion of the doubting mind as propounded by Pascal 110
- Even from the standpoint of mere gain and loss, belief in God is more advantageous 110
- Pascal did not possess the higher, intuitive, luminous mind 111
His metaphysics – The Jansenist conception of God and human nature 111
- According to it man is a corrupt being. Only Grace saves him and releases him 111
- Eternal hell is a possible prospect that faces the Jansenist 111
- That was why a Night always over-shadowed the Day in Pascal's soul 111
Pascal's faith had not the luminous and happy self-possession of an Indian Rishi 112
- His literary style is his great gift to the French language 112
Pascal was one of the great masters who created the French prose 112
Walter Hilton: 114
“The Scale of Perfection" 114
"The more I sleep from outward things, the more wakeful am I in knowing of Jhesu” 114
- The first step is the withdrawal from the outer senses and looking and seeing within 115
- The immediate result is a painful night – If one persists, the turmoil settles down 115
Then comes the stage of "restful darkness" – But the true seeker goes through 115
- When one steps out of the Night, enters into the deepest layer of the being 115
That is the third degree of our inner ascension – One finds the Christ there 115
- There is still a further step to take – One has to go upward, transcend 115
This spiritual progress can also be described as a growing into the likeness of the Lord 116
- Egoism has to be replaced by charity – That is the true meaning of Christian charity 116
- "the shaping of Christ in you, the casting of sin through Christ." 116
Man can never purify himself wholly by his own unaided strength 117
- God in his infinite mercy sent his own son, his embodied love, as a human being 117
This is the mystery of Christ, of God the Son 117
The Holy Ghost – The redeeming power of Love active in him who accepts it 117
The Christian mystic speaks almost in the terms of the Gita 117
- The characteristic of the path is a one-pointed concentration 117
The image of the Beloved is always within, from the beginning to the end 117
To compare and contrast the Eastern and Western approach to Divine Love 118
- Indian spirituality has always a background of utter unity or identity 118
- The Christian doctrine – Not identity, but union 118
The world according to the Christian discipline has to be altogether abandoned 118
- The Christian doctrine keeps the individual being separate practically 118
To explain further our point, we take two examples referred to in the book 118
- The true Christian loves the sinner too – Because the sinner too can change 118
- Christ, it is said, loved Judas – The enemy is suffered by God to do the misdeed 118
- The Indian conception which is basically Vedantic is different 118
There is only one reality, one truth which is viewed differently 118
- Another point of difference between the Christian's and the Vaishnava's love of God 121
The Christian's is the union of the soul in its absolute purity and simplicity and "privacy" 121
- The Vaishnava feeling is more concrete – He meets Him also in and through his senses 121
- The Vaishnava – Not only his inmost being but his vital being also seeks the Divine 121
- In Christian discipline the way of the cross is the calvary strewn with pain and sorrow 121
It is the very opposite of what is termed the "sunlit path" in spiritual ascension 121
Evidently, there are less gloomy and happier temperaments, like the present one 121
- This old-world mystic chalked out as much of the sunlit path as is possible in this line 121
- There are one or two notes for the guidance of the aspirant, to mention here 123
First of all with regard to the restless enthusiasm and eagerness of a novice 123
Another hurdle that an aspirant has to face often in the passage through the Dark Night 123
- In fact, the Grace never withdraws, it is we who withdraw and think otherwise 123
One more difficulty that troubles the beginner especially is with regard to the false light 123
- When you feel flattered and elated, beware it is the siren voice tempting you 123
The ultimate truth is that God is the sole doer and the best we can do is to let him do 124
- For a long time one has to take up one's burden and co-operate with the Divine working 124
William Blake: 125
“The Marriage of Heaven and Hell” 125
Neither only the earth here nor only the heaven there embodies man's destiny 125
The Vedic Rishis sang of the marriage of heaven and earth 126
- Blake and Nietzsche are apostles of the marriage of heaven and earth 126
Gustave Thibon – His remarkable conceptions with an old-world authenticity 126
- Our age seeks to cancel altogether the higher values and install instead the lower alone 126
He says the moderns stress the lower, but the old world stressed only the higher 126
Man's true destiny – The infiltration of the higher into the lower and the integration 126
But the process must begin with the individual and within the individual 127
- The variety and diversity of individual and local growths in a unified humanity 127
- So far so good. Not far enough – Fulfilment must go to the very roots of life and nature 128
Our view of the total transformation and divinisation of the Lower 128
Viewed in this light, Blake's memorable mantra attains a deeper significance 128
- It is not merely Earth to be uplifted and affianced to Heaven 128
Hell has to be recognised and transubstantiated into the body of Heaven itself 128
Nicholas Berdyaev : 129
God Made Human 129
Nicholas Berdyaev – A worker in the cause of the spiritual rehabilitation of mankind 129
- The view he underlines that the true person is a spiritual being 129
Another aspect viewed by Berdyaev – That the Christ is inseparable from the Cross 129
- “There is no such thing as personality if there is no capacity for suffering” 129
“God shares in the sufferings of men. He yearns for responsive love” 129
- Eastern spirituality does not view sorrow and suffering as an integral part of the Divine 130
God and the Divine Consciousness can only be purity, light, immortality and delight 130
- The compassion that a Buddha feels – Not a feeling of suffering 130
Aldous Huxley: 131
"The Perennial Philosophy" 131
By Aldous Huxley – A collection of sayings of sages and saints and philosophers 131
Huxley gives one quotation from Sri Aurobindo – “to its heights we can always reach” 132
- Huxley's commentary is as follows 132
To discover the Kingdom of God exclusively within oneself is easier 132
When the hope is to realise the Divine in the world – Temptations and distractions 132
Lao Tzu – "It was when the Great Way declined that human kindness and morality arose" 132
- Mr. Huxley has completely missed the point of the cryptic sentence 133
He seems to take it as meaning that human kindness and morality are a means 133
What is stated here is much simpler and transparent 133
The lesser way lies through the dualities, good and evil, the Great Way is beyond them 133
A quotation from Wu Ch'êng-ên regarding the doubtful utility of written Scriptures 133
Goethe 135
We will try to present in a few words the major Intuition that stirred Goethe 135
- Goethe was aspiring to know and be in touch with the hidden Divinity 135
No problem is so vital to the human consciousness as the problem of Evil 135
- One view considers Evil as coeval with Good – That is the Manichean principle 136
- The Christian too accepts the dual principle, but does not give equal status to the two 136
Man triumphs in the end and God's work stands vindicated 136
- Goethe – The two powers are not contradictory principles – Satan is God's servant 136
The purpose is to help and lead man towards a nearer approach to Himself 136
- A twofold challenge, between God and Satan and between Man and Satan 137
The challenge – There is no harm in Satan's trying, Satan will be the goad 137
Thus, as sanctioned by God, there is a competition, a wager between man and Satan 137
- Satan will give the whole world to man to enjoy, man will have to give Satan his soul 137
- Satan proposes to lead man into hell through love for a woman and a woman's love 138
But human love can at a crucial moment call down the Divine Grace 138
- Human love is divine love itself in earthly form and figure 138
- Satan has to release man from the pact that stands cancelled 138
- The angels weave the symphony that is creation – The grand harmony of the spheres 139
Man is the weakest link in the chain of the apparently all-perfect harmony 139
- God proves in the end that it is part of a vaster harmony 139
The total eradication of Evil is a conception which it was not for Goethe to envisage 139
- There is the status of transcendence in which evil is not simply embraced but dissolved 139
T. S. Eliot: 140
“Four Quartets" 140
In these latest poems of his, Eliot has become a poet of the Dark Night of the Soul 140
- As we find ourselves into the very heart of the Night, we sense the Light beyond 140
Eliot at last comes out into the light and happiness of the Dawn and the Day 141
- Eliot has characterised the crucial turn from the ordinary life to the spiritual life 141
The real Dark Night of the Soul – Then only the Grace leans down and descends 142
Another great poet of the soul's Dark Night was Francis Thompson 143
- He, too, crossed the Night and saw the light of Day, but in a different way 143
The Divine Grace came and seized him from behind with violence 143
- A modernist consciousness cannot expect that indulgence 143
The problem of Time is the great question that confronts the spiritual seeker 143
- A modern Neo-Brahmin, Aldous Huxley – “Time must have a stop" 144
One must free oneself from the vicious and unending circle of mortal and mundane life 144
- Eliot does not cut away altogether from Time, but reaches its outermost limit 144
First, the movement towards transcendence, that is the journey in the Night 145
The other side of nature must be taken up too in the higher synthesis 145
A modern poet is doubly attracted to things of this world and to the higher reality 145
Eliot undertook the double function of the poet and the sage – He found the task difficult 147
- To express the supreme Word in life, that is the work of the sage, the Rishi 147
- To express the Word in speech, that is the labour of the Poet 147
- A lower and more facile inspiration tempts the poet 147
- To create poetically and not to discourse philosophically or preach prophetically 147
Metabolising them – That perhaps is the consummation towards which poetry is tending 147
In Eliot, the strands remain distinct, each with its own temper and rhythm 147
Nicholas Roerich 150
Roerich's message – Out of the East the Light, and that light is of the nature of beauty 150
- The call that stirred a Western soul – The West shall come to the East and be reborn 150
I speak of Roerich as a Western soul – Perhaps he is a soul of the mid-region 150
- Is it not strange that one should look to the East for the light? – The morning sun 150
- It is an occult reality that gives sanctity to a particular place or region 151
Roerich considers the Himalayas as the very abode of the Spirit 151
- Roerich is one of the prophets and seers who have ever been preparing the Golden Age 151
The stress of the inner urge found special and significant expression in his paintings 152
- Poets and artists are the vanguards of the age to come 152
- Roerich discovered and elaborated his own technique to reveal that which is secret 152
- The prophet, the priest in him was the stronger element and made use of the artist 152
The primitive, almost aboriginal, element in Roerich – Elemental and fundamental 153
- Man can reach the highest when the physico-vital in him serves as the springing-board 153
Physico-vital reactions are there to be trained and transfigured 153
SEER POETS 155
A Vedic Story 157
A parable – Where is Agni? The Sacrifice has to be undertaken. Agni accepts in the end 157
- Sacrifice symbolises the rise and progress of consciousness to its supreme expression 157
Its function is to bring down and infuse into the human vessel the godly consciousness 158
Fire is the energy of consciousness – It is that which moves the creation upward 158
- When a lower element is offered and submitted – The progression of the sacrifice 158
But this Fire is not normally available – Man's soul is not an apparent reality 158
- When the time is ripe, Agni is reminded of his work – He has to consent 158
- Agni feared the difficulty – He has taken shelter in the nether regions of inconscience 159
One interesting point in the story is the choice of the gods who formed the search party 159
- Varuna is the god of the vast consciousness – Nothing can escape his notice 159
- Mitra is harmony and rhythm of the infinity – His is the friendly tie of comradeship 159
- Yama is the master of the lower regions, where precisely Agni has taken refuge 159
There is another point – Agni alleges that greater people had failed in the attempt 159
- The predecessors refer to the deities of the physical, vital and mental consciousness 159
- Inferior gods ruled the earth before the emergence of the psychic consciousness 159
The original text in translation – Rigveda – X. 51. 160
Rishi Dirghatama 162
Today I will speak of one of the Vedic rishis – It is of Dirghatama that we will speak 162
- Some Vedic rishis – Vashishtha, Vishwamitra, Atri, Parasara, Kanwa, Madhuchchanda 162
- Dirghatama – Tama is tamas, darkness 162
The legend says that he was in his mother's womb long past the due time 162
The darkness and the blindness seem to have been the Divine's grace upon him 163
- Many of the sayings of Dirghatama have become so current that they are now familiar 163
- His mantras are a riddle to which it is sometimes difficult to find the fitting key 163
Symbols and fidures seeking to express truths and realities of an invisible world 164
About the Word – "The Word is of four categories […] only the fourth one is manifest " 165
- The fourfold words in the Tantras – Revelatory, intuitive, inspirational and vocal 165
- The fundamental vision of the rishi – The Universal Divine Being and his seven sons 165
The creation has its fundamental truth in a Trinity – Agni, Vayu, the Sun 166
- In other words Matter, Life and Consciousness or status, motion and Light 166
Within the third our rishis saw the Supreme and his seven lines of self-manifestation 166
- Body and life and mind, Sat-Chit-Ananda and the link, the Supermind 166
Agni has been called old and ancient – He has entered into matter with the very creation 166
The Shakespearean Word 168
Shakespeare has through his words painted glowing living pictures of undying beauty 168
- To create beautiful concrete images before the mind's eye is the natural genius of a poet 168
Most images are painted pictures, still life, on the whole, presented in two dimensions 169
But Shakespeare's are not fixed stable pictures but living and moving beings 170
- Michael Angelo in this connection – His statues of throbbing pulsating bodies 170
The magical creative power in the Shakespearean word – In India, we call it mantra 175
- Mantra means syllables charged with dynamic force, creative consciousness 175
- The Shakespearean word – Living figures, moving creatures leap up to our sight 176
- Shakespearean syllables – A beautiful vital being transmuted into heavenly luminaries 176
Two Sonnets of Shakespeare 178
Shakespeare has treated love in a novel way – He has given a new sense to Death 178
- The first sonnet – The body decays and dies but love lingers still 178
- The second sonnet – The soul's conquest over Death 178
Robert Graves 180
Robert Graves – A beautiful poem removing the mystic golden lid, partially at least 180
- Like the poet his idol also is of a lower rank – It does not matter if the deity is small 180
Like gods and goddesses in heaven, there are gods and goddesses on earth also 180
- The gods in heaven are high and far away, but these unobtrusive deities are near 180
- We may ask in this connection which deity does our poet invoke here – The toadstool 181
Why does the poet worship a toadstool? 181
- This leads us to a hidden world, to the 'mysteries' spoken of by the poet himself 181
In ancient days and in some spiritual practice and discipline this fungus had a special use 181
- Our poet is appealing to the toadstool god to give him the right vision 181
- How does Graves invoke his god? 182
That which is nectar in heaven is presented on earth in drugs and herbal juice 182
The toadstool god – To worship him is to worship earth, to worship Dionysus himself 182
The poet of the toadstool leads one by the passage of an acid drunkenness 184
- A troubled purification – This too leads verily to a world of the gods 184
- This is perhaps a symbol of our human receptacle 184
We have to carry this mortal frame and make the effort towards self-transcendence 184
- The alchemy's other name is self-purification and self-perfection – Its fermentation 184
Boris Pasternak 185
Dr. Zhivago seems to be the very image of the tragic hero 185
- The Son of Man and every man has to bear his cross heroically and triumphantly 185
Pasternak has a well-pronounced view of things 185
- The first article of his faith is that the world is one – Creation forms a global unity 185
- The second article of his faith – Life is a rhythmic whole toward growth and progress 185
It is that which brings in conflict and strife – Together with creation comes destruction 185
Nature is creating, destroying and re-creating eternally 186
Not only strife and suffering but uglier elements take birth – A general degradation 186
- Pasternak's third article of faith is human freedom, the freedom of the individual 187
Here is the gist of the problem – The individual and the collective 187
- Progress and welfare of the group, of humanity at large is an imperative necessity 187
- The freedom of the individual is a double-edged sword – A help to progress, also a bar 187
- Collectivity, like the individual, may also be a help as well as a bar 187
Zhivago at almost every step shows how the individual is thwarted in his inner fulfilment 188
- The progress that society needs grinds the individual – Personal frustration and failure 188
Inner divinity does not save you from an outer calvary – The burden of sorrow 188
- Pasternak's poetry is characterized by this tragic sensitivity 188
George Seftris 192
Seferis' poetry sobs, explicit or muffled, muttering or murmuring like a refrain, a mantra 192
- Great pain, ruin everywhere – Not only material but moral ruins, from cruelties of war 193
A great cry shoots out of your heart – You become a poet, a prophet, a God's warrior 193
Seferis too became in this way a poet and something of a prophet 193
His poetry fulfils the function of the tragic drama, purification by evoking terror and pity 193
- Terror and pity are invoked not for themselves but for the sake of purification 195
- The Greek poet was moved by an aesthetic repulsion from the uglinesses of life 196
This reaction led him not to escape the reality but to detach himself and rise to heights 196
The sense of an immortal thing unrepressed by mortalities came to him 196
Jules Supervielle 198
Jules Supervielle – Almost a new vein to the spirit and manner of French poetry 198
- He brought in a mystic way of vision characteristic of the East – However oblique sight 198
- The mystic vision has different ways of approach 198
The frontal gaze can drill into the surface, make its contact with the hidden ray behind 198
A gaze upward – To such a vision the mystery of the spirit slowly reveals itself 198
There is a look downward – Contact with forces and beings and creatures of another type 198
- Here we are speaking of another way, the oblique – Splitting the side and entering into 198
A seeking of the mind and an apprehension of the senses that are allusive, indirect 198
- The Reality. You touch it often enough but you do not know that it was the reality 201
- Man with his outward regalia seems to have lost all trace of the Divine in him 204
- The sense that seizes is something winged and vast and impalpable 204
- The poet speaks obliquely but the language he speaks by itself is straight, clear, simple 204
The new modern poetic style – The spoken tongues give the supreme intrinsic beauty 204
Two Mystic Poems in Modern French 206
The relation between the other world and this is all that mysticism means 211
- The relation – Sometimes as that of enmity and sometimes as that of friendliness 211
When the individual is ripe for the turnover, the two collaborate 211
- Various figures and images depict the nature and relation of the two 211
The consummation is the interlocking between the two and a final coalescence 211
Two Mystic Poems in Modern Bengali 212
The first one – The body-consciousness, where all the streams of consciousness flow in 212
- A call for all the parts of the being to precipitate to the very foundation of the being 213
The body, the material precipitate into which they gather, gives them a basic unity 213
- The cry of our poet is a deep cavernous voice surging out of underground abysses 214
Our second poem – Something of the purer atmosphere of the heights and heavens 214
- A lighter clearer air through which passes the right-handed path 214
Hymn to Darkness 216
Here is a modern poem in Bengali – It is an invocation to Darkness 216
- Invocation to Darkness has, it appears, become quite fashionable among modern poets 216
We in India have a dark god and a dark goddess, Krishna and Kali 218
Are the moderns on the same track? – Whence this fascination for blackness? 218
In the mystic consciousness of a kind, darkness seems to be a form of light 219
- The occultists say that there is an interim world, an intermediate zone of consciousness 219
- Or you are suddenly confronted with the Superior Light and get blinded 219
Here is a hymn from the Rig Veda addressed to Night 220
- The Rishi invokes his black goddess – Night and Light are almost one 220
Mysticism in Bengali Poetry 221
Bengali poetry was sheer mystic poetry, in substance, in manner and expression 221
- The poets were themselves mystics – They were called Siddhas or Siddhacharyas 221
- It shone for a time and then faded slowly – It came up again a few centuries later 221
Chandidasa, the creator of modern Bengali poetry, in the fourteenth century 221
A century or more later, another volume of mystic poetry – The Yogis and Fakirs 221
A new synthesis came up in a crest with Tagore – It was a neo-mysticism, intellectual 221
- Samples of the various waves at their crest as they rose from epoch to epoch till today 222
- There is a beyond and Sri Aurobindo has shown and taught what it can be like 224
- These mystics – The conception of the spiritual or divine being as a human being 224
The Siddhacharyas – The inmost divine being is a woman whom one loves and seeks 224
- The role of the finite – In Bengali mysticism from its origin down to the present day 225
- A language that has to become the soul's native utterance is the new endeavour 225
Rabindranath and Sri Aurobindo 226
Sri Aurobindo and Tagore – The two were at one in the central purpose of their lives 226
- Both regarded India’s freedom as the basic necessity for the recovery of her greatness 226
- The review Arya – The progressive march of man towards a divine life on earth 226
In The Future Poetry – The growth and development that world poetry is undergoing 226
- Among the Forerunners of the new Spirit he included Tagore 226
- Tagore wrote 'Aurobindo, accept the salutation from Rabindranath.' 229
Vibhutis, emanations and embodiments appear upon earth – Two such Shining Ones 229
Appendix 229
For us in India, Wordsworth as a poet? – His simple, artless and homely manner 230
- All here is calm and unhurried, simple and natural and transparent 231
Tranquillity and a pleasant sweetness are then the first doors of entry 232
Through the second doors – A wide intimacy where man and nature have fused into one 232
- Once we cross beyond these second gates we reach an inner region of the soul 233
In Wordsworth the poetic mind has soared still higher, opening itself to infinity 233
- With this poet we gain admittance to the very heart, the innermost sanctuary of poetry 234
- But much of Wordsworth is didactic and rhetoric, of the nature of preaching 234
But a man's true quality has to be judged by his best performance 234
- Wordsworth is the most masculine of English poets 235
The classification of poets into "masculine" and "feminine" 235
In order truly to appreciate Wordsworth's poetry, one must be of a meditative ascetic 235
MAN, HUMAN & DIVINE 237
Humanism and Humanism 239
Many Europeans have found Indian spirituality and Indian culture lacking in "humanism" 239
- First of all we must know what exactly is meant by humanism 239
Humanism – To be interested in man as man and in all things that interest man as man 239
- Humanism – A protest against whatever concerned itself with the supra-human 239
- The Graeco-Latin culture was essentially and predominantly humanistic 240
- The mediaeval culture also had a strong basis in humanism – The religion itself 240
- The Indian outlook – Not the pagan Graeco-Roman nor the religious humanism 240
The religious or Christian humanism of the West – The pagan and profane humanism 240
In the East the liberated man may work for the good and welfare of the world 240
- The spirit is not that of benevolence or philanthropy 240
- The Indian sage is not and cannot be human in the human way 241
- The feeling he has towards the entire creation is one of identity in the One Self 241
- A gradation in the humanistic attitude – From grosser forms to those less and less so 241
The lowest rung is what is called altruism, or philanthropy 241
In altruism refined and sublimated we have what is humanism proper 241
Humanism is transfigured when we ascend to cosmic feeling – Buddhistic compassion 241
A status even beyond – Beyond the cosmic reality, lies the transcendent reality 242
- The humanism known to Europe generally – Too human 243
The liberated soul has taken up the superior divine nature 243
A type of humanism that is specially known in India – A divine humanism 244
The cult of the Divine Human – Man as the Divine Person in his human norm 244
When such a Man lives and acts upon earth – A manner that do not belong to this plane 244
The Philosopher as an Artist 245
and Philosophy as an Art 245
I wonder why Philosophy has never been considered as a variety of Art 245
- The minimum requisite of art is that it must be a thing of beauty 245
The philosopher builds beautiful forms out of thoughts and concepts 245
- Even as in Art, truth, bare sheer truth is not the object of philosophical inquiry 245
- Philosophy has to evolve or build up a self-consistent whole of concepts 245
- Even so, the philosopher's truth is also existent – Art and philosophy circuit round it 247
Philosophy works upon this secret strand by its logic, art by imagination 247
This golden core of truth comes from beyond the māyic circle of art and philosophy 247
Plato wanted a kingdom of philosophers – Plato's philosopher has become a mystic 247
- Plato and Aristotle, the mystic and the philosopher – One of these dual personalities 248
- A movement of polarity making for a greater comprehensiveness and richer values 248
- The role of the mystic is to envisage and unveil the truth 248
- The philosopher gathers all that is given to him, arranges and systematises 248
- The poet-philosopher or the philosopher-poet is a new formation coming upon us 248
Sri Aurobindo's The Life Divine arrives and opens a dynamic integral knowledge 248
A Stainless Steel Frame 249
Corruption today with a twofold face, violence and falsehood – An established practice 249
- In the old world, evil there was but it was not an acceptable or inevitable thing 249
It is the Nazi theory of life that brought to man Evil as Good, Falsehood as Truth 249
The government of a country is the steel frame that holds together the life of its people 250
- In India it was the pride of the British that they built up such a frame – Pax Britannica 250
- A diminution of public morality and collective honesty has set in 250
Along with the outer check, the inner check too has given way 250
The members of the very supporting frame itself have fallen – The elite, the intelligentsia 250
- The remedy that easily suggests itself – A greater stringency of external regulations 250
Punishment is an external pressure which cannot last very long or be effective in the end 251
- So, the ideal of moral regeneration – What is the kind, how is it to be effected? 251
Something more than mental and moral rules has to be discovered 251
What is needed then is an army of souls – Men with a new life and realisation 251
- At every moment, in all circumstances one follows the voice of the highest in oneself 251
- Such souls living and moving among men will forge the stainless steel frame 252
Towards a New Ideology 253
India must evolve her own political and social ideology 253
- We see in Japan a different type of national self-government – Based on duty 253
- The malady of the modern age – Individual and collective rights, competitive society 254
Vivekananda pointed out that one should rather think of one's duties 254
It may be answered that crimes were committed with the sense of duty 254
- But the true name of the thing in all these cases is not duty, but fanaticism 254
On behalf of Right – A name for liberty without infringing on an equal facility for others 254
- But the line of demarcation between one's own rights and of another is indeterminate 254
- All these terms, liberty or right or even duty, are mental conceptions 255
- We had in India a fairer word than "duty", dharma 255
Right, Duty and Dharma – The three stages of an ascending consciousness 255
- Right serves to bring out the individual nuclei from a general formlessness 255
- Naturally it is the field also of competition and conflict 255
- One has to rise to the domain of co-ordination and co-operation – The concept of duty 255
- The conception of duty too has its limitations – The result is imperfect and precarious 256
- Dharma means the law of one's soul – Each soul follows its own law and line of life 256
This then is the basis upon which the new society and humanity have to be built up 257
- Individuals will associate and form groups in response to the urge of a group harmony 257
- In contemporary life stress is laid upon one side of human nature 257
Man is not a political or an economic animal 257
Even the ideal of man as a rational being does not go far enough 257
- All-harmony can be found only when the movements are initiated from the soul 257
What exactly the lines of grouping would be need not and perhaps cannot be settled now 257
Still some kind of hierarchy seems to be the natural and inevitable form of collective life 258
- In the spirit, all differences and distinctions are based upon unity, even identity 258
- How is the collective life, the group existence to be made soul-conscious? 258
A group has the soul that is put into it by the individual, a small minority 259
- The form that a society takes is given to it by the ideology of one man or of a few men 259
- All depends upon the truth and reality of the inspiration and vision 259
- To cast the nature of the aggregate into the mould prepared out of spiritual realities 259
India is pre-eminently fitted to discover this pattern of spiritual values 259
The World is One 261
The whole world is one and indivisible 261
- Race or religion can divide man no longer. Even nationhood has lost much of its force 261
It is strange that precisely then the contrary spirit and impulse raises its head 261
In the higher scheme of Nature, the next evolutionary status that is being forged is unity 262
- We ask for freedom, liberty of the individual, self-determination – Not licence 262
Liberty means liberty for all which means equality and fraternity 262
Individuality means every individuality, in other words, solidarity 262
- Politics alone will not save us, nor economics – What is required is a change of heart 263
The Pact and its Sanction 264
The Pact if it is to be a success must be implemented at three levels 264
- First of all, between the Governments who initiated the move 264
The leaders overhead should be actuated by the truth of the soul 264
- Mere politics does not save. It leads you into a greater and greater mess 264
- The Pact has to be implemented not only at the top but equally at the bottom 265
Here the matter seems easier – The common people have no interest in quarrels 265
- The difficulty comes from the "middle class", in the ideological sense 265
Two types – One helps humanity's progress, the other retards and sometimes blocks 265
So we have to see the type of cells that grow and become consciously active 265
A well-meaning plan is doomed to failure if it does not touch and move the middle strata 265
- The government itself is composed of the three social elements 266
Here too the difficulty is with the intermediate grade 266
The whole difficulty – Who rouses whom and what is the principle that is meant to rouse 266
- The choice has to be made and the right direction given 266
- In India today, there are these two voices put against each other 266
- A true covenant there can be only between parties that work for the light 267
The sanction from the mid-region inspires, executes, makes a living reality 267
This life principle of a body politic seems in Pakistan to be represented by the Ansars 267
- We have to weigh and judge the ideal and motive that inspire this organisation 267
- And we have to ask India too, has she found on her side – The power of her soul 267
Local agents need careful nurture and education – Upon them depend the results 267
Brahmacharya 269
Brahmacharya means the storage of energy in the body and its sublimation 269
- Brahmacharya was the very basis of education in ancient India 269
Modern education means storage of information – The older ideal was capacity 269
The first form of the discipline is regularity in habits, methodical physical exercises 269
Next comes self-control, continence, physical purity – This is Brahmacharya proper 269
- Brahmacharya means the exercise of conscious will 269
We do not speak of Brahmacharya in relation to a child – The stage of free play 269
This discipline is for all without exception – Brahmacharya is the stage of life 270
- After the storage and increase of energy comes the sublimation of energy 270
The physico-vital energy transmuted into the energy of mental substance 270
The immediate aim of education according to the ancient system – Mental capacity 270
It is precisely this aspect of education that has been most neglected in modern times 270
- In recent times, however, we have begun to view children's education in a different light 271
Sympathy and encouragement is the watchword and motto for the ideal teacher 271
Along with freedom and autonomy, discipline and order have also to be brought in 271
- In ancient times it was done by living the life of an aspirant 271
- In our days, we do not endeavour to educate the life instincts and body impulses 271
- The separation between intellectual culture and life movement has to be healed up 272
- The training given under Brahmacharya will be of immense help in that direction 272
The Democracy of Tomorrow 273
The great gift of Democracy is that of personal value, the sanctity of the individual 273
Its great failure is also exactly the failure to discover the true individual, the real person 273
- The earlier stages of human society – The development of mankind in the mass 273
A growth of the individual consciousness had to proceed – Not very much favoured 273
- In Europe, the Reformation sought to make room for individual free choice 273
- In India the spiritual life was more or less the individual's free venture 273
- The great mantra of individual liberty, in the social and political domain – Rousseau 274
The French Revolution meant the advent of democracy in politics and romanticism in art 274
The movement went far and even too far – Naturally there came a reaction 274
Totalitarianism in one form or another continues to be the watchword 274
- Evidently the repressed individual rises in revolt and again we are on the move 274
Buddhism and Hinduism 276
Buddhism is easy to understand – Hinduism is a multiple and complex organism 276
- Hinduism recognises differences while admitting the fundamental unity of mankind 276
Hinduism has cast Buddhism out of India 276
- Hinduism had to accept however many elements contrary to its nature 276
It was the Buddhist dispensation that made life an inferior truth 277
Buddhism canonised the way of asceticism, laid out the path of the Everlasting Nay 277
And yet the Line of the Everlasting Yes was kept living and vibrant 278
The distinction between the two conceptions 278
- Hinduism is based upon the Veda. Buddhism rejects the Veda 278
- The first principle that Vedic Knowledge posits is Sat, according to Buddhism is Asat 278
- Their respective logical positions 279
Buddhist logic consideres negation as a simple contrary to affirmation 279
- Hindu logic makes of negation a positive statement but on the minus side 279
The Buddhists deny likewise the real existence of general ideas 279
- The Hindus affirm the reality of general ideas, although not always material 279
- The Vedic Rishis declared with one voice that all existence is built upon delight 279
Buddha said misery is the hallmark of things created 279
The Mission of Buddhism 280
Buddhism denied some of the very fundamental principles 280
- Buddhism cried halt because of two omissions 280
A scant recognition to the mental and the rational – Yet the basis of the life spiritual 280
Misery and undelight, the very substance of human life – Not due recognition 280
- An age of Reason and Ratiocination was ushered in by Buddha in India 281
Almost contemporaneously by Socrates in Greece and Confucius in China 281
It was a necessity that the rational mentality should be brought out 281
- So that there might be a greater and wider integration of human nature 281
- Pragmatically Buddhism was supremely humanistic 282
What set Buddha on the Path was the everyday problem of the ordinary man 282
- These are the two primary truths which Buddha's illumination meant 283
First, he has discovered man's rationality, and second, he has discovered man's humanity 283
- Buddhism – A cycle of ascending tapasya. A larger and larger circle of humanity 283
The Language Problem and India 284
English and French express today the culture of humanity at its best and at its largest 284
- They appeal to two different groups and each has its hemisphere 284
Almost till the end of the last century French was the language of culture all over Europe 284
English has since risen to eminence 284
French holds still a place of honour in the cultural world 284
- The two languages appeal to two types of mentality 284
Mental presentation, neat and transparent, is the special aid French language brings 284
English is more supple and pliant and rich – Its ambiguities can catch the supra-rational 284
French expresses better human psychology 285
Metaphysical realities find a more congenial home in the English language 285
But French – A refined sensibility, a subtle sensitiveness, an alert and vibrant perception 286
- That is how mysticism comes by a back door as it were into the French language 286
If English scales the heavens of the spirit, French enters into the intimacies of the soul 287
- Thus the two languages are in a way strangely complementary 287
We have to distinguish two categories of languages – National and international 288
- There may be secondary international languages 288
- One can very easily be bi-lingual or even trilingual – Modern culture means that 288
- The cultivation of a world language need not mean a neglect of the national language 289
Between the two there can be a relation of mutual aid and helpfulness 289
- The problem of Indian writers in English – Now that India is free 289
It would be natural for a few at least to express themselves in the wider world language 289
its outlook; it cannot remain so if it is to progress, to take the next step in evolution. We say if mankind overpasses the nationalistic stage and attains something of the international consciousness and disposition, it would be possible and even natural for a few at least among the educated to express themselves in and through the wider world language, not merely as an instrument of business deal, but as a vehicle of literary and aesthetic creation. 290
If India is to link herself to the English-speaking group – The English language 290
The new international consciousness will become a more and more vivid reality 291
- Not only English but French too in a similar way may finds her votaries in India 291
Communism: What does it Mean? 292
Communism, in India at least – Things not the main purpose of the word to imply 292
- Communism meant "holding in common" – There is no private property 292
- In India, the word "communism" – The régime of the common man 292
The common man adopted by communism – Only the category of peasants and workmen 292
The whole stress has been laid upon two items – Less hours of work, and more wages 293
- To bring prosperity and help to raise the standard of life – The true role of loyal workers 293
In the way they behave and act, at present they are consumers more than producers 293
The farmer proprietor, the bourgeois, the capitalist are centres of wealth increment 294
- The realities, the types of forces they represent are features of Nature's economy 294
- One must cultivate the civic sense for a harmoniously prosperous collective life 294
Many interests have to be served, many lines of growth have to be encouraged 294
Human Destiny 295
A baby monkey's face – Nearer to the adult human face than to its own form when adult 295
A new species grows not out of a mature type, but out of an earlier non-specialised type 295
The aboriginal types that have survived today – Decline owing to a loss of plasticity 295
The continuance of an innocent baby animality in man – Said to be a sign of weakness 296
- This is said to be due to culture and refinement that makes one sensitive but weak 296
- We say cultures, races, species die because they become rigid, fossilised 296
- A certain plasticity, youthfulness, is the basic condition of life and life's progress 296
- If man has maintained a longer youthfulness – It means greater possibilities 297
What has been the nature of man's curve of life during the historic age? 297
- Man has become man through the discovery and use of tools 297
Man has lost his human element and almost become a machine 297
So it is often prognosticated now that man is at the end of his career 297
- But, as we have said, man seems to have yet retained his youthfulness 298
The growth and development in the matter of tools – In mind and consciousness 298
The danger is that it progresses along a definite line or lines, cuts out a groove 298
- But on the whole mankind steps back, it seems – A new vein of consciousness awakes 298
Man must step back and look for a new connotation of his consciousness 299
At this critical turn of human history man has to choose his destiny 299
- Either he becomes a new man with a new consciousness or he goes down 299
From the Known to the Unknown? 300
From the known to the unknown – After all is this the supreme counsel of perfection? 300
- The fact seems to be more often true that the unknown reveals itself all on a sudden 300
Man's consciousness possesses aerials that catch vibrations from unknown regions 300
- In the spiritual field the unknown has to be given the foremost consideration 301
Man has the power to contact directly the thing that is unknown and beyond 301
It is in our power to create favourable conditions for the light to descend and appear 301
- Would it harm a child if he did not confine himself within the known and the familiar? 301
A system of education which seeks to pull out the child from its familiar old-world milieu 302
- The Russians – The child brought up in a common, almost anonymous nursery 302
- One thrown into unknown surroundings gets the best out of oneself 302
Towards the Future 303
The Buddhists consider being as a stream of consciousness 303
- The Buddhists – Human being or consciousness is an aggregate of cells of desire-energy 303
We may conceive of a material body becoming a luminous body 303
Yoga envisages the transformation of Matter into Consciousness-Energy of the Spirit 303
TO THE HEIGHTS 305
To the Heights 307
Unwelcome guests are prowling – My own Guest shall reveal himself from within 307
When the flood-gates are swung wide, the surging luminosities shall hurl themselves 307
All my heart melts into a fountain of gratitude and tears rush to the eyes 308
- My heart yearns to welcome Him whom the ages have ignored 308
Were my wild senses to turn back, they would face the abysmal silence of the soul 309
- The gods descend along a path of luminous silence in our inmost being 309
I lay myself bare to the touch of the one who is our Beloved 309
- Innocent as when you were born, in the wide sunlight of the Love Divine 310
Maheshwari, the Mother of Light, the Mother of all-comprehending wisdom 310
Mahakali brooks no delay, has no mercy for weakness 311
Mahalakshmi, Mother of Delight, is the Rapture that quickens our inmost heart 311
Mahasaraswati, supreme Artisan and Fashioner of perfection 312
On this troubled world, pour thy soothing Light, O Divine Compassion! 313
Spirit is Matter sublimated, Matter is Spirit crystallised 313
This Flesh has made the Immutable Truth living and throbbing, warm to our embrace 314
O Mother of Dreams, Mother of Bliss, Mother of Peace, Mother of Light, Mother of Love 314
Mahalakshmi – Things ungainly afflict thee, O Mother. I will not cherish them 315
- O Mother, by the magic of thy sweetness, quicken and upheave me with Love 315
God – He is there and we are He to bring down and incorporate something of His Nature 315
Omnipotent is the Power that awaits you, and under her ensign you will conquer 316
LORD, this is my prayer – May the voice of thy silence enter me 317
- All the tumultuous surges of the wide world, may they leave me 317
Lord, thou hast assumed the flesh, deigned to be with us and to be of us 318
- Now we blame thee thou art become like us, earthly and human 318
The march into the Night – Endless labours the way 318
- But my Soul is never alone. The Mother of Light upbears it 319
Unbroken and ceaseless reigns over sinful earth a smiling Grace 320
- Long is the suffering, but there is a supreme joy in which it culminates 320
Let me not shame thee, my soul, let me not profane thee 321
- Thou art the Architect that builds from within 321
- Thou art the Child that we carry as in a womb 321
I stood face to face with the Truth and the scales of Ignorance fell away 322
- My desire has found its one haven of rest 322
- My ears have drunk thy voice – My hands have touched thy feet 322
There is no darkness, no pain, no death 323
- My soul, sink down and deep. The Light will dawn ray by ray or the down-rush 323
Weakness is but thy absence – One has only to fill up the void with thyself 323
The gracious Light touched the earth – All my soul flushed roseate with delight 324
- The scars of a thousand pangs are now smoothed out 324
- I am a new-born babe in the lap of the Immaculate Mother 324
- A mighty secret is being wrought upon in the far depths, but it shall out one day 324
I am not ashamed of my humanity – I have known to be humble with humility 325
- Through all my failings and errings thou hast led me on – I am no longer what I was 325
I have cast myself away – It is now my Lord's tabernacle. It is His gestures 326
In my heart's heaven in trance – Other-world raptures 326
- Hosts of the Enemy hurl themselves in vain – I move on ever secure and tranquil 326
- The earth-made cells of flesh are now spirit-stars that bear the lustres of immortality 327
Grace is the ardent call of the Beyond that has travelled down to a forgetful Here Below 327
Turn my gaze away from thousand nothingnesses – The senses 328
- My all has melted away and vanished into the single orb of thy compassion 328
Live it, my soul, live the Truth – To fulfil, the golden day is come 328
The little senses' little pleasures and the spell of the near, the dear, the small have gone 329
- A glance has melted, a touch has moulded a mortal into an Immortal 329
I awoke into a sunbright wakefulness, new-born, emerged into the Life Immortal 330
Thy Voice dims as it rises into the noise – Thy Face dims in the mirages of life 331
- Close eyes, close ears and hold within, O my soul, the fragrance of Love unsensed 331
In Thee, without Thee – The two worlds are cloven apart 331
- The deluding midworld divides Heaven and Earth 331
- The shadow track shall turn into the gleaming path for Heaven to descend upon earth 332
Unfurl all the sails, my soul – The white waves are hurrying on 332
- The little sisters fill my sails with the fragrant breath of their little mouths 332
- My little brothers are all around, the bright twinkling star-angels 332
The Fire burns the dross, but illumines the core of gold 333
Your soul turned to the Eternal Sun – The fullness of Illumination in the Supreme Light 333
- Each absorbed in its one and single passion for That within, the Soul of souls 334
I have now learnt to love the sun, even the sun of the burning desert 334
- The burning Truth has drained and dried the marshes of small desires 335
Waves come from the immemorial past – Take wings and soar aloft 335
Ask for the fullness of Grace, but weigh not the measure of Response 336
- Give yourself wholly – Create the spaciousness to hold safely the gift from the Divine 336
The flame sweeps tireless ever upward – Call unto it the bending Grace from beyond 337
The child has eyes for nothing else than its mother 337
- The child looks at itself – Itself has become the mother, and takes the world in its arms 337
White – Colour of the moon, sun, pearl, diamond, snow, foam, jasmine, lotus 338
The silence and annihilation beyond – The Mother of absolutes 339
Fire Red, sun Red, blood Red, wine Red, ruby Red 339
O my soul, once you lay nude and innocent in the womb of the Eternal 340
- It stands today, the self-same soul – No longer the sweet simple innocence 340
- A human being has yielded to the godhead's devouring embrace 340
- The Divine is set in human limbs 340
TOWARDS THE LIGHT 343
Of Love and Aspiration 345
There is a Light before which all other light is darkness 345
Forward to the Farthest! Upward to the Highest! Downward into the Deepest! 345
Your smallnesses only you can call your own 346
- Your greatness is the greatness of the Divine in you 346
It is the Godhead in you that can reveal God to you. There is no other proof of God 346
Sacrifice all, but into the radiant fire of Aspiration that flames up to the gods 346
The Heart is the blazing hearth of Aspiration 346
Of Love Ananda is the soul, self-mastery the head, and purity the foundation 346
The human approaches to the Divine are dangerous. Seek God in God's ways 346
Love leads to Immortality – Lust leads to Death 346
The secret of Love is the joy of self-giving 347
The love that is detached and free makes no demands – It can only give itself 347
The strongest attachment is the attachment to what one has actually become 347
Never seek through your desire-soul the person you love 347
The closer we come to the Divine, the stricter are the conditions we have to fulfil 348
Of the Divine and its Help 349
Do not strive and struggle to do. Only be conscious of what is being done for you 349
All activity should carry with it a sense of repose 349
- All repose must be filled with intense activity 350
One must know how to wait – One must know also how to be swift 350
Await the birth of the Divine in you, in calmness, in breathless readiness 350
Silence is the gate through which you enter the Divine 350
The Divine never withdraws from you. It is you who move away from the Divine 350
The more you grasp at the Divine the farther will it recede from you 350
Neither steal nor share, but give thyself and all to its Divine owner 351
By love and devotion you can enter into divine power and knowledge 351
If you think or feel or act for yourself, you become a thief of force 351
Let the Divine think, feel and act through you – The perfect use of the instruments 351
Of Desire and Atonement 353
Close not your senses. Fling them all wide open but to the Divine 353
Not much is lost by not harbouring desires – The deceptive pleasure of anticipation 353
The only atonement for a wrong thing done is to do the right thing on the next occasion 354
Each difficulty can be an opportunity for a new progress 354
You increase your difficulty by thinking it difficult 355
Facts have value in so far as they are significant of forces 355
None is truly weak – One has only to open to the Universal Power, the Divine Mother 355
Each fall or failure should be only a drawing back so that you can leap to a greater height 355
- You can not only obliterate the past, but make it even as if it had never been 356
A dip into the ocean of Grace – Shedding all the Past, reborn unto the Future 356
Of Beauty and Ananda 357
Love is Beauty enjoying itself 357
All Art is the re-creation of Truth in Beauty 357
Poetry is the soul's delight seeking perfect expression in speech. 357
Beauty is the soul's delight perfectly articulate and organised 357
Mere formal beauty is a power, but a surface power 358
Art is the incarnation of Truth in Beauty 358
The element of divine harmony and rhythm is the measure of the beautiful in Art 358
The domain of Art encompasses the entire creation 358
The progress of art – Towards a higher incarnation of the Divine 359
Of Some Supreme Mysteries 360
To be finite is one of the infinite aspects of the Infinite 360
The multiplicity of the divided selves of the Supreme forms the created universe 360
Matter is Spirit divided ad infinitum and infinitely concretised 360
The Soul is a portion of the Divine, enshrined in the heart of the human being 360
- The Self is the Puruṣa in the individual. It is the consciousness as pure being 361
- The Spirit is the Self immanent, universal and transcendent 361
- The Supreme Divine is the Spirit and its expression and its continent 361
The Soul is God's Grace, sent down into Matter, in order to lift Matter into Divinity 361
- The gods are the glories, the individualised Name-Forms of the Supreme Divine 361
As long as you are unconscious – Mostly an instrument in the hands of the Dark Forces 361
- When you become conscious – An agent who can act for, with and as the gods 361
To be conscious means to become aware of and to live with the truth of one's nature 361
- To be unconscious means to be ignorant of the realities that make one's true nature 361
A soul captured in the mind and the life and the body is never free or independent 362
The Dark Power cannot touch you if from the outset you are armed with the protection 362
- The Dark Power too gives protection to its devotees, but it cannot maintain them long 362
Consciousness is the light that flows from the Truth of existence 362
- To be conscious means to be aware of the Truth of one's nature and live and move with 362
Consciousness – Existence goes out of itself and turns back upon itself 362
- Will – The selective and realising power of consciousness 362
Faith – Certitude born of the soul's secret communion with the Truth 362
- Faith brings out your own latent power, opens the gates to a Power higher than yours 363
The passage from the world of the Spirit to the world of Matter – The Occult World 363
Two godheads are there – One above, the other here below. Both are the same deity 363
- Creation is the interaction of these two Powers expressing themselves as Nature 364
- Nature – An Involution and Evolution of the double Divinity 364
- Progress is the march of the godhead below 364
- Earth has a consciousness, matter is instinct with an Aspiration 364
Religion is a worship of lesser gods, often, even of beings that pose as gods 364
- The pseudo-gods are not always evil 364
- The lesser gods and the pseudo-gods – The mental, vital or physical consciousness 365
- The true gods are powers of the Superior Hemisphere 365
- Spirituality – To attain to the Truth-Consciousness and do the Law of the Spirit alone 365
The Birth of Maya 366
The Divine is All-Light, All-Bliss, All-Power 366
- A veil was allowed to interpose in front of the All-Light, the All-Bliss, the All-Power 366
- Ignorance entered into Knowledge, Pain invaded Delight, Weakness stole into Strength 366
- Manifestation – For an immense contradiction turning to a luminous reconciliation 366
- Denial of self showed itself as the extreme limit, the final term of self-objectivisation 367
The utmost Denial – To arise the very perfection of the Affirmation of the Divine 367
Upgrading 368
There are two infinities at two ends 368
- At one end lies Matter, which is Energy concentrated and stabilised 368
- At the other end lies Consciousness concentrated and stabilised 368
- Consciousness is the luminosity of Energy at work 368
- Energy is the force of emanation of Light 368
Index 371
THE YOGA OF SRI AUROBINDO
THE YOGA OF SRI AUROBINDO i
Publisher’s Note i
Contents ii
PART ONE 1
A Yoga of the Art of Life 3
"Our Yoga is not for humanity but for the Divine." – The divinisation of human life 3
- The transformation of human life – A superior type of humanity on earth 4
The Divine's own Shakti is labouring for the destined end 4
The sadhaka has only to be receptive to the one Force – The descent of the Divine 4
- The descent into the mind, into the vital, finally into brute Matter itself 5
- The time when the thing will be done – The ideal is one of here and now 5
Yoga means a concentrated and involved process of action 5
- As to the extent of realisation – That is not a matter of primary consideration 6
Spirituality is the basis of the arts, if not the highest art – The art of life 6
Nature's Own Yoga 8
Sri Aurobindo's Yoga is in the direct line of Nature's own Yoga 8
- Yoga means, in essence, a change or transformation of consciousness 8
- Evolution – This process of a developing consciousness in Nature 8
- The next stage of evolution – Beyond the mental principle, the Supermind or Gnosis 8
The consciousness beyond mind has not yet been made a patent and dynamic element 8
The utmost that has been achieved involves a withdrawal from the evolutionary cycle 8
- A plane which is just above the mind, the Overmind – The cosmic godhead 9
- This cosmic consciousness brings is the extreme relativity of the whole flux 9
- This has been the highest consummation – The illusory consciousness of the Overmind 9
The Supermind is unitarian even in the utmost diversity – The Truth-consciousness 10
- In the Supermind things exist in their perfect spiritual reality 11
- In the Overmind commences the play of divergent possibilities 11
- Creation becomes an involution of the Spirit through Mind and Life into Matter 11
- Evolution is a movement backward, a return journey from Matter towards the Spirit 11
- Yoga – The evolution of consciousness by hastening the process of Nature 12
An organ in the human being, his "psychic being" – Instrument of this Yogic process 13
- The first decisive step in Yoga – The awakening of the psychic being 13
When the psychic being is in full self-possession – The direct supramental consciousness 13
The transformation of the ordinary human nature – The goal that Nature is seeking 14
What is happening is a living process, an organic growth by the drive of the Supermind 14
- Evolution will not stop with the manifestation and embodiment of the Supermind 15
Only, with the Supermind the creation here enters into a different order of existence 15
- With regard to the time that the present stage of evolution is likely to take 15
With the consciousness of the psychic being as the instrument – The process of Yoga 15
- The capacity of a swift and concentrated process 15
Sri Aurobindo and his 'School' 17
As to what Sri Aurobindo is doing in his retirement at Pondicherry 17
- Sri Aurobindo's teaching and practice – Putting aside the life-shunning asceticism 17
- Sri Aurobindo's work is a battle to fight and conquer Nature 18
European science is conquering Nature in a way – A certain kind and measure of control 18
The present nature of man stands to be fought and conquered – The inferior nature 18
- Sri Aurobindo's sadhana starts from the perception of a Power that is beyond 19
What is required first is the discovery and manifestation of a new soul-consciousness 19
- It is a stupendous task very far removed from quietism or passivism 19
What is growing round Sri Aurobindo – The nucleus of a new life that is to come 19
- Only the few, who possess the call, have a chance of serving this high attempt 19
Sri Aurobindo's Gita 21
The Gita – The orthodox school and the modern school 21
- The Gita – The older interpretation laid stress upon a spiritual and religious discipline 21
- The newer interpretation seeks to set a premium upon duty that is to be done 21
This neo-spirituality labours under the influence of European activism and ethicism 21
- Sri Aurobindo has raised action completely out of the mental and moral plane 22
Karmayoga is union in mind and soul and body with the Lord of action 22
- This union is effected through a transformation of the human nature 22
- The Gita – The centre of gravity has shifted to the conception of the Divine Nature 22
PART TWO 23
Our Ideal 25
The ideal of Sri Aurobindo is possible, is probable and finally it is inevitable 25
- It is usually contended that the ideal is an impossibility 25
We refuse to admit a contradiction between Matter and Spirit, between body and soul 25
- Matter and Spirit are one and the same reality, in different modes 26
- Spirit having become Matter – The possibility of Matter being transmuted into Spirit 26
- Matter being transformed into a radiant substance, made of the undying luminous stuff 27
- Such a movement of transforming evolution is a fact of Nature 27
Evolution is the backward movement of an involutionary process 27
- This process of reversal is a process of sublimation as well as of integration 27
- Matter is taken up by life, taken up by the mind – Vitalised and mentalised Matter 28
- The transformation of Matter – As one proceeds up the rungs of natural evolution 28
- The inevitability arises from the very fact of this evolutionary urge 28
A spiritual consciousness will emerge and with it spiritualised Matter 28
- This grade and power of the supreme Spirit Sri Aurobindo calls the Supermind 28
- We will try to understand the nature of sublimation and transformation 29
A mind remoulded in the light and rhythm of higher sources becomes an apt instrument 29
- Something of the kind, though in a small measure, happens in a poet or an artist 29
One can sidetrack these intervening ranges – A straight ascetic line of ascension 30
One can pursue a global movement which not only arrives but fulfils – Nature's method 30
Spiritualisation of Matter is a more or less imminent certainty 30
- The Divine himself comes down as a dynamic conscious force 30
- Nature's evolutionary crises are always worked out swiftly by such a descent 30
Even of this descent of the Divine Consciousness, there are varying degrees 30
- In the inferior ranges of evolutionary Nature – Descent is partial and indirect 30
- Nature's attempt at the transcendence of Mind – A more direct and integral descent 31
Lines of the Descent of Consciousness 32
Creation itself is the descent of the supreme Reality into Matter and as Matter 32
- The supreme Reality – A triune entity of Existence, Consciousness and Bliss 32
Creation is the opposite of the primal reality – What is the significance of this riddle? 32
We shall try to understand the how – In so doing perhaps we may get at the why of it 32
- The absolute in its triple or triune status is an infinity and unity 33
- The One becomes Many by a process of self-concentration and self-limitation 33
- At the very outset is the world of fundamental realities – The Supermind or Gnosis 34
- The next steps – The descent leads to the creation or appearance of the Overmind 34
- The next step of Descent is the Mind – The individualities have become totally isolated 35
- Between the Overmind and the Mind proper – Intuition, Illumined Mind, Higher Mind 36
- A further descent into obscurity occurs from Mind to Life 36
- In the vital, three ranges – The Heart, the Higher Vital, the Lower Vital 37
- The last step in the process of transmutation or involution is Matter 37
This is, so far then, the original and primal line of descent – The sense in all that? 37
First, then, there is a descent, a gradual involution, next, an ascent, a gradual evolution 38
- Matter holds consciousness secreted and involved within itself 38
This imprisoned consciousness in Matter forces Matter to be conscious again 38
The mounting consciousness re-ascends step by step the same gradient 39
- Consciousness is now striving to enter the Overmind and the Supermind 39
- Evolution consists of two parallel lines in a single process – Sublimation and integration 40
First, there is the line of sublimation – A process of refinement or elimination 40
The process of integration – The lower exists but lifted up into the higher 40
- Along with the visible movement of ascent, there is a hidden movement of descent 41
The mere drive from below is not sufficient all by itself to bring out the higher status 41
- The higher status itself has to descend at the crucial moment in order to be manifest 41
- After the Mind, the next higher grade of consciousness shall come by the same method 41
- This, then, is the nature of creation and its process, an Involution, an Evolution 42
Creation thus follows naturally a definite pattern of process – The goal, a divine life 43
We have so far spoken of two lines of descent of a general and impersonal character 43
There is another aspect in which the descent is of a conscious being or Person 43
- The supreme Reality is not merely a principle but a personality – Purushottama 43
The creation is the will of the Divine Father executed by the Divine Mother 43
- In the downward involutionary course the Person has been following a parallel course 43
At the origin lies the Supreme Person, in his dual aspect of being and nature 43
Next is the domain of the Supermind with which the manifestation of the Divine starts 44
- Four Personalities of iswara – Mahavira, Balarama, Pradyumna, Aniruddha 44
- Four Powers of the Mother – Maheshwari, Mahakali, Mahalakshmi, Mahasaraswati 44
Next in the downward gradient comes the Overmind – The abode of the high gods 44
- It is these that the Vedic Rishis appear to have envisaged and sought after 44
The next stage of devolution is the Mind proper 45
- Between the Overmind and the Mind there is a class of lesser gods – The form-makers 45
- Mind is the "own home" of egoism 45
- Individualism culminates, as its extreme and violent expression, in the Asura 45
- The Asura or the Titan is the personification of ambition and authority and arrogance 45
The Asura belongs to what we call the Higher Vital – Perverse power 45
Lower down in the Mid Vital appear the Rakshasas – Insatiate hunger 45
The Vital is also the field of some strong creative Powers, guardian angels 46
All this is comprised within what we term the Higher or the Middle Vital 47
In the lower vital we place the piśācas, djinns, ghouls and ghosts, and vampires 47
Further down appear imps, elfs, pixies, goblins, gnomes, fairies or dryads and naiads 47
- We have thus far followed the course of the break-up of Personality 47
- With the reversal of consciousness – An evolution of the personal aspect of the reality 47
In Matter, there is no personality or individuality 48
Individualisation starts with the coming of life 48
Man is not merely an individual, he is also a personality – His true psychic centre 48
- This flowering of the psychic personality is due to the descent of the Jivatman 48
- The Jivas are part and parcel of the one supreme Reality, Sachchidananda. 48
- The human being has come to its own precisely by a descent of its own self from above 48
Three characteristics – Self-consciousness, conscious will, purposive drive 50
Naturally there appear gradations of the human personality 50
- Spiritual initiation – The first turning of the human personality to a new mode of life 50
- The possibility of transformation of personality in higher and higher spiritual degree 50
- The final coalescence of the psychic being with the Jivatman occurs in the Supermind 50
Rebirth in the evolution of the human personality – The mystery of the developing psyche 51
- Each span of life means a special degree or mode of growth 51
- The whole end in view of this secret soul is to be united again with its Oversoul 51
The supramentalisation of the personality is yet not the final end of Nature's march 52
- Only, supramentalisation means the definite crossing over from Ignorance 52
We have spoken of four lines of Descent – A fifth line, the descent of the Divine himself 52
- The Indian word for Divine Incarnation, avatāra, literally means he who has descended 52
He shows, by example, how the ascension is to be effected – The Lord of Yoga 52
- Yoga is the means and method by which one consciously uplifts oneself 52
With his physical body the Divine Incarnation seems to push and lift up physical Nature 52
- We are today on the earth at such a crisis of evolution – A new manifestation 54
An Aspect of Emergent Evolution 55
The theory of Emergent Evolution should be considered as a statement of fact 55
- At each crucial step Nature brings forth a new element which could not be foreseen 55
- The question of explanations and of viewpoints regarding them is raised 55
Out of Matter came Life, and that can only be because Life was involved in Matter 56
Mind that followed Life came out of Life, because Mind was involved in Life 56
Creation is a vibration of consciousness – Only forms and modalities of consciousness 56
- Now after Mind there emerges another principle which has been termed Deity 57
By Deity the emergent evolutionists mean the embodiment of the religious feeling 57
Does this point to the emergence of a new type of superhuman beings? 57
The conception of Avatarhood – A divine embodiment of each newly emerged principle 58
- A Rama comes and is set up an ideal of sattwic humanity 58
- A Krishna appears and human consciousness is lifted, potentially at least 58
The crown of evolution would then be the terrestrial incarnation of the Supreme Divine 58
- All previous Avatars are only a preparation for the coming of this Supreme Divine 59
- We await the Kalki Avatar who will bring in the Golden Age, Satya Youga 59
The evolutionary nisus, on its arrival at the apex – A movement from light to light 59
- We spoke of the emergence of the Deity after Mind. The question is, how long after? 59
Between Mind and Deity there may presumably still lie a course of graded emergence 59
- The Overmind and the Supermind – Farther steps coming after Mind 59
- Overmind is not the firm basis on which a new terrestrial organisation can stand 60
- Evolutionary Nature – First the Overmental principle and then the Supramental 60
PART THREE 61
The New Year Initiation 63
“the world implores Thee to prevent it from falling back always into the same stupidities” 63
“that its actions may be the exact and sincere expression of its proclaimed ideals” 63
To direct our efforts towards an application to life on the material plane 63
- One starts on the path of sadhana with an almost entire unconsciousness 63
- In the beginning, the sadhaka finds himself a divided personality 64
In this state we know what to do but cannot do it – The same stupidities time and again 64
Repentance and supplication for the divine grace is the remedy, says the devout Christian 64
But repentance does not allow the memory of the sin to be forgotten – Not our path 64
The divine grace is a fact – The law is that the field must be ready for the descent 64
- Personal effort is the determining factor 64
- Then, along with the purification, the achievement will begin to take on a material form 65
The scope of this New Year Prayer – The muffled voice of entire humanity 65
- The modern world has become a Kurukshetra of Gods and Titans 65
- Whether man will transcend or descend back – The problem of the present World War 65
One must definitely choose one's loyalty – There is no room today for a neutral 66
The choice of the path is not by itself sufficient – To be really walking straight along 66
Nations have to prove that their entire being is really one in ideal and in intention 67
If we falter, fail and break faith, we shall fall into the clutches of very hostile powers 67
- We have hope and confidence that the secret urge of Nature will save man 67
Yogic Initiation and Aptitude 68
Everybody cannot take to a life of Yoga at one's sweet will 68
- One must first acquire fitness before one should think of spiritual initiation 68
- The question “why should not all men equally have the right to spiritual sadhana?” 68
Those that have fallen, strayed from the Path, make up a casualty list that is not small 68
It has to be seen whether a person has a natural ability for the special training 69
If you enter the spiritual path, often, you come in touch with hidden powers 69
- You break down under their impact, unless your adhara has already been prepared 69
Among the ancients – Regulations to test the aptitude or fitness of an aspirant 69
- Obedience and endurance are fundamental and indispensable conditions in sadhana 69
- One should carry out the directions of the Guru without question or complaint 69
These tests have no place in our sadhana 70
- Accomplishments on the mental plane, the vital plane – No assurance of one's success 70
What then is the indispensable and unfailing requisite? – Only one thing, the “Call" 71
- If the call is there all else will come to you, will be called in as it were inevitably 71
This Call is none other than the call of your own inmost being, of your secret self 71
The first dawning of the spiritual life means the coming forward of this inner being 71
The inner soul, the psychic, very often undergoes a secret preparation 73
- Virtues are not indications, nor are vices irremediable obstacles 73
Here in his inner being man has infinite capacity and unbounded aptitude 74
- In the practice of Yoga – The fitness or capacity that the inner being thus lends 74
Initiation deriving from the inner being is the only initiation that is valid and fruitful 74
Mantra or initiation, in its essence, is nothing else than contacting the inner being 75
- The only thing needed is to awake to the consciousness of the psychic being 75
- At each step and every moment we have to undergo the test of our sincerity and loyalty 75
- This recurrent and continuous initiation is at the secret basis of all spiritual discipline 75
Arjuna or The Ideal Disciple 76
What makes a true disciple? – Disciplehood is a function of the soul 76
- Arjuna fulfils the fundamental conditions of discipleship 76
- A disciple is not a bundle of qualifications and attainments – An aspiring soul 77
It is the soul's love for the Divine that can render one worthy of the Divine Grace 77
- Arjuna's was a heroic nature – That did not immune him to the normal reactions 78
Questionings every aspirant has to pass through when he arrives at the crucial point 78
- What is required of the ideal disciple is the resolution to go through to the end 78
The Body Human 79
The human frame is a miracle of creation 79
- The perfection of the structure in man consists in its wonderful elasticity 79
The other species are, more or less, a specialised formation 79
- The human frame – All creatures crowd there, even the ungodly and the undivine 80
Man's progress has to be worked out through this duality of the divine and the undivine 80
- Man becomes the Divine on all the levels of the manifestation 80
- All the planes of consciousness with all the hierarchy of beings find a new play 80
- A supreme and global fulfilment in the transfigured human vehicle 80
- Vaishnavism – Krishna's body is the physical itself but in its true substance 82
- The Christian conception of God-man 82
This carnal sinful body has been sanctified by the Christ having assumed it 82
Mary, symbolising the earth or body consciousness, was taken up bodily 82
The body celestial is filled with the divine substance – The very image of God here below 82
The mystery of Transubstantiation repeats and confirms the same symbology 82
- Man can surpass himself – Man is not bound to his human nature 83
Man can be the very supreme godhead or at the other extreme a mere brute 83
Man is co-extensive with the Divine – Man is the figure of the Divine Person 83
- The materialisation of an immortal being and figure of being is the consummation 83
- The human appearance is an extension or projection of an inner and essential reality 84
Some Conceptions and Misconceptions 85
At what stage or level of Involution does the principle of Ignorance come in? 85
Was it not in the Absolute Reality itself? – Why should it come out at a later stage? 85
- The Absolute Reality contains all 85
The original truths of things alone are there, not their derivations and deformations 85
Manifestation or creation means a gradual shift in the stress of consciousness 86
- Involution – The path traced by consciousness in its changing modes of concentration 86
Four modes of this concentration – Essential, integral, total or global, separative 86
- The first is the superconscient Silence, at one end, and the Inconscience, at the other 86
- The second is the total Sachchidananda, the supramental concentration 86
- The third is the multiple or totalising overmental awareness 86
- The fourth is the concentration of Ignorance 86
Along with the vertical movement of Involution there is also a horizontal movement 87
- What appears ignorant is full of a secret Knowledge 87
There can be an inclusive concentration embracing the frontal and the behind 87
- From a unilateral towards an ever widening multiple functioning of concentration 87
The exclusive concentration was the final term of a movement of separativity 88
- A one-pointed self-absorption, that is Ignorance, is not the only way 88
- The vast consciousness acts with absolute perfection but consciously 88
The principle of "exclusive concentration" creates the perception of separativeness 89
- The sense of limitation comes out of the exclusive concentration 89
The force of individuation "devolves" into a force of limitation 89
Limitation is a movement of Ignorance – Delimitation is a movement of knowledge 89
The limitation in Ignorance is apparent – That does not mean it is unreal or illusory 90
- Limitation is real, as also delimitation. Only the former is a temporary reality 90
- The Mayavadin ascribes true reality to the transcendental alone 90
Sri Aurobindo’s view – The triple states form the true and total reality 90
- The transcendent reality is immanent in the cosmos, resident in the individual 90
- In this view nothing is illusory, even though some may be temporary 90
- The principle of exclusive concentration cannot be viewed as functioning by itself 91
The element of limitation – The act of the whole consciousness in its multiple functioning 91
The reverse movement is also likewise a global act 91
Here or Otherwhere 92
Whether it is possible to do Yoga while remaining in the world 92
- To be in the very midst of the worldly forces and yet remain unshaken by them 92
- What is meant by being in the world? – Participating in the movements of the world 92
The question we have to ask in that case is what happens to our duties 92
- The Christ is categorical on the point – You have to give up, if you wish to gain 92
- The Gita's position seems to be to undertake all necessary work and turn them Godward 93
The question naturally turns upon the nature and the kind of work 93
- There are social duties and activities and relations that inevitably dissolve 93
- You have to learn to go beyond and new-create your environment 93
The Sunlit Path 95
The sunlit path in Yoga – When the sadhaka keeps touch with his psychic consciousness 95
- A doubting mind, an impetuous vital urge, an inert physical consciousness cannot upset 95
- Even outward circumstances bow down to the pressure of the psychic temperament 95
- A secret joy and cheer and strength that buoy you up and carry you through 95
Like the individual, nations too have their sunlit path 95
- So long as a nation keeps to the truth of its inner being – Divine blessings and fulfilment 95
India refused to see the great purpose behind the present war 95
Britain in a moment of supreme crisis swore allegiance to the cause of humanity 95
France bowed down but there were souls who were willing to pay the price 95
- Once more another crisis seems to be looming before the nations 96
If the present war has any meaning, then we must never lose sight of that meaning 96
- Our true victory will come only in the process of the realisation of that meaning 96
The Spiritual Outlook 97
The spiritual outlook is a global view, unlike the mental 97
- The ordinary man has always a definite standpoint from which he surveys and judges 97
- The spiritual consciousness dawns with the rejection of this one-track mentality 97
When one tries to see what is the underlying truth that seeks to manifest in each 97
The spiritual consciousness is global – The one dynamic truth that underlies all 98
- When the Divine acts, it acts always in and through this innermost truth of things 98
When the Divine helps the seeker, it touches and inspires the secret soul in him 98
The Divine chastises also in the same way – It deals with the undivine in the divine way 98
- The Asura also has his truth – The Divine picks up that core of truth and takes it away 98
- There is then this singular and utter harmony in the divine consciousness 98
The spiritual man finds that he is in all and all are in him and that he is all and all are he 98
Sectarianism or Loyalty 99
Modern culture demands that one should not be bound to one creed or dogma 99
- While attempting to be too liberal and catholic one may happen to turn a dilettante 99
- A spiritual interest involves a choice, a process of acceptance and rejection 99
One has to be loyal and faithful to one's nature and being 99
- It is not only bad influences that affect you badly, even good influences do so 100
- The reason why heresy was considered such a dangerous thing in all religions 100
Each one seeks and finds the one God in and through a particular formulation 100
- That is the original meaning, the genesis and justification of creeds and dogmas 100
- One can be faithful even to a particular creed and dogma and yet transcend it 100
We may learn from many places, but the central guidance flows from one source only 101
Sincerity 102
The first condition of the spiritual life and the last condition as well, is sincerity 102
- When one feels the call, moves towards the life spiritual, one is then naturally sincere 102
- This central sincerity, however, has to be worked out in actual life 102
The light of the central being usually finds its way first into the mind – Mentally sincere 102
- But this mental sincerity remains mostly ineffective with regard to life and character 102
- One appears at this stage to lead a double life – One remains at best a witness 102
It is the sincerity in the vital that brings about the crucial, the most dynamic change 102
Finally, the vital sincerity calls for the sincerity in the body 102
- When the body is reached, the consciousness becomes a massive pyramid of loyalty 102
True Humility 104
It is not by repeating mea culpa ad infinitum that one can show one's true humility 104
- Owning too much and too often one's sins – One may be on the wrong side of virtue 104
- One sees what one actually is and then takes to the ways and means of changing it 104
- It is not your self but the Divine Self that will come to your succour and lift you up 104
- An atmosphere of alacrity and happiness and goodwill is demanded of you 104
Humility can be smiling and buoyant, knowing that things will be done 104
- Provided the right consciousness, the right will within is maintained 104
- Humility is full of gratitude and thanksgiving and quiet trust and hopefulness 105
Absolute nullity of the egoistic self is the condition needed – An unostentatious quietness 105
The Spirit of Tapasya 106
Tapasya (Asceticism) – As the capacity to undergo physical discomfort and suffering 106
- Often one deceives oneself – Preserving one's unsaintliness behind physical tapasya 106
Real Tapasya is not in relation to the body – To the inner being 106
- Tapasya, austerity – Reacting to the downward pull of the ordinary consciousness 106
- Heroism consists in this untiring march upward to more and more rarefied heights 107
Tapas means energy of consciousness 107
- Tapasya is the utilisation of energy for the ascent and expansion of the consciousness 107
Dynamic Fatalism 108
“The supramental change is a thing decreed and inevitable” 108
If it is so, then what is the necessity at all of this difficult process of sadhana? 108
- The change decreed is precisely worked out through the travail – Both are decreed 108
- Man can help or retard the process of Nature, in a sense 109
In reality man neither helps nor hinders Prakriti – The two are not separate entities 109
- Man is the conscious movement of Nature 109
Mater Dolorosa 110
Suffering, Distress and Death – That seems to be the ineluctable fate for mankind 110
- All equally undergo the same heavy punishment – A most mechanical Nature? 110
- Some believe that the world is the creation of another being, a not-God, a not-Spirit 110
- The question is which level of consciousness and how much is effective in normal life 110
If we are in the ordinary consciousness – In the midst of Nature's current 110
In a mood of withdrawal from the current of life – We remain playthings of Nature 110
- What is ignored in this view is Nature's dual reality 111
The Inferior Nature means the Law of Ignorance, the superior, the Law of Knowledge 111
- The whole question then is this – How far has this Higher Nature been a reality with us 111
Freedom from the gunas does not mean an absolute cessation of the play of Prakriti 111
- Being in the gunas we must know how to purify and change them, transmute them 111
This is a counsel of perfection, one would say. But there is no other way out 112
In the meanwhile other remedies have their utility in Nature's integral economy 112
- An organisation based on science and ethicism can be of help as a palliative 112
Origin and Nature of Suffering 113
We ask what delight can the soul take when the body is suffering 113
- We do find that suffering is not always mere suffering 113
There is a greater delight in the case of the ascetic, the martyr, the patriot 113
Another state in which suffering is not merely suppressed but sublimited – The soul state 114
We come back to the question why or how does the soul become a thing of misery 114
- The soul accepts a mortal life of pain and suffering for two reasons 114
To grow and increase in consciousness through such experiences 114
To transfer its purity into Matter, by its secret pressure and influence transform life 114
- All experiences act indeed as fuel to the flame of the soul's consciousness 114
- The soul accepts the forms of misery in order to cure them, transform them 114
The Tragic Spirit in Nature 116
It seems that nothing great or glorious can be achieved which is not marred somehow 116
- There runs a pessimistic vein in Nature's movement – Due to the original Inconscience 117
The Evil is nothing else than the basis of unconsciousness or Inconscience in Nature 117
- It is this which pulls the being down to decay and frustration – The force of inertia 117
- A great personality means a great rise in consciousness – Therefore a snap or scission 117
The tragedy can happen in either of two ways 117
- The individual's own unconsciousness can overthrow and spoil his higher poise 117
- The collective unconsciousness too can invade and overwhelm the individual 117
A way, however, was discovered in India – To rise sufficiently high and fly 117
But this need not be the only solution – Matter has an inner core of consciousness 118
- This hidden flame of consciousness should be brought out and made dynamic 118
- This would mean a reconditioning, a transmutation of the very basis of mind and life 118
The Soul's Odyssey 119
The Odyssey of the human soul 119
- The Soul is essentially one in being and nature with the supreme Reality 119
- The Soul has, at the same time, its own proper domain, exclusively its own 119
- But when it inhabits a mortal body, it withdraws behind or within the depth of the heart 119
From its secret home the Soul exerts its influence which filters through 119
A physical incarnation clouds the soul-consciousness and involves loss of memory 120
Man carries within him that radiant core through the peregrinations of earthly sojourn 120
- There is a stream of inner consciousness – The silver lining to the dark cloud 120
- At times a tongue of flame leaps out – A saint, a seer, a poet, a prophet, a hero 120
- To live normally and naturally in that fiery element – The ultimate end of rebirth 120
PART FOUR 123
The Divine Man 125
The core of Sri Aurobindo's teaching is the mystery of the Divine Descent 125
- Spirit descending into Matter and becoming Matter 125
- God coming down upon earth and becoming human 125
- As a consequence, Matter being transformed into Spirit and man becoming Godlike 125
- This is a fact of creation giving the whole clue to the riddle of this world 125
In the past men concluded that escape was the only solution 125
As Sri Aurobindo sees it – The world has a future and man has hope 125
The urge of the spiritual consciousness manifests itself in the forward drive of evolution 125
- Not merely a general descent – There is the descent of the personal Godhead 126
The secret of Divine Incarnation is the supreme secret 126
- Something of this truth has been caught in the Christian view of Incarnation 126
- The Indian view of Incarnation – More stress upon a new order in life 126
- The Avatar means a new revelation and the uplift of the human consciousness 126
- Sri Aurobindo does not believe in an original evil – It is real, but it is not irremediable 126
Man too, however earthly and impure he may be, is essentially the Divine himself 127
The Divine enters into the Evil to root out the Evil and fructify the seed of Divinity 128
- The Divine descends as an individual person to raise humanity to divinity 128
- Man too as man has to do his part 129
The Divine descends when forces and instruments have been developed 129
What has been so long practically beyond reach has now been brought closer 129
- The Grace has leaned down to man, but man too has at least to stretch his arms 129
- To make that Grace permanently active, one has to work out what is given potentially 129
- Perhaps the mystery conveyed in the Christian sacrament of transubstantiation 130
Human Progress 131
Has man advanced, progressed since his advent upon earth? If so, in what manner? 131
- If we admit that man has not merely changed but progressed – In what sense 131
- Modern knowledge – What marks the growth of man is his use of tools 131
Four ages – The Old Stone Age, the New Stone Age, the Bronze Age and the Iron Age 131
The physical change is nothing compared with the change in the consciousness 132
- The history of man's artisanship is also the history of his growing self-consciousness 132
How far this self-consciousness has advanced and what is its future? 133
- The crucial problem is whether man has progressed in historical times 133
- A distinction is sometimes made between culture and civilisation 133
What the moderns have achieved is progress with regard to civilisation 133
One can answer that the metal age is now not more than ten thousand years 134
- Perhaps it is just time for another radical and crucial change to come 134
- The question – Some progress of human nature within the span of historical times? 134
The older humanity was intuitive and instinctive, while modern humanity is rationalistic 134
We characterise the change as a special degree or order of self-consciousness 135
The first degree of self-consciousness displayed itself in a creative activity 135
- This creative activity – With regard to one's own self. With regard to the external nature 135
- The former gave rise to mysticism and Yoga. The second has led us to Science 135
The second degree – The spirit and power of scientific experimentation 136
- It means a perfect knowledge of the process of things – The mechanistic knowledge 136
What is the new element brought in by the modern scientific intellectualism? 137
- The old intellectualism sought to find norms and categories in the mind itself 137
- The scientific procedure is to find Nature's own categories – The objectivity 137
- A subject-object relation marks the evolutionary course of the human consciousness 138
- A still further unveiling seems to be in progress now 138
This self-consciousness has to be consciously transcended into the superconsciousness 138
We can thus note three stages in the human cycle of Nature's evolution 138
- The first was the period of emergence of self-consciousness – The ancient civilisations 138
- Next, the age of speculation and of scholasticism and alchemy – The Middle Ages 138
- The Scientific Age – A junction between the self-consciousness and its objective field 138
- The present age which ushers a fourth stage is pregnant with a fateful crisis 139
The way out – An elevation of the self-consciousness into a superconsciousness 139
This superconsciousness – Upon a double movement of sublimation and integration 139
- The rationalisation of consciousness is really an attempt at sublimation 139
- Only, ascension does not mean alienation, it must mean a gathering up 139
Consciousness as Energy 141
Action does not consist merely in mechanical motion visible to the eye 141
- Vivekananda is only a spark from the mighty Energy that Ramakrishna was 141
- What is this spiritual or Yogic Energy? 141
Ordinary people would concede two kinds of activity – Real and passive activity 141
- According to the pragmatic standard, the thoughtful people are ineffectual 141
Energy, however, is not merely either muscular (physical) or cerebral 142
Vital energy is this that brings about what we call success in the world 142
- The Yogi aims at a higher quality, a deeper potentiality of the life energy 142
-The mastery of the inner vital energy is the whole secret of what is known as occultism 142
This universal vital energy is an instrument – Consciousness is the secret 143
- It is the aim of all Yoga, spiritual discipline, finally to arrive at this consciousness 143
- Thus consciousness is not merely a status of being, but also a force of becoming 143
- The proper key had not been found that could release and manipulate the Energy 144
The force of consciousness is not simply the force an idea or thought may have 144
- Mind energy, life energy, physical or material energy are various forms 144
- Consciousness has a fourfold potential 144
The first potential is the normal consciousness, which is predominantly mental 144
The second potential is that of the Inner Consciousness – The subliminal consciousness 144
There is a deeper or nether consciousness – The inconscient, conscious in its own way 144
- This region of the inconscient lies at the root of all surface dynamisms 144
As there is a subconsciousness or unconsciousness, so also there is superconsciousness 146
- All norms and archetypes belong to the superconsciousness 147
Modern psychology teaches that one should dive into the nether regions 147
- The integration of his personality – Only by the intervention of the superconsciousness 147
- The yearning and urge in the subconsciousness – Towards this superconsciousness 147
This supreme form of superconscient consciousness-energy – The Supermind 148
- We have spoken of the Inner Consciousness – There is also an Inmost Consciousness 148
This inmost consciousness is the consciousness of the soul, the Psychic Being 148
This inmost consciousness – A link between the higher and lower forms of consciousness 148
The Inner Consciousness – A medium through which the action of the Inmost takes place 148
- In the devotional language of the Mystics 149
The Inmost Consciousness is the Divine Child 149
The Superconscient is the Divine Father 149
The Inferior Consciousness is the Great Mother 149
The Inner and the Outer Consciousness are the field of play of this Divine Trinity 149
- Man, we thus see, is an infinitely composite being – Four or five major chords in him 149
These elements exist and act simultaneously, although in various degrees and stresses 149
- The right mode or potential of spiritual energy has not been found 149
The secret of releasing this atomic energy of the Spirit – In the Science of Yoga 150
Evolution of the Spiritual Consciousness 151
Even the Vedic Rishis used to refer to the ancients, more ancient than they themselves 151
- The idea is that the fundamental spiritual realisation remains the same 151
So it is declared that there are clear pathways which one has to follow – Is it so in fact? 151
- The evolutionary character of human nature – Body, vital, mental consciousness 152
One can have the religious or spiritual experience on each of these planes 152
The Divine or the spiritual consciousness is a vast, complex, stratified reality 152
- There are different levels or approaches that serve different seekers 152
- There is a physical Divine, a vital Divine, a mental Divine – And beyond the mind 152
- The spiritual consciousness rises tier upon tier 152
A movement of escape – No importance of a scientific scrutiny of the Beyond 152
- The question engaged the attention of the ancients – But not the need of the hour 153
We need at the present hour a complete and precise science of the Divine Consciousness 153
- Sri Aurobindo's charting of that vast unknown – The science which the world needs 153
Today, one can determine the stages of the evolution of the spiritual consciousness 154
- The spiritual consciousness has been rising to higher and higher peaks 154
- Now the time is come for the spiritual consciousness to arrive to the Supermind 154
- The call of the present age – Human nature incarnating the spiritual consciousness 154
The Freedom and the Force of the Spirit 156
Circumstances – Man can always react against them 156
- First, the independence and autonomy of the inner man 156
The Yogi is he who is supremely indifferent to outside contacts 156
- Secondly, the freedom of the will exerts a pressure upon the field and circumstances 156
All depends on the nature of the consciousness and the will it embodies 156
Consciousness-will has varying degrees and levels of its potential 156
- A mental will, a vital will, a physical force – Only a very limited result 156
- The truly effective will is the will of the soul – The spiritual discipline or Yoga 157
The ordinary average man – His life is almost wholly moulded by circumstances 157
- Even among the average men there are many who are called men of will 157
- To control and guide Nature's dispensation – Into one's soul, one attains immortality 158
To Be or Not To Be 159
To defend yourself against your attacker and kill him or let yourself be killed 159
- By not resisting evil one risks to perpetuate the very thing that one fears 159
- Men have different natures – Their paths of growth and development must be different 160
There is one dharma for each – The Brahmin, the Kshatriya, the Vaishya, the Shudra 160
- The Brahmin represents knowledge, comprehension and inclusion – He does not fight 160
- A Kshatriya is the armed guard of knowledge and truth – He has to resist the evil 160
- There will always be a problem, a difficult decision to make, a divided loyalty 161
The Gita says, the highest law, the supreme code of conduct, is the Divine Will 161
- The only work for man is to discover and identify oneself with this Divine Will 161
- Once in this status of the divine consciousness, one passes beyond the three Gunas 161
One thing has to be cast aside ruthlessly, the egoistic consciousness – The ego goes 162
- It is this that has passions and prejudices, likes and dislikes, ideas and ideals of its own 162
Readings in “Savitri” 163
“A stone-still figure of high and godlike Pain […] Afflicted by his harsh divinity” 163
- That is the Divine Being who lost himself totally when transmuted into Matter 163
- That is what Savitri, the universal Divine Grace, finds at the core of her being 163
The Divine Grace has pity for the hard lot of a humanity stone-bound, yet yearning 163
- A constant struggle between the aspiration "to be" and the will of inertia "not to be" 164
The round of ordinary life – The steps of the marching Divinity towards godhead in man 164
Savitri, the Divine Grace in human form, is upon earth to raise man to godhead 165
- The Divine Mother has taken upon herself the entire burden of an earthly life 165
The eternal assaults with its luminous force the lowest element of human consciousness 166
- The human consciousness will be in the end transmuted in the divine embrace 166
PART FIVE 167
At the Origin of Ignorance 169
The Divine Consciousness as four attributes – Light, Force, Delight and Knowledge 169
- The differentiation is a play immanent in the integral self-nature of the Supreme 169
Multiplicity, however, implies freedom of movement in the Unique 169
Now, the result of this freedom is somewhat unexpected – A clear separation 169
- It is no original sin – An inevitable expression of the freedom that particulars enjoy 169
The assertion of complete independence – A complete negation of the original attributes 170
- Light became obscurity or Inconscience 170
- Life became death 170
- Delight became pain and suffering 170
- Power became incapacity 170
- Knowledge became Ignorance, and Truth became falsehood 170
Spirit became Matter to demonstrate a more integral way of affirmation of the Spirit 170
Physician, Heal Thyself 171
It is not that humanity does not know or feel the need of a radical change in itself 171
- If man wishes to be cured, he must transcend his present nature and be something else 171
And yet man looks outside, seeks to reform society 171
The only way to cure the world outside is to cure oneself first inside 171
- Look within oneself – The larger anonymous movements of nature and society 171
- Our own individual nature and character to reform, renew and remake 171
Each man is given his little domain within him and he is master of that domain 172
- Man has a will – This will he can consciously develop 172
- Will is a twofold power. It is energy and it is light 172
The measure of the success within will be the measure of the success without 173
The Body Natural 174
With regard to food – The real need of the body, vital desire and mental notions 174
- The body is at present a slave of the mind and the vital 174
The body left to itself knows what is good for its health and strength 174
- The body has plasticity and stability, when it is not troubled by the mind or vital 175
The Measure of Time 176
When it is said that the Realisation is decreed – Has the time for it been fixed? 176
- If so, all individual effort and freedom of action seem irrelevant 176
- The common notion that everything is predetermined as to the time when it will happen 176
Determinism and Indeterminism, Free-Will and Mechanism are set up by the mind 176
Looked at from the higher source of things, the time-factor itself appears as an illusion 176
- What is true is a certain set of conditions in which forces work themselves out 176
- The time taken simply indicates that the process is being worked out – The tempo 177
Man the Prototype 178
The earth has a divine role to fulfil – There is only one earth and not many 178
- The planets, the moon and the sun have each its conscious personality 178
The so-called Nature-gods generally are realities 178
- There are group personalities – Thus each species has a generic personality 178
Sudden variation or mutation is due to an occult change – The group soul 178
- Man too as a species has a generic personality, his prototype 179
Man in his essential form and reality is found at the beginning of creation 179
- When the unmanifest Transcendent steps forward – Man in his essential form 179
The essential appearance of Man is the prototype of the actual man 179
- The winged angels, the cherubs and seraphs are nothing akin to the Prototype of man 179
- The prototype – A subtle yet perfect harmony of vibrations forming a living whole 179
There is something eternal and transcendent in the human body-frame 180
The Rôle of Evil 181
Evil upon earth has introduced certain factors in human life, certain experiences 181
- The presence of evil moved the Divine and Grace was born – Into the very lowest 181
Hope was lit, a flame rising from the nether gloom towards the Dawn 181
This is the divine miracle – The Divine himself becoming an earthly creature 182
Man and Superman 183
The superman – A new race will appear on earth as the result of Nature's evolution 183
- The new race will be developed out of the present humanity 183
- But Supermanhood means giving up many human qualities and attributes 183
The intellect and reasoning power will have to surrender and abdicate 183
And then the zest of life, that works through contradictions, will have to go 183
And above all man is asked to give up his ego in order to attain the superhuman status 183
- So, the probability is that a large part of humanity will remain – The normal human life 184
- What would be the relation between the two humanities, the human and the divine? 184
The superman will be the perfect aid that even ordinary humanity can ask for and receive 184
Man can be a more humanistic creature – To this the divine race will surely contribute 185
There will emerge a sort of higher humanity – An intermediary between the two 185
The other extreme possibility – The old humanity in a body rejects the New Man 186
- Then it would mean either the end of humanity or its reversion to a wild savage state 186
True Charity 187
Charity is commonly understood to consist in rendering material help to your fellow men 187
- This is good. But this does not go far enough, does not touch the root of the matter 187
- There is a diviner way – The secret behind the message of the Christ and the Buddha 187
The bliss of the Spirit as the sole remedy for physical ills, for disease, misery and death 187
- The unhappy mortals are always called to turn to the Divine alone in their distress 187
- True charity – Laying the healing balm upon the sore hidden behind external miseries 187
It is in the sole possession of him alone who has found the bliss of the Spirit 187
- Many physicians have this kind of healing power – A part of the efficacy of medicines 187
The healer need not even be present at all physically near the patient 187
- The healing power is in the spiritual consciousness 187
This condition is attained fully there is absolute egolessness 188
- Vanity and ambition lie behind the philanthropical spirit born of sympathy 188
- Empathy is identification and identity – What spiritual consciousness alone can do 188
Varieties of Religious Experience 190
Religions which did not believe in the divinity of man – The Chaldean, the Semitic 190
- According to these, the Creator and the created are separate in nature and being 190
- Can we say, ‘I am born of God, and yet I am not God’? – The Indian conception 190
God has become and is man and the world. Not only so, but He descends – Avatarhood 190
- The Christian conception seems to occupy an intermediary position 191
Christ is not only the Son of God, he is also the God-Man – Still a difference 191
- The Sufi doctrine also, like the Christian – Between the Chaldean and the Vedantic 191
- The special gift of the Chaldean line – It was occupied the mid regions, the occult world 191
This occultism was also practised very largely in ancient Egypt 191
The Greeks took up a few threads – The Mysteries, Orphic and Eleusinian 191
In Christianity, side by side with the major saints, practicants followed the occult system 191
Viewed in the true light, occultism is dynamic spirituality 192
- Occultism – An indispensable instrument to manifest the Divine in a concrete form 192
Children and Child Mentality 194
Children are often found to be very cruel to animals – Self-centredness 194
- All a child does and feels is for himself, for his own pleasure and free self-assertion 194
Fellow-feeling grows later on, as the result of shocks in mutual interchange 194
- Other factors affect and mould the child's consciousness from the very beginning 194
The surroundings in which a child lives and grows – A pure environment is needed 195
The very central character of the child consciousness is confidence in life 195
- This confidence is the cause of the body's growth and keeps the body young 195
- The wisest teacher encourages the life urge in the child – High ideals and purposes 195
Two failings which a teacher must guard against – Telling a lie and losing temper 196
The Soul of a Nation 198
A nation is a living personality; it has a soul, even like a human individual 198
- Even like the soul of a man, the nation's soul is behind its external life 198
- The individual can come in contact with the nation's soul in and through his own soul 198
- A nation can deny its soul, even as an individual may and the result is disaster 198
- Like the individual a nation too dies – That soul lives in its own domain 199
When the soul withdraws, the body of the nation falls gradually into decadence 199
- But it may happen that the soul that retired comes back – A national resurrection 199
We do not believe that India was ever completely dead or hopelessly moribund 200
- India must know how to march with the time, not to cling to old and past forms 200
The Soul and its Journey 201
Two periods in the life after death – First, the passage and next the rest 201
- The passage means the gradual shedding of the sheaths that surround the psychic being 201
Unless the psychic being has organised around itself any of these elements 201
In that case, as much of the terrestrial parts will share in the immortality of the soul 201
- The memory of past lives – The attribute of the psychic consciousness 202
The only sure way of remembering the past is to go into the psychic being 202
The passage between death and the arrival at final rest is a most difficult ordeal 202
- The body protects the subtle body against the attacks of other worlds and their beings 203
Outside the body, there is every danger to be hurt, unless guided by a guardian angel 203
If one has within oneself an ardent flame, one can go through more or less easily 203
Even when alive, in sleep one goes out often – Experiences recorded as nightmares 203
- An easy and quick passage is determined by one's Karma in life and the last wish 203
One can be helped by others – By an inner detachment and calm prayer and goodwill 203
A truly conscious help can be given only by one who has the requisite occult power 203
Once in its place of rest the soul assimilates all the experiences of its last life 204
- These experiences – To bring the soul nearer its union with the Divine Consciousness 204
- Here also the being prepares for the impending birth – A broad planning too is made 204
- The psychic being when it comes down upon earth 204
It calls round itself elements of mind and vital and even subtle physical needed 204
But beings have personalities of mind and life and even of the physical consciousness 204
- In such cases, the outer personality continues to exist with the psychic consciousness 204
- The time and occasion for a particular birth of the soul depends on the inner need 205
It must be noted – The souls form groups or families according to some secret affinity 205
- When they come down, they do so not unoften in company 205
It may happen that in rushing down a psychic being is not too careful 205
- Not unoften a considerable discrepancy between the inner being and the tenement 205
This grouping – The psychic being's activity is the means of a new creation 206
- The souls have to assemble and move together for the interest of the play 206
The souls group themselves into natural types – And they form a hierarchy 206
- At the apex is the One Supreme, at the base the infinity of individual and disparate souls 206
- In between lie in a graded scale formations more and more specialised 206
The number of emanations multiply as one goes down and they decrease as one goes up 206
When we speak of kindred souls – Emanations of the same Over-Soul 206
Sometimes, the guardian angel is none other than one's own Over-Soul 206
- At the apex is the Purushottama – He expresses himself as Ishwara and Shakti 207
The Four Aspects of Ishwara are Mahavira, Balarama, Pradyumna and Aniruddha 207
The four aspects of Ishwari – Maheshwari, Mahakali, Mahalakshmi and Mahasaraswati 207
The higher Gods – Each as an emanation of one or other of these Divine Aspects 207
- Varuna seems to be an emanation of Mahavira, a son of Maheshwari 207
- The Four Supernals as Light or Consciousness, Truth or Knowledge, Life and Love 208
The tradition says that these four fundamental principles of creation were the first gods 208
As they separated they lost their divinity and turned into their opposites – The Asuras 208
Still the Pure Reality descends in its own line and man enshrines that within him 208
- And there are luminous godheads that help him and wish themselves to participate 208
The soul belongs to one or other of the fundamental type of divine personality 209
- The human soul is not merely a single ray of light from its divine archetype 210
- It takes in for its development elements from the others also 210
The Four primal personalities of the Divine are not separate and distinct 210
The Vedic gods themselves are linked together 210
- The full flowering of the human soul – The realisation of a many-aspected personality 210
PART SIX 211
The End of a Civilisation 213
The world has been going down in its course of degradation – The present century 213
- One of the great symptoms of the decline is the prevalence of wars 213
Another noticeable thing about these wars is their nature – Extensive and devastating 213
- Man has become worse than the animal – He is now the Pisacha, the ghoul, the demon 213
Vital worlds – Made of the most unimaginable horror and ugliness and devilry 214
That entire inner world seems to have precipitated itself upon earth and taken a body 214
- Perhaps it was necessary that it should be so 214
The humanistic cycle has reigned from ancient Greece down to modern America 214
- Is it not time that another consciousness should intervene? 214
- Yet if the civilisation really goes, it will not be a small thing 215
Civilisation really means preparation of the instrument to express the Divine 215
If the civilisation goes, it means the instrument is gone. So the labour has to start again 215
- Look at the individual. Life requires time to build and forge the instrument 215
- The thread is taken up again in another life – A considerable reduplication 215
- Yoga in the individual seeks to complete the cycle of individual growth in a single life 215
- Civilisation has reached a status when the next status can be and must be attempted 216
If the civilisation is to perish, it means mankind has to start over again its life course 216
- Already there have been such lost periods in man's evolution now submerged 216
Man shall be transcended and in the process, man, as he is, shall go 217
- Whether mankind will be able to grow, or, being unable, will go totally or be relegated 217
Darkness to Light 218
The Darkness is the measure of the Light. Man's fall represents the ascent he has to make 218
- Difficulties – By overcoming them you attain to the fullness of your perfection 218
A difficulty is never out of proportion to your strength 218
- What is expected of you is to do the best that you are capable of at that moment 218
Act on the heights where you stand and aspire for still higher heights 218
Types of Meditation 220
The first kind of meditation is to think on one subject in a continuous logical order 220
- At present, the school-life gives the best opportunity for this development 220
- The next type, concentration – Here we fix the thought upon one object unmoved 220
In this discipline the whole mind is gathered together and focussed 220
- A third grade – The mind becomes a void, all thoughts being driven out 221
The operation is difficult. For it means a kind of continuous and methodical drainage 221
There are other surer and even perhaps easier processes to attain the same end 221
- You simply relax yourself and open yourself towards the Silence that is above 221
- There is also another way – To contact, to enter into the Mother's Presence 221
- The last process gives us the clue to the fourth type of meditation, recommended for us 222
The best thing to do – To remain quiet and turn the gaze deep inward or high upward 222
Becoming more conscious of the light, the Will that brought you to this Path 222
- It will throw out what is to be thrown out and bring in what is to be brought in 222
The Conscious Being 223
The conscious being in us is truly the psychic being. But it is at present behind 223
- What is normally conscious then is the mind – A part of it is illumined 223
The mind has a central consciousness – The Witness Mind, the Purusha in the mind 223
The vital too has its own central consciousness, its witness Purusha 223
The physical has a Purusha and it too observes through its own consciousness 223
- Each of these three Purushas, in an ordinary person, stands separately 223
Harmonisation can be done only through the Purusha in the psychic being 223
- Through the psychic the individual grows into the fullness of the divine consciousness 224
The Story of Creation 225
Consciousness is the source and basis of creation 225
- Where there is absolutely no consciousness, it is the Inconscient 225
The Inconscient is pre-existent to the material creation 225
- This Supreme Consciousness chose to objectify himself 225
The Mother Consciousness expressed herself in the first four major Emanations 225
- But this free urge precipitated itself immediately into the Negation that is inconscience 225
The Divine Consciousness saw the terrible line of destiny 226
- A ray from the one Supreme Consciousness entered into the womb of Inconscience 226
- Matter was born, the first creation, the first manifestation of the Supreme Grace 226
The birth of Matter coincided with another descent in graded stages into Matter 226
In the graded descent there appeared forces and beings also proper to each domain 226
- The earliest are the original Asuras – The powers of Inconscience 226
- Against the Asuras there came the first godheads 226
Earth a Symbol 228
The earth has been created for concentrating the force that is to transform Matter 228
- It is on the earth alone that there is and can be the direct contact with the Divine 228
- The psychic being is found on the earth alone – Still it can go to other physical domains 228
Total Transformation Demands Total Rejection 229
Realisation or experience must be accompanied by rejection of things that oppose it 229
- The experience or realisation belongs to a part only of the nature – Other parts 229
The external mind has its reservations or continues to move in its accustomed way 229
The vital tries to get hold of the experience and utilise it for its ambition or vanity 229
The body consciousness may not at all participate in the experience 229
- The clarity or the aspiration has to be used as a torch in darkness and vacillation 230
That beam of burning light should be thrown, in turn, upon those parts in you 230
Sincerity demands often a severe dealing with oneself, even a painful pressure 230
It is a discipline that has its value even for the sadhak of the sunlit path 230
The Individual and the Collective 231
An integral sadhana cannot be confined to the individual – An element of collectivity 231
- Normally, individuals do merge into each other and form one weft of give and take 231
To avoid this cycle of world-vibrations the older Yogis used to retire from society 231
- The real solution is not to withdraw but to find a focus, the soul or the psychic centre 231
This centre links itself indissolubly in a secret sense of identity with all other centres 232
- The light that shines – Into the other individuals with which it lives in spiritual identity 232
How to Wait 233
Before you actually take up your work – You must have a clear conception of your work 233
- When you are fully armed, you can be sure of success without waste of time or energy 233
- There is a propitious time for everything – The right instruments and circumstances 233
Such conditions – The indication is there in the very poise of your consciousness 233
Fatigue and Work 235
Most often fatigue is due not to too much work, but rather too laziness or boredom 235
- Work done in joy and quiet enthusiasm is tonic – Any work can be made interesting 235
- When a work comes to you or when you have to do a work – Take it up as worth doing 235
Try to bring out the best in you and put it into your work – An instrument of progress 235
A work to which you are not emotionally attached may be of especial help 235
The Yogic attitude to work is to accept and do whatever is given to you 236
- It is in that way and that way alone that all work becomes supremely interesting 236
- This does not mean, however, that there is no work deriving from your self-nature 236
To come by your true or soul work, you have to pass through a considerable discipline 236
Work – You must know how to let a thing drop of itself, automatically and definitively 237
The Steps of the Soul 238
The human individual is a very complex being 238
- He is composed of innumerable elements – The most contradictory elements 238
If there is a particular quality or capacity present – The very opposite of it also 238
- The complexity arises also in depth – On many planes at the same time 238
The higher one rises in the scale – The greater the number of elements or personalities 238
- What is the meaning of this self-contradiction, this division in man? 239
Each person represents a certain quality or capacity, a particular achievement to be 239
- You are weakest precisely in that element which is destined to be your greatest asset 239
Each man has then a mission to fulfil – This he has to learn and acquire life after life 239
- The central consciousness of the evolving individual is his psychic being 239
- The soul grows with experiences and builds and enriches the personality 239
- The first thing then to do – To know yourself, recognize your soul or psychic being 240
For that, observe yourself as if you were observing and criticising a third person 240
- Neither vanity or arrogance nor self-depreciation or false modesty should move you 240
Your secret truth of being will appear to you – What you really are and are meant to be 241
One conquering all opposition within himself – Making the conquest easier for others 241
The Expanding Body-Consciousness 242
The field of our physical activity is very limited 242
- We are bound by the outline of our material body – Yet is the thing so very impossible? 242
The vital or life energy freed from the body's control and exerting itself independently 242
- A strong impact upon the vital can and does leave scars upon the material body 242
The physical body is not man's sole means of action in the physical world 243
- Behind the physical – The subtle physical, the vital physical, the grades of the vital 243
The vital or life energy as a whole is the real dynamism of all our physical activities 243
- It usually acts through its bodily instruments. It can act independently of them too 243
- To obtain conscious mastery of this occult power – A long and arduous discipline 244
Body, the Occult Agent 245
The body is an organised formation and acts as a whole in each and all its parts 245
- The body encases within its frame the whole world, particularly the earth 245
- A wholly conscious body lives and moves in the cosmic rhythm 245
By a conscious re-disposition of a few cells – A desired change in world circumstances 245
A body, in this way – A lever for producing mighty changes and creations upon earth 246
- This conception of the occult potency of the body is at the basis of the rite of sacrifice 246
- A human being, by calling down the divine will in himself – Into the earthly life too 246
The Integral Realisation 247
Endless are the ways to the Divine – Each one leads to the same goal 247
- If the end were solely to reach the transcendent God – Anyone line would be sufficient 247
- But the Integral Yoga seeks to integrate the Beyond and the Here-Below 247
The integral yogi will find himself always ranging beyond the already attained status 247
- The problem for him – A synthesis rising beyond the experiences given for synthesis 248
- The supramental status is the highest synthetic centre – All experiences and realisations 248
Ever Green! 249
When you have an inner experience – A natural tendency to repeat it in the same manner 249
- The experience has become mechanical and lifeless – You do not progress any more 249
- The secret of progress and youthfulness – To feel at every moment that you start afresh 249
Whenever you go inside, go ahead, opening unexpected vistas at each step 250
- Acquire consciously a capacity of the body that has become almost unconscious 250
- You can make your mind and your vital a clean slate, every moment of your life 250
- Even you can go beyond your psychic formation and be the Infinite itself 250
You are sincere only when the experience is new and fresh and living 250
- That is the secret of spiritual life and even of normal life – To keep it ever green 251
That is how life remains ever young and ever progressive 251
A Page of Occult History 252
At the beginning of creation, four personalities made their appearance 252
- A Being of Light or Consciousness, of Truth or Reality, of Love or Ananda, and of Life 252
- The first law of creation was freedom of decision 252
The inevitable reaction of freedom was a separation from the Divine 252
The Four Independents lapsed into their opposites 252
- Darkness, Falsehood, Pain and Suffering, Death came to rule the material creation 252
A seed was sown, to be the symbol of material creation – That was Earth 253
The earth threw up a being who would again symbolise the earth – That is Man 253
In the meantime, to help the evolution, there was created a second hierarchy of gods 253
However, the Asuras agreed to conversion – They took birth as or in human beings 253
- But they consented to serve the Divine in order to make the Divine serve them 253
Directed Change 255
Never to be bound by the experiences of the past – Only thus truth becomes living 255
- In point of fact no two succeeding moments are exactly the same 255
The world is a continuous flow – Constant renewal is the very character of the change 255
- You have to accept this principle of change and move on, one with the cosmic spirit 256
Only, one must see to the direction in which the change occurs 256
Changes that happen will be directed according to the direction of your look 256
Value of Gymnastics – Mental or Other 257
Intellectual activity is a kind of gymnastics 257
- The culture of the bodily limbs is to be directed to the fullness of the body potential 257
- Mental culture – In its relation to the total culture of the mind and consciousness 257
The development of the mind can be and must be made part of the integral development 257
Mental Silence 259
Normally the mind is eagerly active – A voluntary activity and an involuntary activity 259
- It is possible to put a violent pressure and make the mind vacant – But not perfectly 259
- Some other way and manner has to be found for stilling the mind's activities 259
It is to call in the peace that is beyond, that is already there somewhere 259
- You feel as if a sheer blank, even a black void has entered into you and captured you 259
- In that stillness something rises up. Something descends, a peace, luminousness 259
- Sometimes the silence or inner immobility causes a bewilderment – One has to be firm 260
- Normally you are assailed by all kinds of thought, almost always contrary to each other 260
Thoughts need come into the brain, because actions become possible through them 260
Sometimes, or in some persons, one dominant thought takes possession of the mind 260
Thoughts must come only when you choose them and only those that you choose 261
- What you have to do at the outset is to call for a higher guidance 261
- A blankness is needed, a white emptiness somewhere behind 261
- Give up choosing and wait for the Higher Direction to do with you whatever it wills 261
Mind, Organ of Separative Consciousness 262
The world is one – Any action anywhere affects the whole 262
- A dilemma – For the world to progress at all, it must progress as a whole 262
- It need not be so however – The mind's power of self-division and dissociation 262
Through this faculty man can put the world aside and outside himself 262
This power is the delegate of what originally separated the world from the Divine 263
- The power that separated from the Divine is capable of separating from the world 263
- The soul has freely chosen the bondage, he is free too to choose his freedom again 263
The Personal and the Impersonal 264
As you go up in your consciousness you come finally beyond the names and forms 264
- Many religions and philosophies consider this status to be the supreme 264
- You can rise further beyond – Not impersonality but a Person, the Person of persons 264
To arrive at this supreme Person – Through the formless impersonal infinity 264
- That breaks the narrow egoistic formations – Obscure images of the true Person 264
- Somewhat on the same line the vital too has to proceed to transform itself 265
The vital must learn to be quiet and silent and to be conscious of the Divine Presence 265
Normally the tendency on coming back to outer life – One falls back into the old groove 265
- The vital should then make the realisation of the Divine Presence dynamic 265
"I Have Nothing, I Am Nothing" 266
A great tranquility and silence possess the whole being. There is no “I”, no person 266
- This state of supreme blankness and passivity borders on the experience of illusion 266
- When the fact itself of personality dissolved, the voice of the Supreme Divine was heard 266
The Prayers and Meditations hereafter were written – It was truly automatic writing 266
The vessel completely empty came gradually to be filled, with the Divine's own will 267
Here or Elsewhere 268
It is easy and comfortable to go within and find and maintain a union with the Divine 268
- But some are asked to turn back and live the life of the earth 268
When one has saved himself, is it not his duty to help others in their salvation? 268
It is a sacrifice demanded thus to abandon the eternal felicity of the high heavens 268
- The luminous soul accepts the Ignorance and offers it so that it may be transmuted 268
When Imperfection is Greater Than Perfection 270
A perfected consciousness is attained in the highest status of being 270
- If the Divine Consciousness has to change human nature, it must put on that nature 270
The Mother having gone beyond all desires had to live in the midst of desires 270
- The gods are perfect, but have to become men if they wish to progress further 271
Individual and Collective Soul 272
The individual has a soul. Likewise a collection of individuals, a group too has a soul 272
- The nation has also a soul. Even a continent has a soul. Humanity too has its own soul 272
- There is no limit to the volume or dimension of the group – The earth, the solar system 272
The Wonder of It All 273
The ordinary consciousness takes for granted the things that exist as they are 273
- When you become conscious, you are full of wonder – A wonderful creation 273
To Learn and to Understand 274
It is one thing to learn, quite another to understand 274
- In learning you take in a thing by your surface mind 274
- Understanding a thing, you live it in your consciousness within 274
When you have understood a thing you never forget it 274
- To know and understand – One comprehends only what one already possesses 275
Your mind and consciousness should be turned and attuned to the object to seize 275
The human mind can seize things only in three dimensions 275
- But there is a fourth and a fifth dimension – Indeed as many as twelve dimensions 275
- If I spoke of these multi-dimensional experiences, what would you make of them? 275
You read and hear of the Divine. The perception is not concrete to you 275
- But if you once experience it – Well the thing is unforgettable, it lives, lives for ever 275
- The way to this experience – You have to ask for the thing sincerely 276
- The door that shuts you within your narrow ego-consciousness has to be broken 276
The Coming of Superman 277
When the supramental descends will all humanity be transformed? – It cannot be so 277
- The superman will come and live. Man will continue – Interaction or interchange 277
With the coming of Superman, mankind is likely to be benefited by it 277
Furthermore, the change may touch the animal and even the vegetable kingdom 277
Always, however, exceptions are possible 278
- Even now, where conditions of life are happier, there exist people not touched at all 278
Towards Redemption 279
Creation is the self-objectivisation of the Supreme Divine 279
- In detaching itself from itself the consciousness became the very opposite of itself 279
- In the midst of this utter negation the Divine Love descended and became involved 279
The first effect of this descent is the emergence of the psychic or the soul element 279
The origin of creation is an individualisation – It meant freedom for each unit to choose 279
- The individual unit chose to follow a path exactly opposite to its origin 279
- The purpose then set was to bring back the straying elements to their source 279
- Larger and larger aggregates are being formed in place of the original individual unities 280
The individual has thus learnt to find himself in the life of humanity as a whole 280
- Furthermore the individual can unite with the Divine Himself 280
The earliest sense of "ego" or "I" is limited and confined to one's own self 281
- If you identify yourself with all, your "I" finds its "I" in all other and all other in the "I" 281
Sweet Holy Tears 282
The tears that the soul sheds are holy, are sweet 282
- At a supreme crisis of the soul, if you come in a flood of self-giving – A response 282
- "I prepared the Feast" – The Feast is that of Transformation, the Divine Life on earth 282
It was not a smooth and straight going, but a tortuous and dangerous ascent 283
After all the dark and adverse vicissitudes lies the fulfilment of transformation 283
The Cross symbolises all the suffering and difficulty that the ascent to the Goal involves 283
- The Cross is also symbolic of the Transformed consciousness 283
Identification of Consciousness 285
Man's ego is asked to regain its natural unity with the one consciousness 285
- When it can do so it is said to have made the identification with the Supreme 285
- However each object, living or non-living, contains that consciousness at its centre 285
Not India alone, but every country upon earth has its consciousness 285
The earth as a whole has a consciousness – The universe has a cosmic consciousness 285
Beyond, there lies the transcendental consciousness, outside creation and manifestation 285
- Consciousness being one, through your own consciousness you can identify yourself 286
You can, for example, identify your consciousness with that of a tree 286
- Trees can be almost as friendly as an animal or even a human being 286
- The point is to maintain the higher, the universal and transcendent consciousness 287
The Central Consciousness 288
The absolute silence and indivisible unity – The end of spiritual disciplines of the past 288
- Sri Aurobindo has always said that our yoga begins where other yogas end 288
Our yoga seeks to bring down the highest consciousness into the life of the world 288
- The key is to find the junction of the transcendent and the manifested 289
The crucial or synthetic state of consciousness is the basic supramental consciousness 289
- First – The realisation that the physical consciousness does not exist by itself 289
- It is real when it is the embodiment or vehicle of the supramental consciousness 289
The Constants of the Spirit 290
Sat-Chit-Ananda – The three fundamental elements out of which the world is made 290
- One can meet Sachchidananda – In the mind or in the vital or even in the physical 290
To meet Sachchidananda in and through the physical – Not very much more difficult 290
- It is more difficult to make of it a dynamic physical possession 290
- That is the work to be done and for which Sri Aurobindo came 290
Selfless Worker 291
Ordinary consciousness – If this sense of "I am" is not there, one can do nothing 291
- Spiritual consciousness – The "I" has completely merged itself into the working Force 291
The work is done not by me, but by Prakriti, by Higher Nature 291
Second Sight 292
We know that animals generally possess sharp senses to an extraordinary degree 292
- Perception means contact with the object 292
The three, our of four, levels of consciousness – The physical, the vital and the mental 292
- In each level or plane all the others are also involved 292
- In the mind there is a vital mind and a physical mind 292
- In the vital there is a mental vital and a physical vital 292
- Three grades in the physical – Physical physical, vital physical and mental physical 292
- The process of contact in sense perception 293
The purely material contact – An instance of the physical physical perception 293
Another class – The vital vibration in the physical touching the vital physical 293
The mental physical is a kind of intuition in the physical, usually called "instinct" 293
- The limitation of the physical sensibility is due to the intellectual or rational bias 293
Man can, however, consciously develop these faculties 293
Animals begin to lose their instinctive capacity when they live with men 293
- But some of the refined human sentiments find expression in domestic animals 294
- Domestic animals sometimes contract acutely perverse feelings from men 294
- Animals living with men – Souls do pass in this manner to the human incarnation 294
The Mother on Herself 295
There are two things – What one is essentially and what one does in the outside world 295
- Being what I am, what I do actually is altogether a different question 295
What I bring, the world must have the capacity and the will to accept 295
- Freedom is the very character of the fundamental nature of creation 295
- And yet there is the secret pressure of one's own nature that drives it forward 296
The Divine Grace should do all – But there must be awakened a conscious collaboration 296
- The truth I bring will be embodied upon earth – The question of time is not relevant 296
The truth is there active, in the process of materialisation – One should greet it 296
PART SEVEN 297
Realisation, Past and Future 299
The whole earth has been till now governed by forces of the Overmind 299
- Even the thing man has named God is a force, a power in the Overmind 299
- The rule of the Overmind is coming to its end – The rule of the Supermind will come 299
- But it is difficult for people to come out of experiences they have had 299
Sri Aurobindo used to say that his Yoga began where all the past Yogas ended 299
- One must have had already the union and identification with the Divine 299
There are beings of the vital world who are taken for God himself 300
The beings of the Overmind are stupendous in comparison with human beings 300
Supermind and supramental beings are yet beyond 300
Sri Aurobindo asks you to gather the experience of the past and rise up still higher 300
- You may pertinently ask, however, why we have not started with overmental beings 300
What is most difficult is to convince someone who has had already a realisation 300
- A "realised person" is a sample showing what has been done and what could be done 301
For my work I prefer children in body or in soul and fear grown-ups 301
In spiritual ascension, a guide will help you to rise much higher than you could do 301
The Spiral Universe 302
Evolution does not proceed in a straight line, but in a spiral 302
- One goes back to pick up certain elements that have not been included in the progress 302
- There are, in the universe, an infinite number of points moving, each forming a spiral 302
The universe – As a globe consisting of an infinite number of intersecting spirals 303
Nature has a plan of its own – The spiral globe I spoke of was meant to give some idea 303
- You can bring in a better order, with a more conscious organisation 303
But for that man must change his own inner organisation first – A new order 303
This Expanding Universe 304
The universe is a manifestation, the unfolding of infinite possibilities 304
- The universe – A sphere containing everything that exists here and is being manifested 304
Beyond and outside this circle of creation lies the transcendent, the unmanifest 304
- In the status of the unmanifest, the infinite and eternal is an ever-present reality 304
The sphere of manifestation – Things move along lines that shift and change continually 305
The Supermind is the point where what is in the unmanifest just becomes in the manifest 305
- The transcendent then is an integral reality but it is of fixed dimension 305
The cosmos is not only moving and changing, but also ever increasing or expanding 305
This expansion is not merely accretion but a growth – The manifestation tells a story 305
The World Serpent 307
The universe is often conceived as a serpent coiling round and eating itself 307
- The universe consists of many planes superimposed upon each other 307
- The serpent – Its head represents the spirit and the tail the other end, matter 307
If one rises and reaches the very source, one finds oneself landed in the heart of matter 307
- The consciousness that shines on the highest peak, is imbedded also in matter 307
- If one probes into the farthest corner of matter, one comes out into infinity 307
This Mystery of Existence 309
To those who find the world unsatisfactory – Seek for the means of remedy 309
- In contact with the Divine – You know the why, the how and the process for change 309
Start with yourself – Even within that little person of yourself you will find the key 309
Record of World-History 311
All that has happened upon earth has been recorded in some region of consciousness 311
- If you want to know anything of the past history of the earth – Look into the records 311
- To go there you must first completely silence your mind – A sincere aspiration to know 311
Otherwise you will meet your own formation in the brain 311
You may dictate most passively the things you see or perceive – Let another take down 312
The perception may be in the form of an image, of a narrative, it may be a simple answer 312
- The process requires a special aptitude and special discipline 312
Freedom and Destiny 313
A point of view – No free choice in the material world, everything being predetermined 313
From another standpoint, the world here is being recreated every moment 313
- The universe is a huge mass of innumerable elements 313
At each moment new elements are penetrating and altering the organisation 313
- There is a determinism with a liberty, the unforeseen addition into a fixed existing sum 313
This addition comes from the aspiration in the world for the supreme consciousness 314
- In the human being, too, there is a horizontal determinism, a vertical intervention 314
Every human being is a sum of various determinisms – An absolute liberty can intervene 314
Without the Divine Grace this intervention could not happen – That does everything 314
- But Grace and your personal aspiration – The two are needed here 314
The Divine Truth – Its Name and Form 316
The divine truth – Called by all kinds of names, but always it is the one Reality 316
- A name is only a word 316
The sound of a word has a meaning if there is a force of thought behind 316
- If someone speaks without thinking, usually it is impossible to understand him 316
- People who have lived together do not require any definition of the words they use 316
It is the meaning, the thought behind the word that is important 317
- All who get the contact with the Divine, all have the same essential experience 317
The Reality in its essence or purity is beyond all form 317
The Symbolic Ignorance 319
The Mother's consciousness holds within itself the universe, especially the earth 319
- The light envelops the earth and only gradually penetrates and transforms it 319
The Mother's consciousness is thus all that is yet unconscious and the light itself 319
The divine consciousness embodied acting upon itself symbolises its action 319
Diseases and Accidents 320
“If the body is ill, does the mind too fall ill?” – Not necessarily 320
- Many people have been ill for years and still maintained their mental power 320
- But it is very difficult to keep the body healthy when the mind suffers or is unbalanced 320
The mind possesses a considerable power of formation and of direct action on the body 320
- The mind is to be taught to give good suggestions to the body 320
- When an accident happens there is in it a critical moment – You are given the choice 321
Learn to be fully conscious – You can prevent an accident, you can stop an illness 321
- There is another moment – When you are already hurt, whether it will turn well or ill 322
Everything depends absolutely upon the working of the consciousness 322
- There are people who, at the right moment, call for the aid, invoke the divine force 322
- You may say that it is the Divine Grace that saves 322
Men perceive the action of Grace only when there is a danger and they had escaped 322
Without any accident – Precisely there may be acting here a Grace of a higher order 322
- But the situation becomes complicated if it is a case of collective accident 322
Be very careful about your associations – The karma of others may fall upon you 325
- If you see a person with something like a dark whirl around avoid him at all cost 325
The Problem of Evil 326
There have been many creators, form-makers who joined in the work of creation 326
- The last of these creators or fashioners are those of the vital 326
At the top are those of what Sri Aurobindo calls the Overmind 326
There are mental beings who are also creators 326
The world of insects – The outcome of the creators of the vital world 326
- These intermediaries came into being out of other still higher and higher intermediaries 327
- How has the deformation come in? – Beings may decide to follow their own movement 327
What we are concerned with is not so much its why or even how but with the remedy 327
To understand the why and the how of the universe you must identify yourself with it 328
The universe and its creator are not separate – God projected into Space and Time 328
- When you unite yours with the divine consciousness – No longer any problem 328
- There is a divine will unfolding itself in a continuous progression 328
This Ugliness in the World 330
How is it then that the world has become ugly in its expression? 330
- It is the inconscience which prevents the Source from manifesting in its own nature 330
The original indivisible unity became a sum of infinitely divided unities 330
- The original will – Individual beings capable of becoming conscious of their origin 330
- One is cut off from the original consciousness, at least apparently – Inconscience 330
- That is how ugliness came in, death and disease, wickedness and misery and all 330
- The only way to settle the world problem is to recover the lost consciousness 330
Some religions say that that good and evil will always remain so – It is not like that 330
Divine Justice 333
Greed for money – The greedy gets money but he loses in his consciousness 333
- You must not judge things by apparent success or by apparent failure 333
This success, from the standpoint of truth, is a terrible defeat 333
- There is nothing so difficult to bear than success. That is the true test in life 334
One has to rise very high to be able to shoulder the burden of success 334
- To the Asuras too the Divine gives what they ask for – Their end comes all the sooner 334
When great things are about to happen, the adverse forces become the most active 334
- Apparently successful – They are given a free field as it were to rush to their doom 334
The Divine Suffering 336
When one is unhappy – One more suffering added to the suffering of the Divine 336
- The Divine acts upon Matter in a state of deep compassion – Image of Psychic Sorrow 336
- The Divine's compassion – Identification with the universal sorrow through sympathy 336
At the root of all human sorrow, there lies this return upon one's own self 336
Concentrating upon the Divine Compassion – A contact with the universal compassion 336
- Cross the barrier of egoism in your suffering – You enter into the infinite compassion 336
- A great peace goes out and sympathises with everything and can cure everything 336
You must sincerely will to be cured, cured precisely of the ordinary ways 337
- There must be nothing that clings to the old movements 337
- You repeat your mistakes till your suffering compels you to be sincere – A bad method 338
There is a moment in the life of the individual and the group – The choice to be made 338
- The final purification has to be performed – A question then almost of life and death 338
Divine Disgust 339
Divine disgust – It takes upon itself the wrong vibrations in others to cure them 339
- Something happening to you in a state of knowledge will not carry the same effect 339
For example, a blow – A reaction reducing the natural consequences to a minimum 339
An emotional shock loses its effectivity if you put the light of your knowledge upon it 339
- The Divine taking upon himself the evil thing – The obscure vibrations are transformed 339
- The supramental knowledge – An immediate new ordering of the elements 340
If the cells come under the influence of the force – The cure and a big progress 340
If you have committed an error – The power of the supramental may allow a progress 340
Things Significant and Insignificant 341
All things are insignificant in ordinary life – The superficial part of your being 341
- If ever you come in contact with a corner of your soul – The only significant thing 341
To make your life significant, you must draw back and look for something else behind 341
Why Do We Forget Things? 342
Memory is a mental instrument depending upon the formation and growth of the brain 342
- A good memory means to remember the results only, the fundamentals 342
- There are different states of consciousness – Each state faithfully records 342
You can go back to the particular state of consciousness at a given moment 342
If you do not want to forget a thing, you must retain it through your consciousness 342
- The mental memory fades away. A movement of consciousness never dies out 342
- It is how you remember your past lives 342
- If you contact the consciousness – The whole mystery of the earth and creation 343
How to get Rid of Troublesome Thoughts 344
How to get rid of toublesome thoughts – There are several ways 344
- The first and the easiest way is to think of something else – To turn aside 344
- Second method – You must throw away and reject the thought – To face and fight 344
- Third method – Calling down the light from above and turning it upon the dark thoughts 344
In the third, to rise above and transform, you make a true progress 344
Bad Thought-Formation 346
An evil thought is an evil act – You are responsible for the mishaps that may befall him 346
- Not only so, many people consider it a play to excite wicked thoughts in others 346
- When you have a bad thought, you make an evil formation 346
- When an evil formation seeks to possess or touch you, push it away immediately 346
- You ask why there is bad will – The remedy is much more important 346
“Do animals have a bad will?” – I do not think so. It is pure instinct 347
- It is said that the origin of the insect world is in the vital 347
The builders of the vital world represent and live the evil will 347
Man's bad will is often only a reflection, an imitation of the bad will of vital beings 347
- The bad will is really that will which does evil for the sake of doing evil 347
In the animal I do not think there is this kind of evil will, especially in the higher species 347
- Titans, Asuras are the beings of ill-will, they belong totally to the vital world 347
- Instinct is Nature's consciousness. There is also a consciousness of the species 349
The conscious entity that is Nature has a conscious will 349
Man speaks of blind and violent Nature – You say an earthquake is a terrible affair 349
- You destroy thousands of cells every moment of your life – The relative proportion 349
Why are Dreams Forgotten? 351
Dreams do not occur always in the same domain 351
- A dream in the subtle physical generally happens just before you get up 351
- As you fall into sleep, you have mental dreams – After a time, vital dreams 351
Some people train themselves to get up at fixed hour of the night – The dreams they had 351
- Yet another part of the being replaces the vital – It may be the subtle physical 351
- To become conscious of the whole night is to begin at the end and go backward 352
Each night comes with its peculiar experiences – Each night needs its own solution 352
On Occultism 354
The domain of the invisible – The least fear means the utmost peril 354
- Age is really no bar for doing occultism – But one must have fear of nothing 354
Generally, the first things you see are absolutely terrifying – Small formations 354
A bad thought you had returns upon you in the occult world as an attack from outside 355
- One should have control over one's thoughts and feelings and sensations 355
- If you think ill of a person, you are likely in your dream to see the person attack you 355
In occultism, if you make a formation, it may rebound upon the sender – Black magic 355
- A formation is made for a particular work 356
A story – A scientist went to the Zoo. Excited, the snake darted at him. He leaped back 356
- The movement of the serpent was accompanied by a projection of its nervous energy 357
- Almost a violent physical shock – To check and control, you must learn the occult way 357
Mysticism and Occultism 358
Mysticism is an emotional relation with what one feels to be a Divine Power 358
Occultism is the knowledge of invisible forces and the power to handle them – A science 358
- It is a thing that can be learnt. But one must have the aptitude – With great precaution 358
To have the experience of being outside the body, you must have someone by your side 359
- Occultism ought to be done under proper conditions and with great care 359
If in your dreams you are frightened, then you must not approach occultism 359
Meditation and Some Questions 361
You have to learn how to meditate – There are so many rules and regulations 361
- If you were taught how to meditate in your childhood, you would not find it difficult 361
If taught to act well, to think well, to feel well – You could avoid all the blunders 361
Try simply to keep the body healthy, the mind quiet, and the heart full of good will 362
“Is some kind of work necessary for us to do, over and above our studies?” 362
- If you wish to do Sadhana, you should give at least some time to a work not selfish 362
To be aware of the one Force that pervades all is the indispensable basis for Sadhana 362
“Cannot one study for the sake of the Divine, to prepare oneself for the divine work?” 362
- You have to study in an altogether different spirit – All likes and dislikes disappear 362
“How is it that so much money is allowed to be wasted here?” 363
- Money is not the only thing that is wasted – The Energy, the Consciousness 363
Everyone absorbs as much as possible this divine gift and misuses it for selfish ends. 363
Who recollects that it is a sacred duty for all to progress, to prepare themselves? 363
- A flood of consciousness and knowledge is being turned aside from its true direction 363
Tons of endurance till the consciousness of true honesty awakes in every one 364
Meditation and Meditation 365
A few know how to meditate – They do come to a sort of union with the Divine 365
- But most get into a half-sleepy condition – The whole being is inert 365
- Some know how to meditate – But that experience must have some effect 365
I do not believe that you can transform yourself by meditation 365
When a work is there and you do it as well as you can – The Divine will transform you 365
It is not by running away from the world that you will change it – Only by working at it 366
Meditation will come to you – You come out and start again with your work 366
- The need of humility – Root out this weed that is vanity, that hard core of egoism 366
Prayer and Aspiration 368
There are many kinds of prayers 368
- One external and physical – Simply words learnt by rote and repeated mechanically 368
- Another is the natural expression of a wish 368
- Another prayer borders on aspiration – It is the utterance of something lived within 368
- Aspiration – The flame of purifying will carrying at its centre the object to be realised 368
Aspiration needs no expression in words. It is indeed a flame that leaps up 368
Aspiration too has many degrees and it is expressed on many levels 368
- But the core of aspiration is in the psychic being, it is there at its purest 368
- A certain type of prayer is so spontaneous and so disinterested – Extremely powerful 368
- A prayer is always formed of words – One can aspire without formulating 370
- Prayer needs a person to whom one prays – A person who hears and grants it 370
Aspiration requires faith, but not faith necessarily in a personal God 370
Offering and Surrender 371
An offering of your life to the Divine – A part protesting for a very unpleasant thing 371
In surrender, on the other hand, there is a natural, spontaneous, unprotesting adhesion 371
- In the beginning you make a general surrender in your inner being 371
It must be brought forth gradually in the outer being, carried out in all the details of life 371
- It is some form or degree of insincerity that veils your sense of right and wrong 371
Your discrimination is clouded, because you wish things to happen in a way 371
- Perfect sincerity is a very delicate movement – It is difficult not to hoodwink oneself 372
Equality of the Body – Equality of the Soul 373
Equality of the external being means good health, a solid body, controlled nerves 373
- To be able assimilate the force, the body and the nerves must be quiet and strong 373
Equality of the soul is psychological, not physical – But both the equalities are necessary 373
- There is also the equality of the mind proper – All ideas may come. You are a witness 373
Personal Effort and Will 374
In personal effort there is a feeling of effort, of tension 374
Will is the capacity to concentrate upon what one does 374
- For example, a painter having an inspiration – All his will upon a perfect execution 374
He works for the Divine. His surrender is active and dynamic 374
Anyone who wants to do something for the Divine – It is the same 374
How to Feel that we Belong to the Divine 375
“How to feel that we belong to the Divine and that the Divine is acting in us?” 375
- An irresistible necessity of your being to dissolve in the divine and not to be separate 375
Finally there is no longer the distinction of your personal being and the Divine Being 375
The state of fusion and mingling, of complete identity is extremely simple 375
- This perfect union can happen before the transformation of the body 376
The transformation of the can be done only if life is sufficiently prolonged 376
- It will take about three hundred years from the last stage of union with the Divine 376
To transform the body means the replacement by a systematic concentration of forces 376
- Replacing each organ by a centre of self-conscious energy 376
- Lightness, luminosity, elasticity will be the very fundamental qualities of the body 376
A body cannot change unless there is a corresponding change in the surrounding bodies 377
- A collective change takes more time than individual change 377
The world progresses – And being in the world you too must progress 378
- The work will be hastened if there is conscious collaboration from man – Yoga 378
Sincerity is Victory 379
To be sincere and to be candid are not the same thing 379
- If you have sincerity, you are sure of victory. But it must be true sincerity 379
Sincerity means that all the elements of your being live for and by the Divine 379
- To make the body cells feel they cannot live but for the Divine and through the Divine 379
- First observe – The moments in your everyday life when you try to deceive yourself 379
The very minimum of true sincerity – You can take automatically the right attitude 379
You use the Divine as a cloak to cover your indulgence of desires and passions 380
Look to the little movements – How many of them are solely turned to the Divine? 380
- When I say that if you are sincere you are sure of victory, I mean that 381
Sincerity – The intense joy of existing for the Divine alone 381
Images of Gods and Goddesses 382
“Are the usual images of gods and goddesses true to reality?” 382
- Man creates God Himself in his own image 382
Beings that appear are more or less the outcome of the creative human thought 382
- For example, Mahakali – What has man made of her is wildly terrible 382
- The idols in temples or the household gods – Far away from the divinity 382
The Yogic Centres 384
There are the seven well-known yoga-centres in the human body 384
- There is a centre above and beyond the crown 384
- There is a centre below and away from under the feet 384
The region from below the spine-end to the feet is that of the subconscient 384
What extends further down the feet is the domain of the inconscient 384
In the infra-spinal region – The knee, leg, feet, sole of the foot and below the feet 384
- The centre at the bottom of the spine is seen as a serpent coiled up and asleep 384
The serpent wakes up – Man's consciousness awakes, grows and rises upward 384
The serpent in the end breaks through and passes beyond – You can come back too 384
The serpent can enter the body again with its head down and the tail up 384
- It enters blazing, illumining with its superconscient light the centres one by one 384
- The Light must touch and enter the subconscient and inconscient – A transformed life 384
- That has been till now something impossible to approach and tackle 384
- We have to make it possible – Man's destiny demands that it should be inevitable 385
- The normal man is driven by forces and things over which he has no control whatsoever 386
Man has in him the source of freedom, his soul – If he once comes in contact with that 386
The consummation is supremely effected when there is the double breaking 386
- The piercing of the veil above – The consciousness rises into the superconscient 386
- The rending of the lower veil – The descent into the subconscient and the inconscient 386
The Inner and the Outer 388
In the subconscious, the light has not touched there – The backyard of the consciousness 388
- You must be conscious of these hidden elements, expose them to the light 388
They have to be pulled out and rejected, or if possible, to be purified and changed 388
And this Agile Reason 389
Reason cannot find the truth – What Reason does and can do is to justify, find arguments 389
- This faculty becomes a falsehood when you try to live according to it 389
- Reason is a bad master – But guided by the higher light, it is a help, even a necessity 389
The Force of Body-Consciousness 390
The effect of things upon yourself depends almost exclusively upon your attitude 390
- If we take a circumstance as a divine Grace, it will help us to become more conscious 390
The same circumstance, if we take it as a blow of Fate – A damper on our consciousness 390
- It is an experience that may and indeed must continue into the body 390
It is the attitude of the body that will in the end determine everything 390
- The power in your mind to act upon circumstances and change their effect upon you 390
- The power can descend into the cells – Control over things outside and around you 390
- There is nothing impossible in the world. We ourselves put the bar 391
The Body and the Psychic 392
The body has a kind of fixity of force to separate one individuality from another 392
- This fixity prevents the body from progressing as rapidly as it could and should 392
As you grow up, you become more and more rigid in your body 392
“After Death there is then no further progress?” – There is a kind of progress sometimes 392
- Writers, musicians, artists – They wish to remain in the earth's atmosphere 392
To manifest and progress through other living human forms – Many such cases 392
- A special faculty continues to remain in the earth atmosphere, even after the death 394
- The soul after death goes away as soon as possible to the psychic world 394
- A soul usually prefers to vary its incarnations with each other 394
Such formations seek their fulfilment by manifesting and incarnating themselves 394
“Can a Psychic Being take two bodies at the same time?” 395
- The psychic being is formed progressively through many lives or incarnations 395
- When it attains a kind of perfection, often it draws a being from the Overmind 395
With the fusion of a god into a psychic being – The capacity to produce emanations 395
- There may be a single psycho-divine origin but many personalities coming out of it 395
- The emanation is a being whole and entire living its independent life 395
“What is the work of the Psychic? What is its function?” 396
- The Psychic in Matter – Matter could come in direct contact with the Divine 396
- In the human being, the psychic becomes more conscious – The earth alone 396
It is the psychic presence that makes of man an exceptional being 396
- Beings from the Overmind are eager to take a physical body upon earth 396
- The human being prefers his mental ideals, his vital demands, his physical habits 397
Esau and Jacob – The birthright is the right to be the son of God 397
The Psychic Being – Some Mysteries 398
There are two kinds of progress in the psychic being and they are very different 398
- One consists in its formation and building and organisation 398
It grows into a conscious individuality through the experiences of successive lives 398
- But once it is fully formed, it is free either to take birth or not to do so at will 398
- If the fully formed being chooses to be a worker he has to make a new kind of progress 398
A progress towards capacity to work, to express and embody the will of the Divine 398
Everything upon earth progresses, has to progress – All men, without exception 399
In the process of growth, one changes the direction or the plane of progress 399
At the outset the physical, then the mental, later on the psychic and the spiritual progress 399
- In the purely physical world, a curve of growth, apogee, decline and decomposition 399
- All that does not advance must recede 399
- The mental especially can progress long after the body has ceased to progress 399
But they who do Yoga – Even when they die their progress does not stop 399
The body is on the decline, because it cannot keep pace – Death at the end 399
However, on the purely spiritual level too there is no progress 399
“When the psychic is about to take rebirth does it choose its form beforehand?” 400
- Psychic beings on the way of formation and growth usually cannot choose very much 400
- When they have gathered a certain amount of experience, they decide their next field 400
When it decides to leave the body, the soul makes the choice of the next experience 400
When the time comes for return upon earth, the soul remembers the choice it had made 400
It distinguishes the different kinds of vibrations and makes its way accordingly 400
But it can hit the target only approximately – One or two other factors besides 400
- There must also be a receptivity from below, an aspiration – Usually a mother 400
- The second factor comes from the nature of the birth itself – Into the inconscience 400
- The psychic will and psychic development – Ideas of justice have no place here at all 402
Past Lives and the Psychic Being 405
The psychic element alone persists after death 405
- The Yogi – A developed psychic being, capable of controlling and guiding the outer life 405
- How often does an ordinary man get in contact with his psychic being? 405
The contact is made perhaps for an instant – That is preserved in the psychic memory 405
- These psychic flashes are the only genuine records of the story of a person's lives 405
- A being who has organised all its parts around this centre can alone remember 406
The personality formed around the psychic continues to exist with its memory intact 406
- A psychic memory has a wonderful intensity – The unforgettable moments of life 406
- The well-known sprit communications through a medium 406
Usually these spirits are small beings of the vital, often remnants of a dead person 406
The Homogeneous Being 408
Homogeneous – When the whole being is under the same influence 408
- Normally a man is formed of many kinds of fragments – Multiple personalities 408
The separate personalities are not conscious of each other, each goes its own way 408
- You have to find out in you a seat of consciousness, which is at the same time a mirror 409
All things, all happenings must pass in front of the mirror, reflected in their true nature 409
- You organise all the parts and parcels of your being around the psychic centre 409
Service Human and Divine 411
To wish to serve humanity shows ambition and egoism? How? 411
- I do not think that the spirit of charity has in any way improved human conditions 411
The true reason why one wishes to do charity is for self-satisfaction 411
- It is ambition or egoism that makes you humanitarian 411
- If you wish to help others, you must be on a higher level than that of theirs 412
- Proceed to know what you are and who you are – Who is this 'I' that wants to serve? 413
You will find that "I" does not exist at all – What exists is the Divine alone 413
The sense of nothingness must pervade your being before the Divine Presence can be felt 413
- When in true humility you approach life and reality, you will find your real vocation 413
- In a deeper sense it is indeed by serving yourself that you serve others best 413
A grain of egoism, ambition, selfishness you conquer in you – For the sake of others too 413
- Confine yourself to your own business – Yours should be like the blooming of a flower 413
- The soul that perfects himself – The victory he wins for himself extends automatically 413
The Divine Family 415
When people gather and work for a common purpose – They are kindred souls 415
- The souls come down in groups again and again to take up and carry on the work 415
When they drop into the earth's atmosphere, they are no longer together 415
Also here below, things take a very different aspect – The original purpose gets veiled 415
- Now comes the labour of the soul, to find itself 415
- The soul makes use of means to guide gradually to the place or the family 415
The material world is full of things that draw you away from your soul's quest 416
- There is but one solution, to find your psychic being and cling to it desperately 416
The Nature and Destiny of Art 417
True art means the expression of beauty in the material world 417
- Art not only creates beauty, but educates the taste of people to find true beauty 417
- The true role of art – Between that and what it is now there is a great difference 417
The decline comes in the normal course of evolution which follows a spiral movement 417
Perhaps we are at the bottom of the curve and it is time to mount up 418
- There is nothing so antagonistic to art as commerce – The spirit of mercantilism 418
In the great ages they had in view something total, beautiful and complete in itself 419
- In modern times, Art became a matter of business – It is an exhibition, a museum 419
- A museum is not the place where art can find its highest or its true expression 420
Here in India things are and should be a little different – India's artistic taste 420
- The work was done in an urge of aspiration – The cathedrals of the Middle Ages too 420
- However, even the commercialism of today has an advantage of its own 421
Commercialism means the mixing together of all parts of the world 421
Music – Its Origin and Nature 422
Music, like any other art, is a means for expressing something 422
- Even a domain where all these movements exist – Brought down under a musical form 422
- There is a music that is quite mechanical and has no inspiration – It expresses nothing 422
- The essential quality of music comes from the region where it has its source 422
- There is a graded scale in the source of music 423
A whole category of music is there that comes from the higher vital 423
There is also what can be called psychic music, further a music which has spiritual origin 423
- In its own region this higher music is very magnificent – A very high inspiration 423
- For music and all artistic creation – Execution depends upon the strength of the vital 423
- The combination is rare – More often it is the vital that predominates and overshadows 423
When the vital only is there, you have the music of café concert and cinema 424
The same vital power joined to the highest inspiration – Most often only a few snatches 424
Something similar may happen to you – Of extraordinary heights and magnificent lights 424
- Only immediately you drop down because the basis has not been built 424
- Still something definitive has been done and remains 424
Music – Indian and European 426
In European music the source is very often purely vital – The expression is always there 426
Indian music almost always has a psychic source – Very rarely a sufficient vital body 426
- I like this kind of music, with a theme developing gradually with variations 427
In Europe too there was something of the kind in its otherwise very different style 427
It takes you deep inside – If you are ready, it gives you the consciousness of the psychic 427
Specialisation 428
Your mind must be capable of thinking of many different things 428
- The general ideal is specialisation, to be an expert in one thing 428
However, there are general faculties in man which he should acquire and cultivate 428
- It widens and enriches the mind and consciousness, makes it supple and flexible 429
- It is very natural to change from one work to another – To maintain a kind of balance 429
It is true that great things are difficult to achieve unless there is a special concentration 429
- But there is an advantage in getting rid of one's limits – Spiritual realisation 429
Index 431
THE YOGA OF SRI AUROBINDO
THE YOGA OF SRI AUROBINDO i
Publisher’s Note i
Contents ii
PARTS EIGHT AND NINE 1
Choosing To Do Yoga 3
To do Sri Aurobindo's Yoga means to seek to transform oneself integrally 3
- To do Yoga you must know first of all what it is and then take the resolution 3
- A Consciousness here acts constantly in the case of those who have decided to do Yoga 3
It puts you in the face of obstacles that prevent you from progressing 3
There is a kind of absoluteness that does not allow any deviation from the Path 4
- The day you make a choice – There is the way to follow, one must not turn aside 4
- The Yoga of Transformation – Only when one feels that one has nothing else to do 4
You do not do Yoga for your own sake, but for the divine work that has to be done 5
- The majority of those who take up the spiritual life do Yoga for personal reasons 5
Of all dangers the greatest is that which comes from one's egoistic self 5
Order and Discipline 7
You must organise yourself around the psychic centre – The preliminary work 7
- When the work of individualisation is complete – You may exist for the Divine alone 7
- School – A surrounding is absolutely necessary where you can learn to form yourself 7
If a child is not taught how to live, he would not be able to live – One needs education 7
There are children who are very disorderly – There are several reasons for it 8
- People who cannot take care of things have no right to ask for them 8
- I have never seen a man who keeps things in a disorder and yet possesses a logical brain 9
What is to be aimed at is a conscious intelligent order among a multiplicity of objects 9
Organise Your Life 11
Moral notions have nothing to do with the growth of the inner being 11
- It is infinitely more difficult to have a consciousness expressing the truth 11
All the misadventures of life come from a lack of organisation of life 11
- Generally speaking, it is better to choose one's work carefully – As one is able to do 11
- A way of diminishing the time taken for a work – By increasing your concentration 12
Doing for Her Sake 13
Whatever you do, you must think of the Divine in doing it 13
- The Consciousness is there pervading everything and seeking to manifest itself 13
The progress you make is to enable you to receive this Consciousness and to manifest it 13
If you are here – Here there is a possibility of absorbing consciousness and progress 13
Turn to the Light, the Consciousness, and bring them into the obscure elements 14
For centuries it has been waiting for this occasion – One must not miss the occasion 14
Will and Desire 15
“What is the difference between Desire or Wish and Will?” 15
- Will is the power of execution which should be at the disposal of what has been decided 15
The little bit of will most people have is put at the service of their desires 15
“Why do children have the habit of always asking for material objects?” 15
- Ordinary people live constantly full of desires, only they do not express themselves 15
- It is not an easy task to bring up a child – Sustained effort and unshakable patience 16
When you see a child full of desires, put into him a desire of higher quality 17
- Things more difficult to secure will serve to develop, to strengthen his will 17
Persons who allowed their children to do as they pleased – The method means risk 17
- The theory is that individual liberty must be respected at all costs 17
- In reality, each case is different – To deal with each adequately needs a whole lifetime 18
A Sign and A Symbol 19
“It is said that if you see a shooting star and make a vow, the vow is sure to be fulfilled” 19
- Whatever dominates your consciousness is likely to be quickly realised 19
What is important is not the shooting star, but the aspiration 19
- What is needed is that the whole being must concentrate its will upon one point 19
Sleep and Pain 21
“How would one be able to sleep when one has extreme bodily pain?” 21
- When the body suffers, to come out of the body with your vital being – A top process 21
As a matter of fact men help themselves when the pain becomes unbearable. They faint 21
- To faint is to get out of the body 21
- Lesser means – One is to cut the connection between the brain and the part that suffers 22
- Another way – Do not dwell upon your pain and suffering; withdraw your attention 22
When you go to sleep the ideal is to enter into integral rest 22
- Generally, the whole length of your sleep is wasted in disorderly movements 22
- You can avoid – A minute of sincere aspiration just before going to sleep is sufficient 22
- There is also a proper way of getting out of sleep – Keep yourself still and observe 23
- If you can control your activities in sleep, you can have a restful sleep 23
The Mind’ s Bazaar 25
A bazaar in the head – Contrary ideas dwelling together, contradictory thoughts 25
Ideas are a collective possession – Only there are different stages 26
- An idea brought down from a higher region organises itself into a variety of thoughts 26
There is the pure or essential idea, the typal or generic idea and the many formulations 26
If you wish to be truly intelligent, you must learn a bit of mental gymnastics 27
- First of all, it means that you must not have fixed convictions 27
All the religions have expressed the same human aspiration for the Absolute of some kind 27
Spirits in Trees 28
“You told us the other day that there are spirits who remain bound to trees” 28
- When a person dies, his vital being goes out – A tree is often a very ready shelter 28
- Cases of possession by hostile forces – Few contain anything more than imagination 29
“How long do Spirits of dead people live in their trees?” – That depends 29
“Do such spirits go out of animals also and possess trees?” – Not likely 29
Are Not Dogs More Faithful Than Men? 30
Most men are not faithful because they are afraid of being dupes 30
- It must be a conscious, willing, deliberate faithfulness, above all, free from egoism 30
Self-pity – Leave that far behind if you will have the joy of self-giving 30
The Work Here 32
We do not seek perfection in one thing, our aim is an integral achievement 32
- From the inner view what has been done has been done well – The sadhana 32
Do not be interested in any other thing than your relation with the Divine 33
Thought the Creator 34
Human thought always creates forms in the mental world – Formations 34
- The Buddhist discipline makes you master of the mental instrument 34
A person following the Buddhist discipline had created something like a Mahatma 34
- These mental formations after a time begin to have a life independently of the author 34
Thought and Imagination 36
When you think of a person or a thing you come into contact in the mental world 36
- The mental exteriorisation puts you in relation with the mental world 36
The power of formation – A few are capable of realising what they imagine 36
- The mind has its own power of vision – Imagination is a quite different faculty 37
You can make use of imagination for a high purpose – It opens the way to realisation 37
- Men of science also have and should have a great power of imagination 37
- Imagination is one of the principal faculties that should be developed 37
Even, you can imagine the Divine and come into contact with Him 38
- You do in fact come into contact with that which you imagine 38
- The universe is progressive – More and more things constantly manifest themselves 38
Imagination is a faculty by which you go beyond the range of manifested things 38
Imagining and bringing down something new into the manifestation is not easy 38
Poetry and Poetic Inspiration 40
I have said "Poetry is sensuality of the mind". How is it so? 40
- Poetry approaches the world of ideas through the play of sensations and emotions 40
Poetry becomes a play of images, a play of sounds, a play of words 40
- An inspired poet – The source of his creation is elsewhere up above the ordinary mind 41
In relation with a domain superior to the normal human consciousness – “Inspired” 41
Divine Living 42
The name "Divine" – All that is beyond our present capacity and conception 42
- In the manifestation, in his Self-expression the Divine is progressive 42
The word Supramental – Something more divine than what has been manifested before 42
Perfection and Progress 44
Perfection is a relative term – Creation is a perpetual movement, a perpetual progression 44
- Men have a hint of things beyond – That is why we are not wholly satisfied 44
This need of eternity, of an absolute good and absolute beauty – When one is ready 44
A collective consciousness in humanity awakes to the need of such a higher existence 44
- Most of humanity need to make a very great effort to imagine what the future may be 45
There is always an interdependence between the individual and the collective 45
- Earth life as a whole has to follow a certain curve of progress 45
- The advent of man upon the earth has changed the terrestrial conditions 45
It is likely that the supramental being will change considerably the life upon earth 45
- Sri Aurobindo has always presided over the great earthly transformations 46
Those who are ready or make themselves ready – The people who start first 46
- Even if the thing has only half a chance of materialising it is worth the trouble 46
- It is the sublimest of adventures; if you have in you the true spirit of adventure 46
- Sincerity – You regard the new realisation as the only thing truly worth living for 47
Psychological Perfection 48
Five qualities or movements making up the psychological perfection 48
- The first among the qualities is and must always be Sincerity – Transparence 48
- The next item which is also obviously necessary for all progress is Faith – Trust 48
Faith in the Divine Power, in the Divine Goodness, in the trust that the Divine has in you 48
- Three stumbling-blocks if along with faith you do not have complete trust in the Divine 48
- Next in the series comes Devotion, accompanied with many other things – Gratitude 49
- Next – Aspiration throws you into the great adventure – Something full of courage 50
- The fifth one I wish to add is Endurance – Perseverance 50
Surrender is the first and absolute condition for doing Yoga 51
- To make this surrender complete, one must have the five psychological perfections 51
The Origin of Desire 52
Desire is love in its most dark and inconscient form 52
- The artist is perfectly happy, perfectly satisfied when he has seen something beautiful 52
- There is no happiness in desiring something. It only puts you in an unhappy state 52
- One gets a greater joy in rejecting a desire than in fulfilling it 53
When you do satisfy your desire always there is a bitter after-taste somewhere 53
You must try to throw away desire, but sincerely, not keep the thing in a corner 53
Asceticism 54
The vital has a taste for suffering – A kind of unhealthy need for strong sensations 54
- China is a country where they have invented the most atrocious kinds of torture 54
Cruelty gives very strong sensations – For that reason whole races are particularly cruel 54
- If you have the moral sense of beauty, of decency and nobility, you can never be cruel 55
The artists I knew had really a great sense of beauty. But morally some were very cruel 55
Are Not The Ascetic Means Helpful At Times? 56
By asceticism people usually understand torturing the body in some way or other 56
- It is more difficult to master one's impulses than mortifying the body with ascetic feats 56
It is more difficult not to be attached to things that one possesses than to possess nothing 56
- Physical asceticism does not cure. For the defects are within 56
A vibration, a force is contagious, because the ground of contagion is already there 57
“Why does not the effort towards progress come always spontaneously, especially here” 57
- The principle of education followed here is that of liberty – You take things quite easily 57
- Some make the effort spontaneously – An infinitely greater value 58
Here the satisfaction of having done and done well is the best reward one has 58
One punishes oneself thoroughly by doing badly or not doing 58
A spiritual experience – A consciousness higher than that you have ordinarily 58
- A difference in the essential quality of the consciousness – Spiritual experience 58
Human Birth 59
The body is formed in a very unsatisfactory manner almost in the case of every person 59
- Imposed upon the body – An atavism, an environment and subsequently an education 59
- It is possible, however, for the parents to do the thing with a conscious will 59
For that one must have also an occult knowledge which people generally do not possess 59
- In some countries, the expectant woman is kept specially in the best of conditions 60
- A fully formed conscious soul wanting to take birth – Such cases are very exceptional 60
This ascent of the soul to become a mature conscious being takes thousands of years 60
A free and conscious soul begins to work upon the body even before the birth 60
- So long as the body is formed in the usual animal way, the soul will have to struggle 60
Difficulties, coming more or less from the subconscient, that rise to the surface 61
Regarding the Body 62
The fatigue of the body comes from an inner disharmony – A want of balance 62
- A part of your being makes a progress. It shoots ahead. The other parts remain behind 62
That brings about a disharmony and it is quite sufficient to cause fatigue 62
- With regard to their physical being, men live in a formidable ignorance 62
How many know the exact quantity of food and the kind of food the body requires? 62
- The task is formidable if you want the body to be transformed 62
You must bring the body into complete harmony with the inner consciousness. 62
You have to enter into the disposition of the cells if the body is to answer to the force 63
- To know exactly what is out of order, why it is out of order, how it has come to be so 63
- Then only arises the problem of doing the thing that will bring about a new order 63
- This is only the ABC of body-transformation 63
Sadhana Must be Done in the Body 65
It is no use running away from your body, it will not be easier without a body 65
- You cannot progress outside the life on earth – True progress means Sadhana 65
By Yoga you can do a thing in a brief space that would otherwise take a long period 65
- You cannot change the outside world unless you have begun changing your own self 66
- You go to kill yourself when you are a coward 66
Whatever you avoided in one life, you will find reappearing in a more difficult form 66
Generally, when one goes out unnaturally, one enters straight into a vital world 66
- A nightmare is a bold promenade into the vital world 66
- To avoid a nightmare you have to be in your psychic consciousness 67
One becomes a coward when one fears to make an effort 67
On Food 68
The primitive man lived much more physically, much less mentally or vitally than now 68
- As he grew more mental and vital – The possibility of perversion and deformation 68
A development of taste is permissible – Difference between that and eating out of greed 68
Generally, artists who are truly artists do not have many desires 68
Education, cultures, refinement of the senses – Surest means of curing crude movements 69
This training of taste, this education of the senses – To prepare for a higher development 69
- In the vital and physical consciousness – To support a descent of the higher force 69
“How does fasting bring about a state of receptivity?” 70
- The vital being when the body is well fed draws its force and energy through the food 70
It is impossible to eat without absorbing a large quantity of unconsciousness 70
- If you learn to draw from the universal energy you can take it in and absorb much 70
If your body is strong, you can maintain your poise and utilise the energies 70
If your body does not have much reserve, it gets easily weakened by fast 70
- You lose your poise. You lose a good deal of self-control, you get excited 70
If you fast and then continuously think of the food, such fasting is worse than feasting 71
- You must not think about food – Eat at fixed hours, reasonably. Give up all desire 71
Meat-Eating 73
Eating meat – You absorb the consciousness of the animal whose flesh you swallow 73
- Primitive men used to take raw meat – An organ called appendix of a much bigger size 73
- An ordinary man may eat meat or anything else that he considers helpful and useful 73
- Certain foods help the body to become more refined and others that keep it down 74
But purify your mind, purify your vital before you think of purifying your body 74
- You must purify first the higher regions and then purify the lower ones 74
Faith and Progress 75
“When one makes an effort, makes a little progress, one is proud of it” 75
- You must observe yourself. But more than that you must be sincere and spontaneous 75
When the aspiration shoots up in a concentrated momentum, one can go very far 75
“What are the conditions for a descent of faith?” – The most important condition is trust 75
- When you aspire for the Force, ask for the Divine's help – An unshakable certitude 75
A spontaneous reliance – The best conditions for an effective descent 75
- The psychic being has this trust – When it is there no prayer remains unanswered 77
Value of Religious Exercises 78
What is the value of religious exercises (such as Japa etc.)? – The value is quite relative 78
- I have been to holy places. Almost everywhere there is a vital Force presiding 78
Very few go to the temples and churches and holy places with the true religious feeling 78
The bigger the congregation, the more portentous the vital deity 79
- A truly divine being does not like to be worshipped 79
A movement of unselfishness or spiritual enthusiasm – More valuable than prayers 79
- Kalis in temples and homes – All of them almost are vital beings and forces 79
- The age of negation, of atheism and positivism is from this view quite indispensable 80
Out of submission to the evil forces of the Vital – You can rise to truly spiritual heights 80
- The superstitions of the lower levels you must leave far behind to rise high 80
Prayer and Aspiration 81
What you do has an inevitable and absolute consequence 81
- A necessary concept at a given moment of the evolutionary process – Karma 81
- The key is (1) a sufficiently sincere aspiration, or (2) a sufficiently intense prayer 81
To change one's Karma one needs a great humility and a great will-power 82
The Grace melts Karma – An aspiration sincere enough, or a prayer intense enough 82
Different planes of consciousness – Each of these planes has a horizontal determinism 82
- But there is also a vertical movement – The mental descends and the vital descends 82
There are three determinisms which intervene – Something that is quite different 82
- Above these planes there are others up to the highest – The plane of absolute freedom 82
- If you bring down this determinism of perfect freedom – You can change everything 83
A sufficiently sincere aspiration, a sufficiently intense prayer – Everything is possible 83
- One can change what appears to be absolutely determined 84
Meditation and Wakefulness 85
People who have a higher consciousness only in deep meditation never progress 85
- If you want to change your external being, you must remain conscious of it 85
- Many people neglect to associate their outer life with their deeper consciousness 85
One bit within making progress and another bit outside that goes from bad to worse 85
Dealing with a Wrong Movement 87
When you have a movement in you which you do not like – The origin of the movement 87
- An undesirable movement – Two procedures 87
To throw the light of the truth-consciousness so that the thing is dissolved 87
To pluck out the thing and place it before your consciousness – It dissolves 87
- Do not trust the mind and its explanations – The only safe way is to do the operation 88
You must have the sincerity that does not allow you to draw back, to cover up the place 88
- Seek out the place where the hidden thing lies – In the head, in the heart, down below 88
Wherever it is it has the same look – The little black creature rolled up, snake coiled up 88
Personal Effort and Surrender 90
The way to the supramental realisation is essentially the way of surrender 90
- In the line of personal effort all that has been individualised maintains limitations 90
- When you have surrendered your individuality, you are not subject to its limitations 90
The Surrender of an Inner Warrior 92
The converted vital is for the Divine like a warrior – But the conversion is difficult 92
- The higher vital finds it much less difficult to surrender than the lower vital 92
- If the vital is not happy, you must know for certain that it is not perfectly sincere 92
You have to aspire, throw the light. Sometimes a surgical operation too is necessary 93
Opening to the Divine 94
Live away from the surface, open up to the Divine, receive nothing hut the Divine force 94
- An atmosphere that acts as a filter – That needs a good training and a large experience 94
That is why people in ancient days who wanted an easier path took to solitude 94
The best thing would be an atmosphere totally concentrated on the Divine 94
- The question of food – Unconscious forces or not very desirable consciousness 94
In many systems of Yoga you are advised to offer first to the Divine your food 94
- There are wicked thoughts, evil will about you, harmful formations 95
The light of a happy, sincere surrender, and aspiration, that is a wonderful filter 95
To Melt into the Divine 96
“How to get dissolved in the Divine, lose one's ego?” 96
- The first condition is to consider it essential that one should have no more ego 96
You must distinguish between two things (1) selfishness and (2) egoism 96
- Selfishness is a crude form. You can get over it by having a sense of the ridiculous 96
- You have to go a long way before you can think of merging your ego in the Divine 97
You cannot merge your ego until you are a completely individualised being 97
- 'to be completely individualised' – One capable of resisting all external influences 97
In order that the separate ego may disappear, one must be able to give oneself wholly 97
- In the vital, only forces, movements, impulsions, desires – Individualities are Powers 97
- In the mind, the physical mind, it is really a market place 98
One needs years of labour in order simply to form oneself – To think in one's own way 98
- When you have come to a beautiful mental structure – You must break it up 98
- Unless you form yourself you cannot give yourself, you would have nothing to give 98
If you speak of uniting with the Divine, you must first of all know what you are 99
- The ego is meant to make you conscious, an independent, individualised being 99
- Every detail of what you call yourself must be organised around your true self 100
- When thus wholly organised – The Divine permits the true union to be made 100
Love Divine 101
“Divine Love does not produce any perturbation in any part of the being" 101
- Divine Love is there in its full intensity, as a tremendous force 101
All things divine are there – You do not receive or perceive them, because you are closed 101
To begin you must be able to come out of your ego to see things as they are 102
- If you want to see things as they truly are, you must become absolutely like a mirro 102
Now to come out of the ego, you must have naturally, first of all, the will to do so 102
- The surest way – To give yourself to the Divine, not to pull the Divine towards you 102
Buddha and Shankara 104
To escape from life, based on the view that life is an illusion – Buddha and Shankara 104
- Something as non-existence – You lose your body if the condition becomes exclusive 104
- If not exclusively – Then you can detach yourself from everything in an inner freedom 104
- With inner freedom you must return to action – Bringing down the Force from above 104
Buddha said that the world began with desire and with the end of desire it must end 105
- Shankara completed the teaching, saying that the world is a collective illusion 105
- The teaching of the Vedic Rishis – No idea of escape from the world 105
- The idea of escape has gradually undermined the vitality of the country 105
The Avataras of Vishnu come to prove that the Divine can live upon earth 106
- Shiva has manifested to fight against illusion and demolish what existed 106
- I have reasons to think that the Buddha manifested something of the Shiva power 106
- His work was necessary to give a practical training to man not to be egoistic 106
The Significance of Dates 107
“Does a particular date or a series of dates carry any special significance?” 107
- The way of framing a calendar is a convention – It can become a powerful formation 107
The conventions are useful as symbols – To put you in contact with what is more subtle 107
- In respect of stars and horoscopes – That is simply a language and a convention 107
If you simplify, the more you do so the more the thing becomes a superstition 107
- Superstition is the abuse of generalisation from a particular 107
It is a superstition to believe in the absolute efficacy of medicines 108
There is very little difference between science and superstition 108
The Value of Money 109
The more money one has, the more one falls into a calamity 109
- It is infinitely more difficult to be wise, intelligent and generous when one is rich 109
- The first thing to do when one has money is to give it away – The best possible use of it 109
- Money has value only so far as it is in circulation – Only if and when it is spent 109
- Wealth is a force of Nature – It is something which serves to produce, to organise 110
It is a convenient means for the full and free circulation of commodities 110
This force must be in the hands of those who know how to make the best possible use 110
To build slowly something to manifest the Divine Power and the Divine Grace 110
The greatest power used well can be a blessing 110
- The world is in a frightful chaos. That is why there is all this misery, all this suffering 111
Prayer and Aspiration 112
Prayers are of many kinds 112
- There is a prayer, purely mechanical and physical 112
- There is a prayer which is a formula welling out spontaneously 112
You may pray for something – Or you may pray to express your gratitude to the Divine 112
- Again there is a prayer, a great call as it were, a call for divine intercession 112
You can pray in all domains. A prayer belongs to the domain in which you pray 113
- Prayer is a thing much more external than aspiration 113
- Aspiration may come from any plane, but the centre lies in the psychic 113
Aspiration is truly a great flame of purifying will 113
Aspiration – If you are in the state when you want to progress constantly 114
One can aspire for something without having a faith in the Divine 114
- Prayer, on the other hand, cannot exist unless it is addressed to a divine Being 114
Light a flame within your heart and then have a great aspiration 115
Meditation 117
Collective meditation has been practised since ancient times for different reasons 117
- Groups of persons come together to express a common feeling 117
- People gather together to make a collective progress, to open themselves 117
- There are two ways to proceed, and both are excellent 117
For individual meditation, first of all, one must prepare to meditate 117
One brings back the consciousness and concentrates it in the region of the heart 117
You have the choice between two attitudes: active and passive 117
- An active attitude – To concentrate on the person who guides the meditation 118
- The passive attitude – To open yourself and remain still and silent in expectation 118
We had one Wednesday the Manifestation of the Supramental Force 118
- The Force is not only acting in the Ashram, it is acting in the whole world 118
- We can collectively facilitate its action by trying to unify the ground 118
The Psychic Being 120
If the psychic were not there in Matter, it could have no direct contact with the Divine 120
- A speciality of the earth – The psychic makes of man an exceptional being 120
The inhabitants of the higher worlds do not possess a psychic being 120
The beings of the vital world do not have a psychic being either 120
A story in the Bible, Esau and Jacob – The birthright is the right of being the son of God 121
The progress of the psychic consists in its formation, building and organisation 121
- There can be progress only upon earth, in the physical world 121
For a long time, in most human beings the psychic is a continuously growing entity 122
There comes a moment when the psychic being is fully built up, fully individualised 122
Once he is completely formed, he is free – He can, at will, take a body or not take it 122
- When a psychic being incarnates, it precipitates itself down into the inconscience 122
- The psychic slowly becomes aware that it is there for some reason and by choice 122
There are not very many fully developed souls upon earth 123
- Fully formed beings gathering together in particular epochs and climes 123
- Instead of a frightful mixture, an organised individual being, conscious of himself 123
- Until that, one remains an animal with only just a little beginning of manhood 123
The Divine Grace 124
Circumstances which once appeared to you unfavourable were just the very best thing 124
- Because of the Grace it is the best possible that happens in the state where the world is 124
- In union with this Grace – The best possible collaboration in the Divine Work 125
Circumstances – Their effects depend upon the attitude that we have towards them 125
- Even in your body – The result depends exclusively on the attitude that you take 125
- In the mind – The power to act upon the outer circumstances so that they are changed 126
In a state of intense aspiration there is no circumstance that will not serve to help you 126
- The Divine will arrange all circumstances in such a way as to oblige you to be sincere 126
- The central will of the being must say with conviction, "I want nothing but you." 127
- If you want a precise thing, you must formulate your prayer exactly and clearly 127
Thereafter it is for the Grace to choose, whether it will do or not do as you want 127
The Divine contradicts your aspiration only when it is absolutely indispensable 127
A very powerful imagination and a creative power of the vital – A wholly living force 128
- Like all living forces – A pressure upon earthly events in order to realise itself 128
- Aspirations for things spiritual – You will get one day what you have imagined 128
A formation still foreign to the earth's atmosphere – It may take some time 128
Conditions to fulfil – A great purity, a great intensity in the self-giving, an absolute trust 129
Gratitude for the Divine Grace – At every step things are exactly what they should be 129
The Story of Love 130
Love, in its essence, is the joy of identity – Its final expression in the felicity of union 130
- The sense of union comes as a consequence of the sense of separation 130
The experience of the universe and universality – The reason for the existence of creation 130
The return movement of creation – Its culmination in the Ananda of union 130
When the individual consciousness moved away, the sense of separation was created 131
- It all began by a separation in the consciousness and it ended by a division 131
- The solution is to find Ananda in the play of mutual exchange and union 131
- That is why Love burst forth as the irresistible power of Union 132
There is a state of consciousness in which one experiences the Divine Love everywhere 132
- There is aspiration in objects that are usually called inanimate – In the stone, in things 132
You can take what you call a precious stone and concentrate a force or forces in it 132
The phenomenon of crystallisation – That comes because of the Force of Love 132
- The movement is quite perceptible in the vegetable kingdom, in the tree and the plant 133
- It is said the tiger's need to devour is one of the first expressions of love in the world 133
A tiger or a serpent – The victim usually gives himself up in a kind of delight 133
The need to swallow is a primitive way of uniting with things – A form of love 134
If you want to know what love is, you must love the Divine 134
- If you love the Divine, little by little, you will become more and more like the Divine 134
- The love between two human beings is always made of ignorance 134
One of the highest expressions of love in human beings is the giving of oneself 134
- Krishna is the immanent and universal Divine who is the supreme power of attraction 134
Radha is the name given to the soul, the psychic personality responding to the call 134
Radha consciousness is the way in which the individual answers to the divine call 135
Love alone is capable of putting an end to the suffering of the world 135
- It is only in the ecstasy of the supreme union that creation will discover its fulfilment 135
- Then only Love, true and pure, will incarnate in a body that will no longer be a veil 135
- The Divine Love is there with all its intensity, with all its tremendous power 136
The Divine Consciousness too is there in its full intensity 136
Divine things are all there – Only you do not receive them, because you are closed up 136
- The ego – It is not the universe that you see but you see yourself in the universe 136
The surest means of re-establishing the right perspective is to give yourself to the Divine 136
When you pull, you are so much shut up within your ego that you raise a wall 137
Give yourself without holding back anything, simply for the joy of the self-giving 137
As soon as you are truly in love, you have the entire plenitude of delight and realisation 137
To try to reject the love in its lower form to find the Divine Love is very difficult 137
- If you force yourself towards rejecting human love – You become as it were a stone 137
- You must cease to love in the wrong way and try to love in the right way 138
You must learn to love with devotion and self-giving and self-abnegation 138
You must give yourself to the object of your love without asking for anything in return 139
In Yoga, you add the will to pierce through this limited and human form of love 139
How Can Time Be a Friend? 140
If you take time as a friend, it becomes a friend, an enemy if you consider it as an enemy 140
All forces are personal forces, all forces of Nature are also personal forces 140
- A personal relation with the little conscious beings behind the forces of Nature 140
In Algeria, covering the hills with fir – The beings that produced snow were called in 141
- Since men have invented atom bombs – It has thoroughly upset the little beings 141
The little beings have not yet been able to come out of their maddening confusion 142
- Catastrophes may happen – I told you to pray if you wanted the weather to change 142
Ordinary men have no notion of what spiritual life or divine realisation may be like 142
- You should be absolutely indifferent to their criticisms and indifferent to their praise 142
- The very moment you are conscious, you lose the sense of superiority or inferiority 143
The Divine, what He expects of you and what to do for Him – The only thing that counts 143
How to Become Indifferent to Criticism? 144
From a wider standpoint – If you can visualise simply the immensity of the creation 144
- A Chinese sage advises to lie down on the flow of events as on a plank in the ocean 144
- The relativity – Your little person as against the boundless infinity of the universe 145
The Modern Taste 146
The standpoint of artistic and literary culture – The present world is a thing of extremes 146
- In our days, what does not rise to the peak is a crudeness of the most perverted kind 146
- Certain things have become great instruments of perversion – Among them the Cinema 146
The Cinema could have been an instrument of education and culture 146
- We automatically share in the universal vulgarism, unless we are watchful 147
At every step we run the risk of grave errors of taste, in matters spiritual also 147
The Origin 148
From the fact of separation from Sat-Chit-Ananda comes forgetfulness of what one is 148
- But once the curve has been followed up, the Unity found is of a higher quality 148
- The secret of the universe – The Divine truly wanted to know Himself 148
Nothing can be manifested upon earth physically unless it has at its origin a higher truth 148
The original Will – Individual beings capable of becoming conscious again of their origin 149
- The secret of all deformation – The inconscience by the separation from the Origin 149
- The only way to set everything right is to be conscious again and it is very simple 149
There is what we call the Truth – Once you have found the truth, you find the Origin 149
- If you are in contact with the Divine, you have the key – Go within the little person 149
- The Divine is within you and you are also within the Divine 150
If Science moves forward – It will find the same thing as was found by the mystics 150
The Supramental Vision 151
In the supramental vision, you see the truth of a thing in all its aspects simultaneously 151
- To explain you come to a lower level, the Mind of Light – The simultaneity disappears 151
The veil of expression diminishes the omnipotence ascribed to the vision 151
- What is omnipotent is the total vision expressing itself totally 151
To live totally in the supramental knowledge, one must have other means of expression 152
- We must become beings of the supramental world to express in a supramental way 152
The Supramental Manifestation and World Change 153
What difference the presence of the Supermind will make in the trend of events 153
- The universe is new at each moment of eternity – Nothing is absolutely impossible 154
The logic or what might almost be called the fancy of the Creator has no limit 154
- Each time a new element is introduced, it multiplies indefinitely the old possibilities 154
Suppose in this world of twelve dimensions suddenly other dimensions were precipitated 154
- All the old logic would become illogical in the presence of the new logic 154
- A new knowledge will arise – That will be the result of the New Manifestation 155
- The quality, quantity and nature of the possible combinations are about to change 155
The mind sets up rigid laws – It does cut you off from the true Power of Grace 156
By your aspiration and your attitude – The possibility of what you call miracles 156
Put as few barriers as possible against future possibilities – That is my conclusion 157
The True Teaching 158
On rare occasions, there comes to me in the wake of a question an experience 158
- The true teaching – The sound vibration transmits at least something of the experience 158
- On other occasions – The question and subject conveyed to the higher Consciousness 158
The mind receives a response from that Consciousness and conveys it through the word 158
- This is what generally happens in all teachings, provided that one has the capacity 158
The second method does not interest me much – Very often I far prefer to keep silent 158
On Teachers and Teaching 159
Mastery means to know how to deal with certain vibrations 159
- First, you must have mastery over yourself – You can transmit its vibrations to others 159
- To master means, by your simple presence, to replace a bad vibration by the true one 159
Mastery over a movement – To set against the vibration a truer vibration 159
Mastery with regard to curing ignorance – Making understand without saying anything 160
How can you have control over your students unless you have control over yourself? 160
- You must be a great Yogi to be a good teacher 160
You cannot ask of any person a thing which you cannot do yourself 160
- Teaching – Opportunity to acquire self-discipline, to learn, to attain an inner perfection 161
They who become truly good teachers are capable of making an inner progress 161
About the organisation of studies at the Ashram school 161
- If a particular subject is foreign to him, a student is free not to follow this course 162
But once a student has decided to follow a class – An elementary discipline 162
If you decide to do a thing in life, you must do it honestly in a disciplined manner 162
Education of Girls 163
About our physical education – Why things are done here in the way they are being done 163
- We had absolutely clear proofs that what we wanted to do is quite possible 164
There is no reason to make a categorical distinction between men and women 164
We have the same programme of physical education for both boys and girls 164
- If you wish truly to benefit by your stay here, try to look at things with a new eye 165
We still belong to a period of faith and trust, that things are on the way to change 165
- I ask of you a little more faith, a little more trust, just letting yourself be guided 165
How to Listen 166
Many among you do not listen to what I say – You lose the opportunity to learn 166
- But there is a good way and there are many bad ways of listening 166
If you want to hear music, you must make an absolute silence in your head 166
When you have an experience, as long as it lasts, do not try to understand what it means 167
- If you come here, come with the intention of listening in silence 167
Goal of Evolution 168
That evolution has a goal seems to you obvious because you have read 168
- A good number may be able to quote passages from Sri Aurobindo 168
- But if you have your own experience of the kind, you have not wasted your time here 168
Health in the Ashram 169
Some people would like to go home for their health – They ask for my permission 169
- These people are here in the best of conditions for cure 169
- One has to fulfil one condition, to give up the ego, to dedicate oneself to the Divine 169
If this condition is not fulfilled, you do not get the benefit of the help that is given here 169
- To be able to stay here one must have faith 169
But people's faith depends upon what the ego desires and seeks 169
Now it is precisely this ego-view that vitiates one's approach to life and existence 170
- A new world is born and is here – You are blind because you are ego-bound 170
Wake up in the very cells of your body a will to overcome the physical illness 170
The Mother on Herself 171
You must be very persevering – One day the result of all your work bursts upon you 171
The gap between what you know of yourself and what you are in the truth of your being 172
- This intermediary region, the vital-mental region, is a domain of falsehood 172
The distinction between a lie and a falsehood 172
- A lie is that which is altogether unreal – A falsehood is that which is not true 172
- Very few have the inner perception of what the truth of their being is 172
This image I make to myself of what each one of you should be – That is yourself 173
- I keep this image always intact with my consciousness so that you may realise it 173
You should act not because you believe in your action. You act because you should act 173
- Instead of willing with a sovereign will to action you simply look and let things happen 173
PART TEN 175
Cycles of Creation 177
The present cycle of creation has for its goal the advent of the Supermind 177
- There are periods of creation with a hiatus or a gap in between of dissolution 177
There are periods when the universe retires altogether into its origin 177
- The present cycle has matter for its base, earth as its centre, man as its dynamic agent 177
The present cycle has for its motive and purpose the advent and reign of the Supermind 178
- This proceeds through stages – The different degrees of what is called evolution 178
- The mind is there to bring forth the Supermind and man is there as the laboratory 178
Here also there seem to be stages through which man is growing 178
The first step – The supramental is now here established in the earth's atmosphere 179
The embodiment of the supramental is indeed even now rather a far-off event 179
But the beginning of a supramentalised humanity is quite a possibility in a near future 179
- A race of élite is the immediate end for which the new force seems to be labouring 179
- The human race in general will put on a different aspect 179
- A supramentalised physical earth may itself put on a different appearance 179
Beyond Vedanta 181
The first step in the spiritual life – The total negation of whatever exists 181
- The next step in Vedanta would be to find what remains, the One, Sat, Brahman 181
In the beginning the Non-Existence (Asat), then there arises the Pure Existence (Sat) 181
That pure Existence is gradually found to possess or be Delight also 181
- The Tantra comes next in the scale – Tantra worships the Divine Mother 182
The Divine Mother creates the world and maintains the world in the Delight 182
Vedanta omitted the fact that Consciousness is also Energy 182
Tantra equated Consciousness with Energy 182
- The Vaishnava takes a further step and transmutes Ananda into Love 182
An earlier form of this humanised love was given in Buddha's Compassion 182
- Vaishnavism gave it a personal frame and a human form – Radha and Krishna 182
- The gradation of the spiritual domains – Brahmaloka, Shivaloka, Goloka 182
The relation between the Supreme and the individual in the creation 183
- In the Vedantic tradition the Supreme is worshipped as the Father – Master 183
- In the Tantra the relation is as between Mother and child 183
- The Vaishnava makes the relation as between the lover and the beloved 183
Still the Vaishnava love in its concrete reality is a manifestation in a subtle world 183
One more step – The Divine Love will incarnate in a concretely material frame 183
Life in and Through Death 184
The Divine Grace has entered into each particle as a spark of consciousness 184
- The pressure of an indwelling spirit has forced matter to flower into forms of light 184
The pressure is ever-present and the flowering continues into higher and higher modes 184
The injunction – You must die to the world if you want the life Eternal 185
- Even so you must die to yourself if you want the Divine 185
- Dying to the world means withdrawing yourself from the world and turning within 185
- Dying to yourself means withdrawing from your egohood and turning to the self 185
- This withdrawal is to be done constantly and consistently in all the parts of the being 185
- When the withdrawal is complete – Then is accomplished the real death 185
A growing tendency to face the Evil and conquer it here itself – Death is only a mask 185
- Each element of the being – Two parts or two ends, one pure, the other impure 186
Furthermore, the two are not united or soldered together inextricably 186
Life can be established in its pure reality free from the normal counterpoint of Death 186
The Higher Prakriti is working for the elimination of its counterpart, the inferior Prakriti 186
Transfiguration 188
The Divine attributes are existing by themselves in their fullness and perfection 188
- Remove the veil or even shift it a little, you have a glimpse of them in their full glory 188
- Brahman is an immediate and absolute realisation – Brahman only exists 188
The Brahman's qualities are living aspects of the One Divine – Gods and Goddesses 188
- The Gods – Vasu is the richness of their substance, Ratna is the wealth of their delight 188
- Agni is the energy of consciousness, Varuna is the vastness of consciousness 189
- Mitra is the harmony 189
- Ila is the revelation, Saraswati inspiration, Bharati is the Goddess of the Divine Word 189
All movements in man, all forces in nature are embodiments of conscious beings 189
- The Vedantin's negation of the world – One only turns one's back to the world 189
The real solution is to make of the world a luminous radiant image 189
This transfiguration – One must be welcoming in tranquillity the descending Godheads 189
Mind and the Mental World 190
Mind and matter have different dimensions 190
- Material space is not the same as mental space 190
- The speed of light and the speed of thought are not commensurable 190
The mental world, the world of thoughts moves in its own way with its own laws 190
- All movements of the mind are self-existent realities – Human beings are instruments 190
- In order to think by oneself, a long process of education and training is necessary 194
One must develop the habit of admitting certain thoughts and rejecting others 191
One may try to recognise thought-movements that come down from higher ranges 191
Having organised around the Divine centre all lesser movements, one becomes creative 191
- Mind can be truly and fully effective when it is organised 191
- The vital too in an organised and individualised personality lends its support 192
Beyond the Dualities 193
Mind has its own criterion of truth – The logical law of identity and law of contradiction 193
- The law of self-contradiction belongs exclusively to the finite 193
- There are other dualities that are confusing to the mind 193
It is said two objects cannot occupy together the same spot or position 193
The law of Parsimony – That a simpler solution to a problem is always to be preferred 194
- In fact the real world is not a very simple thing, it is complex to its core 194
The World is One 195
The world is one at bottom. It is to be made one up to the brim 195
- The material world is a factual unity. There is one matter – Charges of electricity 195
One extension turns and swirls giving the impression of separativeness and disunity 195
- The vital world is also one – One life pulsates in and through all living formations 195
The fundamental unity, here too, works through discord and disunion 196
- There is only one Mind that rules the myriad mentalities of this world 196
Thoughts and ideas are various formulations of the one universal Mind 196
- The unity of the supreme Consciousness, the oneness of the one Divine Existence 196
A re-union remains to be achieved conveying and embodying the basic unity 196
The disturbing factor in the universal sway of unity is the sense of ego 197
- Polarisation means precisely re-ordering and re-orienting the dispersal movement 197
Consciousness as Freedom 198
Consciousness is liberty, unconsciousness is slavery 198
- It is only when you become conscious that you begin to react to the outside forces 198
Man is man because he is creating his own self and his own environment 198
- Consciousness is also power, power for organisation and execution 198
Man has started organising his life since he acquired the light of consciousness 198
His vital being and his physical being, like the mind, must admit the light 198
- When life becomes conscious, the vital being gradually gains self-control 199
- The body too similarly can be filled with light and light-energy 199
- I have spoken of the light in the mind – The light is always the spiritual light 199
Not only the mind but the vital and the physical must know how to take in that light 199
Education means this instilling of the consciousness into the part to be educated 200
Consciousness has three steps – Consciousness, self-consciousness, supra-consciousness 200
Education as the Growth of Consciousness 201
All knowledge is within you 201
- All education, all culture means drawing this inner light to the front 201
You bring to the light what you already possess in your being and inner consciousness 201
- Indeed a miser is not a rich man, rich is he who knows how to utilise his wealth 201
- True education is growth of consciousness 201
It is consciousness that carries the light and the power of the light 201
Growth of consciousness – An increasing intensity and amplitude or wideness of the light 201
A brain is not developed by the mass of information that may be pressed into it 201
- A true learner is one who seeks sincerely this inner consciousness which is one's own 201
- The true teacher is one who knows how to lead the learner towards this inner light 201
Education is Organisation 203
Education is organisation. Mind's education means organisation of mental faculties 203
- The mind's faculties such as attention, memory, discrimination, reasoning have to learn 203
- As for the mental faculties so for the faculties of the vital 203
- And lastly the organisation in the physical body – That is physical education 203
- Organisation comes from an opening into a deeper and higher level of being – The soul 203
An organised mind and life and body – The expression of the soul's consciousness 203
Beyond Love and Hate 205
Human love and human hatred are both perversions of another truth behind 205
- All contradictions naturally and inevitably mean an inmost unity and identity 205
The Divine Grace and Love 206
The Mother says that there can be Love without Grace, Grace without Love 206
- Grace means gift, it is a gesture of the giving of boon from the Divine 206
- Instead of giving any boon the Divine may give Himself – The Divine's Love 206
- Grace is of Maheshwari. Love is of Mahalaxmi – Grace is Shiva while Krishna is Love 206
Go Through 208
It is said one must be free from human love if one is to enjoy Divine Love 208
- To go through – You stand and face in order to seize the truth of the thing 208
- If it is human love, to purify means to free it from selfishness, from egoistic desire 208
You love simply for the joy of loving without any expectation or demand of return 208
- Not only love but all human impulses and urges are to be dealt with in the same way 208
The Gita teaches man to go through the field of activity and not to reject or avoid it 208
- First, no attachment to the action itself, then no attachment to the fruit that it brings 208
- Then you will be able to see that you are an instrument only, as a detached witness 208
- Finally yourself is no longer there, it is the Divine alone that is and acts 208
What has been said of works is true of all activities in man – Going through 209
- The sacrifice – Install the Divinity in all your parts and functions 209
Night and Day 211
The night exercises a tremendous influence on the life of the day 211
- The nature of the day-life has an influence also on the nature of the night that follows 211
- The night and the day must work together in union for a common purpose 211
- To have control over the night one must first remember the events that occur in sleep 211
The first exercise then is, as soon as you awake, to retain whatever happens to linger 211
- When you cannot recall you note whether you passed a good night or a bad night 211
- A bad night means either a tamasic state or a disturbed state 211
- The next step is to distinguish – The confused and chaotic condition or otherwise 211
- Occasions when the dream experience comes to you with a clear authenticity 212
When it is happening you feel it is happening in your waking life 212
- There are other experiences – A different feel from the earthly atmosphere 212
- Your sleep-world is full of many worlds, rising tier upon tier 213
You range through all of them in some way or other 213
- By focussing your attention upon them, you gradually begin to unravel them 213
The Evolution of Language 214
Human language was born out of the necessity of inter-communication 214
- Language in the beginning must have been an echo of man's sense-bound mind 214
- Language tended to become more and more abstract and. intellectualised 214
- Man began to acquire intuitions and inspirations – Beyond the sense-mind 214
Mystic poets have always sought to express themselves through the human tongue 214
The human language is only one form of speech – There are other forms subtler 215
The highest formulation of language, the supreme Word is 'OM' 215
Wherever something of the vibration has been communicated – The mantric poetry 215
The Relative Best 216
Every circumstance, whatever its appearance, always leads to the Supreme Goal 216
- In the progressive march, the best can always be bettered and must be bettered 216
In the earlier stages, the path is sure to be tortuous with ups and downs 216
- Betterment means that one moves along a straighter path 216
As the consciousness advances the nature of the best is also transformed 216
There is an absolute best when the path and the goal have become one 217
Miracles: Their True Significance 218
Miracles are happenings where we see the result only without the process 218
- Usually, the name 'miracle' is given to something that seems to us "unnatural" 218
- A miracle is the intervention of a force from another plane of consciousness 218
There are many other planes, each having its own special consciousness and power 218
- There is the vital being, the life-force and there is the mental being, the mind-force 218
A miracle happens because a force has come down from the vital region 218
The mind too is capable of performing miracles 218
In the mind itself miracles happen also when a higher light descends 218
The supreme miracle happens when the Supreme, the Divine Himself descends 219
Short Notes 220
Ignorance is false apprehension, it begins with the sense of separation 220
- To regain the Truth-sense is the world-labour and also human labour 220
- The sense of earthly evolution is the gradual unfolding of the Divine 220
God is not only above or beyond the creation. He is also here within the creation 220
- The dynamic Divine pushes creation upward in its evolutionary course 220
- In the Vedic image above shines Surya, here below burns Agni – The same Truth 221
The Divine life empties the cells of desire but fills it with the energy of solar Light 221
Ego is hunger, hunger that is death, says the Upanishad 221
- It is the ego that turns reality into unreality, light into darkness, immortality into death 221
As we rise the ladder of consciousness we find that the dimensions increase in number 222
- In the higher regions, the separation due to time and space loses much of its force 222
Prayers and Meditations of the Mother 224
The Prayers and Meditations of the Mother – It is Life Divine made sweet and lovely 224
- The Prayers and Meditations – A triple strain of philosophy, yoga and poetry 224
The philosophical strain means that the things said are explained to the intellect 224
The yogic strain – The disciplines necessary for the growth of the spiritual life 225
Philosophy brings in the light of consciousness, yoga the energy of consciousness 226
The Prayers and Meditations abound in the most beautiful poetry 227
- A poet's language may be considered as consisting of unit vocables 228
- Shakespeare's is a particle of Life-energy, a packet of living blood-vibration 228
- In Dante one feels it to be a packet of ascetic energy, of thought-force 228
- In the Prayers and Meditations – A packet of gracious light. Krishna's flute 228
In the Prayers and Meditations, a triplicity in depth – Many worlds, one within another 229
- It is the Mother's own prayers offered to her own beloved Lord 229
- She is the representative human being 229
Mother's Prayers and Meditations are the prayers and meditations of man 231
She has identified herself with even material objects, physical things 232
The same feeling of unity and oneness extends to the dumb plant world also 232
Indeed the Mother's voice is the voice of all men, all creatures, all beings, all things 233
- The Mother is not merely the universe, she is the Mother of the universe 234
Hers is not merely earth's prayer, but the prayer of the Mother of the earth 234
- The triple status of the Mother – The individual, the collective and the transcendental 235
Another status beyond – The relation between the Supreme Lord and the Divine Mother 235
- The source of the magic that the utterances of the Prayers and Meditations contain 235
Savitri 237
Savitri, the person, is the Divine's response to the human aspiration 237
- Ashwapati in his quest begins to explore the world, rising tier upon tier 237
Ashwapati meets beings and creatures appropriate to those levels 237
- The way is not a straight road but devious and crooked 238
Ashwapati comes into the very heart of the Night 238
The divine traveller has to go through this Night 239
- Ashwapati now passes into the higher luminous regions 239
Ashwapati was perhaps about to be lured into that Bliss but a new urge moves him 239
The world exists in and through the Mother of the worlds 240
The Divine Mother herself came down upon earth as Ashwapati's daughter 241
The Divine Mother is upon earth as a human creature to change the mortal earth 241
- Savitri's mission has two periods – The first, preparation, the second, fulfilment 242
Savitri was given only twelve months to do all the preparation 242
The second stage of her mission – The conquest of Death 243
- Death, this everlasting No proves to be a greater effective reality 244
- Death returned to his original divine Reality, an emanation of the Divine Mother 245
Savitri, like Ashwapati – A choice between the pure light and this lower earthly light 246
- Savitri names 'everlasting day' what the Upanishadic Rishi sees as the golden lid 246
The golden covering has to be removed if one is to see the Sun itself 246
The banquet that the Mother prepared for man and which man refused – The Life Divine 247
- If man finds no use for the gift, she will take it back and return it to the Supreme Lord 247
Man’s refusal of the Divine Grace has been depicted in Savitri – Three parts 248
- First of all man is a bodily creature – As such he is a being of ignorance and misery 248
The human being in egoistic consciousness has lost the sense of its inner reality 248
- After the body, next comes the life and Life-power – A perverted Divine Power 249
Man is full of his egoistic vital self-confidence – The Rakshasa, the Asura in man 250
- In the mind – The human being has unveiled the secret mysteries of Nature 250
An orthodox scientific mentality is a thing of arrogant self-assertion 250
The Evil in the body, the Evil in the vital, the Evil in the mind serve a mightier Lord 253
- The first original Sin is Death, the God of Denial, of non-existence 253
- Savitri pursues death to the end of death – Savitri brings to man immortality 253
The Divine Himself has to come down – Only then can the earth be radically changed 253
- The Mother turning away from man with her gifts – Inviting the Divine upon earth 253
How to Read Sri Aurobindo and the Mother 254
Why do we read the works of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother? – To become conscious 254
- The right way – To enter into the atmosphere that they have created with their words 254
The consciousness that has worked out the words of the Mother and Sri Aurobindo 254
Such should be the basis of approach to the works of the Mother and Sri Aurobindo 255
- That light is recognised by its own reflection or emanation in you, your soul 255
- Another way – Living the Truth that the words of the Mother or Sri Aurobindo express 255
Real understanding comes by the body-understanding – Not merely to know but to be 255
True Professor 256
A true professor must be truly a yogi – The Indian term for teacher is 'guru' 256
- Something is needed for the true teacher – The consciousness of a soul 256
That inner intimate consciousness infuses the knowledge into the mind of the pupil 256
If the teacher is to be a yogi, the pupil on his side must be at least an aspirant 257
- A child's consciousness retains generally something of the pure inner consciousness 257
Teacher and pupil – The two by their intimate interaction grow together 257
Consciousness 259
We may say consciousness is light, and unconsciousness darkness 259
- Consciousness has two status – Objective consciousness, essential consciousness 259
Its essential quality does not change but acquires a different colour and vibration 259
- There is only one love, the divine love – There are various expressions of that love 260
In this earthly mould the Divine love in its full purity can be established 260
- Consciousness essentially is the same – In its expression there is an increase 260
The Vedic fire – The sacrifice symbolises the progress or ascent of consciousness 260
- Consciousness is not merely awareness, it is also power or energy 261
Consciousness is power – The nearer analogy would be with light-energy 261
Consciousness is luminosity, consciousness is energy, consciousness is also delight 261
- The pure Existence with its self-formulations as Consciousness-Force and as Delight 262
Love and Love 263
There is only one Love – The difference arises only in its expression 263
- We do not regard love, even human love, as an error but a power, a force and energy 263
All the divine qualities are universal – Divine Consciousness, Delight, Power, Being 263
- The physical consciousness, the physical body have for us a divine significance 263
To prolong life the way is to charge the body with a transfiguring force or energy 264
- The physical cell has the privilege of establishing a contact with the Supreme Substance 264
- To immortalise the body – The consciousness lodged in the cell has to be awakened 264
God's Debt 266
In a line from Savitri, what is this debt that God owes to earth and man? 266
- It is through his sacrifice that man achieves what he has to achieve upon earth 266
The sacrifice going up to the gods as offered by man means the sadhana 267
In answer the gods dwell in us and fill our being with their godlike qualities 267
- What is the debt that God, the Supreme, the Divine, owes to us human beings? 267
Since he has put us out of his consciousness it is also his work to bring us back to him 267
The debt spoken of is the debt of God himself to himself – For his own delight 268
India, the World and the Ashram 269
As the earth is the representative of the world, so India is the representative of the earth 269
- For the evolution of the earth, India has been chosen as the channel and the laboratory 269
- Our Ashram here is the symbol of all the difficulties that humanity faces 269
The individuals here have to meet all kinds of difficulties 269
We have here in the Ashram samples of humanity as it were 270
Here each one is part and parcel of a living unity, in a larger whole 270
- The burden of the universal movement is shared by all collectively in equal measure 270
Behind the universal effort there is a divine helping hand more and more effective 270
- We are here, living under the eye of the supreme transfiguring force and consciousness 270
The Mystery of the Five Senses 272
The senses are the doors opening out on the external world for the consciousness to act 272
- The senses instead of leading you out into the ignorance may be guiding you inward 272
Instead of opening these windows and doors outward they should be opened inward 272
- The special gift of the eye, the third eye – One sees also the supraphysical light 273
- When the ear is turned inward, we listen to unearthly things – The source of all sound 273
- The sense of smell – The noses the gate to the perfumed atmosphere of the reality 273
- The tongue – The mouth gives you the taste of the truth, nectar of the gods 273
- The sense of touch – The direct contact with the substance of the Supreme 274
- Mind, the sixth sense, can be turned inward or upward, made a receptive instrument 274
These separate senses with their separate qualities are not really separate 275
- In the Supreme Consciousness, these senses do maintain their identity 275
- They become supple and malleable, they intertwine, even one doing another's work 275
- The senses are modes and movements that present aspects of the Supreme Reality 276
The Mystery of the Five Elements 277
The material world, as the ancient sages viewed it, is composed of five elements 277
- They are earth, water, fire, air, and space or ether, from the grossest to those subtler 277
Space possesses the quality of sound or vibration – Waves that originate sound 277
Air gives the sensation of touch – A double quality, sound and touch 277
Fire has visibility in addition to the two qualities of the two previous elements 277
Water adds a fourth quality which is its own, namely, taste 277
Earth has all these qualities, but its own special quality is smell 277
- The five senses open out to the five elements, each sense linked to its own element 278
The five elements are thus viewed as correlates to the five senses of man 278
- They represent the fundamental principles characterising the nature of matter 278
Earth is solid, water, liquid, fire, gaseous or radiant, air, fluid, ether or space, etheric 278
- Again, the five elements are also material forces and energies 279
They are mechanical, chemical, electrical, gravitational energy and the field energy 279
- There is a parallelism between the ancient and the modern knowledge – Modern science 279
However the manner of approach to the reality, the way of expressing it is different 280
Furthermore, the Great Five elements need not be restricted to the domain of matter alone 280
- The earth representing precisely matter and material existence 280
- Water represents life and the vital movement 280
- Fire represents the heart centre from where wells up all impulse for progression 280
- Mind or the mental world, represented by air, the Vedic Marut 280
- Vyom or space represents all that is beyond the mind 280
On Discipline 281
Obedience is the beginning and the very basis of discipline for a disciple or a learner 281
- For the free passage of the knowledge – A receptive mentality and absolute obedience 281
- Obedience to a person is a symbol of obedience to a principle 281
Discipline is meant to control one's personal idiosyncracies – The collective law 281
- All laws or rules that make for a harmonious collective living are limbs of discipline 281
- The perfect discipline will come only from obedience to the highest law 281
- The heart of discipline is the effort to surmount oneself – Another term for tapasyā 282
First of all, the law of selfishness – The human being starts with this 282
A family, a nation, a grouping – The law of collective selves 282
The submission of the personal law to the law of humanity is also demanded of man 282
Along with the widening of the consciousness there must be a heightening of it 282
- The supreme discipline means obedience to the transcendent Divine Law 282
- Discipline then is the obedience to an ever-expanding and ever-ascending law 283
Effort and Grace 284
Two powers in conjunction – Personal effort from below and Divine Grace from above 284
- The actual function or role of personal effort is that of a guide in order to prepare 284
The special utility of personal effort – To make the human receptacle pure and inviting 285
- The personal effort for self-purification and self-preparation is supported 285
- Personal effort means collaboration and goodwill in line with the cosmic work 285
The whole nature in all its parts has to be made one-pointed, supple and obedient 286
- Union and identity with the Supreme Goal is the consummation brought about by Grace 286
The Moral and the Spiritual 287
The moral sense stems from and lives on the sense of sin and guilt 287
- The sense of sin is the fundamental inspiration behind some religious disciplines 287
The Indian consciousness did not consider anything essentially evil 287
In fact, evil is only a misplacement of a thing 287
The feeling of repulsion is indispensable to the growth of the moral feeling 288
- The Indian discipline, on the other hand, teaches not revulsion or hatred – Equality 288
To rise above the status of the lower nature can be done only by a calm detachment 288
The Indian discipline does not approve of any feeling of contempt or disgust 288
The states of being or consciousness from Matter to the Supreme constitute a hierarchy 289
- Hierarchy means a structure rising upward tier upon tier – The values are not moral 289
All objects and movements are right when they are each following its own dharma 289
- The world is a gradation of developing consciousness – The moral judgement is man's 289
- The modern mind is terribly moral – A strange fascination for the forbidden fruit 290
We are reminded here of the Kantian moral absolute, the categorical imperative 290
- India admitted no such moral absolute or mental categorical imperative 290
- The urge of her spiritual consciousness – Beyond all mental rules and regulations 290
- Indian artists and poets – The movement conventional morality calls 'libidinous' 291
To cure the modern malady – We have to cultivate God's consciousness 291
Cling to Truth 292
Is it not necessary for us to accept the falsehood in order to be able to work in the world? 292
- It is Truth alone that leads to Truth, a compromise leads only to the untruth 292
Your diplomacy or duplicity may bring you success but your soul will be nowhere 292
- Do not let your little flame be tarnished by any contrary or unworthy movement in you 293
Martyrdom was perhaps a necessity at a time when humanity had not risen high enough 293
We are in a somewhat different age – This is the age of Victory 294
Two events have happened have new-oriented the destiny of earth and mankind 294
- Human consciousness has risen to a new level of consciousness – Proletarianism 294
- The second is the descent of a new force here below 294
The Golden Bridge 295
The Supreme Truth cannot be expressed here below, neither in words, nor in mental ideas 295
- This creation as an expression of the Divine Truth may not be altogether a falsehood 295
- This creation is an inadequate expression but it is a growing, a progressive expression 295
Speech – At first there was the pictogram, then the ideogram, and then the alphabet 295
- Language could not develop so quickly as the consciousness or the mind did 295
- The seers had to take refuge in symbolism – Symbols pointing to other realities 295
- The attempt through parables and allegories – The worlds of myths and mythologies 296
Man started his life on earth as an animal and is still so in a large measure 297
The liberation of the mind as an instrument of expression – In the Upanishads 297
The human language shook itself from the prepossessions of the sense-bound mind 297
- The movement of freeing the consciousness from the hold of sense-perceptions 298
Rational mind has abstracted itself from the data of life-experiences 298
- The recoil from the concrete living realities has affected the world of artistic creation 298
- We are very much familiar with what has been called abstract art 298
- A new poetry made of a bizarre combination of tones and syllables 298
The rational mind has now been so developed that it has bogged itself 299
- The process of abstraction has gone so far that it has now been reduced to an absurdity 299
- To discover the true source of the Light, man must transcend himself 299
A master-force will remould human creation and expression – Supermind 299
- The Supermind links the Supreme Reality and the Cosmic Reality – The golden bridge 299
- The physical mind, with its satellite, the human speech, must indeed be rescued 300
- A language for expressing and embodying suprasensuous realities – Savitri 300
PART ELEVEN 303
The Opening Scene of "Savitri" 305
The very creation begins with the awakening of the Gods 305
- The dark vacancy stretches across the path of creation yet to be, the light that is to come 305
- When the Divine was moved to create – The involution of the Supreme 305
- The creation as manifestation begins when the first ray of light strikes the darkness 306
The first ray, however, comes as a sharp prick, even a hard blow 306
The second stage comes when its touch is felt as something soothing 306
These are the successive dawns through which the light and consciousness grows 306
Savitri represents one such divine dawn at a crucial moment of earth-life 307
The Golden Life-line 308
Often tradition is made identical with and taken for both life and culture 308
- From another standpoint the whole creation advances by breaking with the past 308
- Against the forward movement, the principle of inertia is the basic fact of creation 308
There is a natural and inevitable faith and trust in the past, an extension of the past 309
- There is a twofold secret thread – One binds together a world of ignorance 310
The real world lies behind – There is a golden thread of pure consciousness 310
- In a new and higher life we are asked to discover the other inner link, the link of light 310
Binding, each in its own way, our life movements – They are two life-lines 310
The lower iron links are to be transmuted into the golden ones 310
- The Buddhist way – To see and feel life as separate and isolated 'moments' 310
- The lower chain dissolved, we have to find a new status beyond the dissolution 311
- The transference from the lower chain is to be effected through the Divine in man 311
The transference does not mean the rejection of the lower in favour of the higher 312
To live in the soul is to live in eternity with the vision and inspiration of the eternal 312
The units of this higher chain are free from all drag of the past or hold of the present 312
- The soul-consciousness is the golden thread running through the chain of light 312
When it comes forward and becomes dynamic it gradually engulfs and purifies 312
Cosmonautics 313
Modern applied science is bringing about a big change in the earth atmosphere 313
- Radio-waves and innumerable other cosmic waves churning the earth-atmosphere 313
The incidence of illness, of disequilibrium, is a pronounced phenomenon 313
- Men are now training themselves to be inhabitants not of earth only but of distant places 314
Man's body like his consciousness has to be remoulded to express the superman 314
- The discipline that the body is made to undergo to accustom itself to high flying 314
- The disruption that has been made in the earth atmosphere – To acclimatise the body 314
Torrential streams of tiny infinitesimal particles are pouring down upon earth 315
- These particles, cosmic rays, radio-waves are arriving into the earth atmosphere 315
The burden upon earth has been increasing – The nature also of the burden is changing 315
- The cosmonauts – The possibility of a new acclimatisation of the body 315
- Man is attempting consciously to surpass himself – A revolutionary change 315
- There is a twofold process for the new man to establish himself here 316
First, there is the inner change and reorganisation – To reach a supramental status 316
The other attempt is the way of science – Nature driving upward or inward 316
- It is expected that the human body itself will acquire new dispositions 316
- The Mother has plainly declared that the new world is pressing down 316
The Triple Cord 318
The three cords are the three limitations of being and consciousness 318
- A wall in the mind shuts out the higher levels of consciousness beyond the mind 318
- The middle knot limits the being to the ego – The knot of the heart 318
- The last barrier is the hard crust of the physical and the material being 318
- The mind, the life and the body form the triple cord of the human being 319
Each of these three constituent parts of human nature has to be delivered 319
- These threefold limitations are repeated in each of the statuses 319
The mind has mental limitations and vital limitations and also physical limitations 319
The vital too has its threefold knots – Mental-vital, vital proper, physical vital 319
The physical too has threefold knots – Mental physical, vital physical, physical proper 319
- These gradations – The human being in its relation with the world reality 320
They are made into cords, that blind and bind – The cords have to be cut away 320
The Ladder of Unconsciousness 321
Consciousness has various degrees – At the highest the sachchidananda consciousness 321
- Unconsciousness too has its own various degrees 321
The first degree of unconsciousness is simple forgetfulness 321
The abeyance of consciousness, when it persists is called ignorance 321
Subconsciousness is a consciousness at work but behind the normal waking state 321
Unconsciousness proper is a lack of consciousness – The consciousness in the mineral 321
The inconscient is a total, in depth and in extent, absence of consciousness 321
There is also an absolute negation and this has been termed Nescience 321
- The absolute Nescience is the mere reversal of the Supreme Consciousness – Death 323
- In Savitri, Death stands face to face with the Divine and becomes one with it 323
The Mounting Fire 324
The seat of human consciousness is the brain – Three parts 324
- The frontal lobe is the seat of intellect and intelligence 324
- The section of the brain in the hind portion of the cranium – Vital urges 324
- The part hidden or imbedded below houses the infra-impulses – The bodily functions0 324
The problem now is, how to change, purify these ranges of the mind or brain 325
- The Vedantic way – To invoke the transcendent light and power to descend 325
It descends not enough to bring down the Higher Light behind and below the brain stuff 325
- The Tantriks – A force of fire is rocketed upward – The Kundalini Shakti 325
The very supreme Light does not descend easily – At the call of the fire below 326
- How is one to kindle this fire that apparently lies extinguished 327
The fire in fact is the aspiration in the body – It kindles itself by its own self-pressure 327
Agni's flame rises towards Surya, the supreme Light – First he must prepare the passage 327
The brain must be built wholly of fire particles – The cranium will hold the golden egg 328
The Labours of the Gods: 329
The five Purifications 329
For a total reconstitution of the brain, one has to transform the cells of grey matter 329
- The brain being the controlling agent the God presiding over it, Fire, has to be invoked 329
- The brain is the controller-general of the whole physical system of the human body 329
The physical mind and the senses – Over which the Fire is the presiding deity 329
- This is the province of the basic earth principle 329
The abdominal system – Water is the god in this region of the vital functions 329
- It is the vital region in man – Soma in effect is the true presiding godhead here 329
The chest cavity – The power that controls it is that of the third element Tejas 330
- The god Aryama – The godhead presiding over the upward surge of evolution 330
The fourth domain, of Marut – The mouth, the throat, the tongue, the facial front 331
- The Vedic Maruts called thought gods represent the aerial spirits or energies 331
Beyond is the fifth element, Vyom, the sphere overhead, the Vast and the Infinite 331
- That is the root of the Divine Tree of Existence 331
- The five operations of the divine alchemy with regard to the purification 331
Each element has its special function in relation to the human adhara 331
- The fire burns in the earthly or material sheath 331
- The water flushes and cleans the vitals 331
- The radiant energy activises and regulates the cardiac domain 331
- The air or wind, the breath of consciousness inspires the right expression 331
- The vast limitless beyond is the ultimate reality embracing the rest of the being 331
In reality the elements are not exclusive – Each one can do the work of any other 331
All the different elements are but varied formulations of the divine Creative Energy 332
Body-Energy 333
The body is an accumulation of energy-consciousness – The problem is how to release it 333
- The first thing is that your body must be conscious of what it is doing 333
Consciousness grows through incubation, through self-centration 334
Energy is consciousness in movement and in moving it expresses itself 334
The first condition under which the body can be conscious of itself is its freedom 334
- The body at present is a slave under the orders of either the vital or the mind or both 334
- The liberation will bring to the body automatically the awareness of its own self 334
- This consciousness of itself will bring with it a pure and fresh energy – Of its true self 334
In this age the human body is inevitably moving towards freedom and a new self-law 335
Towards the Immortal Body 336
To be immortal in the body one must find that which is immortal in the body 336
- For the life to be immortal here this soul must be found in each part of the being 336
One should awake in the central psychic being and then in all the parts of the being 336
With that consciousness in front, to start on the way one must get rid of all fear of death 336
Every part down to the cells of the body must be filled with the soul's consciousness 337
- Immortality is assured only when the very substance of the material body is changed 337
The test of Truth 338
The test of Truth is its impossibility. I believe because it is impossible 338
- At every moment everywhere there are upsettings of the apparently sure present 338
At every step something unpredicted and unpredictable is waiting in front 338
- The spiritual realities are at your door – Doubt, hesitation, merely casts a veil 339
A faith, necessarily a blind faith, brings you in contact with those intangible realities 339
- One becomes whatever one's consciousness wants to become 339
The ultimate verities are existing in themselves – The mind cannot reach there 339
- Mind's conceptions of the ultimate realities are very far from the actual truth 340
- Only if the mind itself is changed can it see something of the higher realities 340
The Ideal Centre 341
A centre – “the pure hearth of perfect sincerity, in a total consecration to the Divine." 341
- “Always behave as if She was looking at you, for indeed She is always present." 341
- "Let us work as we pray, for indeed work is the body's best prayer to the Divine." 341
- To achieve the harmony – Only on a higher level of being and consciousness 341
On the highest level the harmony becomes not merely union but indivisible unity 341
- Work is the prayer of the physical to ask for and seek the union with the Divine 342
Work done as prayer is the best means of effecting an ascent in consciousness 342
- As one rises in consciousness and being, one feels kinship and union with all others 342
Work is indeed a ritual of prayer and self-dedication, adhesion and surrender 342
- A centre grows perfectly only around the Mother's Presence and Consciousness 343
A group-centre has to organise itself in perfect harmony around the reality of the Mother 343
Two Equations 344
Matter transformed into spiritualised energy 344
Desire raised to the power zero 344
In these Fateful Days 345
If man's destiny is to fulfil, he will have to find out the way of the spirit 345
- Any happening on the material plane is already prepared in a subtler region 345
- A true creation must have at its origin the true consciousness 346
- The seed of consciousness has to be sown in the field of our being 346
A soulless mental or vital or physical being can create but a chaos 346
- Those alone who are made of the soul-consciousness will form the new humanity 346
It is the hour when we have at our disposal the greatest opportunity to find our soul 346
Our Finest Hour 347
This is an age of deluge and devastation and decomposition 347
- How can Nature be made steady and how can man come out of the muddle? 347
In all fields of life rules and regulations are becoming an unbearable burden 347
To break and destroy and come out seems to be the only issue 347
An urge to destroy pure and simple leads to self-destruction – The incidence of suicides 347
- Destruction is not the aim – The aim is the change of the inner nature 348
The prison may be an opportunity to make a break-through to create a new dimension 348
Let us harness all our life energy to the labour of the inner conquest 348
- The inner discovery is indeed a battle and here too a victory has to be won 349
- To find the inner solution it is not necessary to escape from the world 349
- The new capacity you have to acquire in and through the activities of the normal life 349
- We are at the world's finest hour, for it shall find its soul 350
Sri Aurobindo 351
Sri Aurobindo's message – Man is growing and has to grow in consciousness 351
- Sri Aurobindo believes in evolution – The unfolding of consciousness 351
- Sri Aurobindo points out two crucial characters of the progression of consciousness 351
That only can evolve which was involved – The binding reality is consciousness 351
At each cross-over – A rise in consciousness but also a reversal of consciousness 351
- The level attained turns back upon the preceding levels, influencing and moulding them 351
Matter, Life and Mind – The sciences of Physics, Biology and Psychology 351
- Evolution marches onward – Out of man the Superman will come inevitably 353
Characteristic signs of the higher status are visible – Intuition, Inspiration, Revelation 353
The Superman will be born when man has risen above his mind 353
Man is expected to consciously transcend himself and deliver this supermanhood 354
- The growth of consciousness is the end and purpose of all true education 354
- What is intended by Yoga, the mystic's system of inner discipline 354
- Supramentalisation of consciousness is the goal Nature is aiming at and man striving for 354
Evolution in full knowledge – The first result will be the shortening of the time factor 354
The other result is that when the Supermind establishes itself it is all light and knowledge 354
- Ranges through which man will have to pass – The Overmind and the Mind of Light 354
- A few characters proper to this supramental over-border consciousness 355
First of all, it is the seat and organon of complete knowledge – Knowledge by identity 355
Secondly, the will is the spontaneous expression of the self-power of the consciousness 355
Thirdly, it is the status of perfect delight 355
Lastly, all human efforts in the past has been contributory to this supreme consummation 356
- The Supermind alone can transform the earth, transfigure the earthly life 356
- Sri Aurobindo's aim – A fulfilled life in society upon earth 356
This being his individual life, his collective or social life would figure the same pattern 356
Likewise, an aggregate of such societies will express the Divine Consciousness 356
In this global reconstitution of the earth life, Sri Aurobindo gives India a great role 357
Stages of human evolution – "Family, nationality, humanity are Vishnu's three strides” 357
- A new connotation has to be found for family, nationality, even humanity – Divinity 358
This dynamic Divine – The supramental Divine or the incarnate Divine Mother 358
- Beyond the mind there rise other powers of consciousness – Man can bring them down 359
Man has been striving through his lesser powers to arrive at a reconstruction 359
The only way is to turn inward – That is the way to transcendence and surpassing 359
- If man is to survive in any form, this is the only way and there is no second 359
- What do we know of the capacity and impulsion even of the common man? 359
That does not mean that the entire human race will wholly change over to the new life 360
- It is always a select group of forerunners that form the foundation of a new creation 360
- It is the fulfilment of the inferior Nature that has to happen and is happening 360
Today the Spirit welcomes the body as its earthly figure and expression 360
The collaboration that Nature is now offering to the Spirit 360
- A new substance is now slowly permeating the earth atmosphere – A new world 360
- The old world was built from outside with superficial cheap elements 361
- The new world will start from the soul, the luminous divine element in man 361
The individual can be and is to be fulfilled in and through his soul 361
- The soul-status – Freedom, harmony, purity, knowledge, power, delight and immortality 361
As individuals grow in this line, the social structure too is altered and transmuted 362
There is a collective soul, as well as an individual soul – A wider and wider commonalty 362
The United States of the world – The possibility towards a superhumanity 362
Even the family may surely have a different foundation in soul-kinship 362
- It is an adventure for the heroic soul – A benefit that even the common level shall share 363
PART TWELVE 365
This Great Earth, Our Mother 367
Man is the only created being that has a soul – This earth has qualities solely its own 367
- A fundamental quality is that it is not static, it evolves 367
The soul is earth's possession alone – It is not found elsewhere in the material universe 367
Typal beings – If any of them wishes to change or evolve, he has to come down on earth 368
The soul is not the self – The Self is the static consciousness beyond time and space 368
- The soul comes out in the process of the material creation and evolution 368
The individuation begins with the living cells – The first step towards individualisation 368
With life upon earth there entered into it the rudimentary psychic element or entity 368
In man, the mere psychic element or entity becomes an individuality, a psychic being 368
The growth of the psychic being radiates its influence into the mind and life and body 369
The consciousness of sin began with the advent of man upon earth 370
- Man brought in him the will independent of the eternal law – That is sin 370
A new sense of direction is behind the spirit of independence that appears as sin 370
That is the great Disobedience at the centre of the Christian religion – A necessary Fall 370
To the willing and happy collaboration of a free being – The psychic with its free choice 370
- The initial separation, disobedience or sin is the price to pay – A final destiny 370
- Egoism, the fount and origin of sin, is the mask over the visage of God, the Individual 370
Earth's upward drive towards a greater harmony is the working of the Godhead "Agni" 371
- Agni is an earthly Godhead, even as Indra is a godhead of the heavens 371
- Agni in man is the individualised spiritual element – The leader of the sacrifice 371
- Earth is a special concentration of Sat and it includes concentrated Chit and Ananda 372
The soul is the efflorescence of the earth – A new quality of fulfilment 372
Matter is the earthly food for the Spirit Supreme who has become it 372
Thus to recapitulate 372
- The transcendent Spirit came down from above and stood behind the creation 372
- Life appeared – Organised cells with an incipient consciousness and will 372
- With the appearance of mind there grew the psychic element 372
- The psychic element in man developed into the psychic being which moves on 372
- Earth's divine fulfilment in and through her earthly son, man – A divine Play 372
The Stress of the Spirit 374
The universe is a close-knit pattern in which each is inextricably linked with every other 374
- The material universe makes one single block of reality, homogeneous and indivisible 374
- All human endeavour, its achievements and realisations form a single collective activity 374
Each individual human effort is the total human effort canalised at a particular point 374
An avatar is thus an outburst of the earth's highest need of the hour 375
- And yet, at bottom, it is not such an absolute determinism 375
If Matter is Bondage, Law, Determinism, Spirit is Freedom, Liberty, Self-choice 376
- The natural freedom of the subject impinges on the rigid law of the object 376
- The supreme Divine Consciousness is that where Nature's determinism is dissolved 376
The whole process of creation, the final goal of the Divine Lila is the liberation of Nature 377
- As it is commonly understood, liberation means escaping into the Transcendent 377
- But the immanent Godhead need not withdraw or depart elsewhere to be free 377
- Man through his soul and self can liberate his ordinary ignorant nature 377
The Sorrows of God 379
The Son of Man, the Avatar, suffers with and suffers for the suffering humanity 379
- The same consciousness with a double status – The two birds in the Upanishad 379
Certain lines of spiritual experience – The being above is the reality 379
But the one below is a descent here in the manifestation, of the reality above 379
- The immanent Godhead has its function – The initiation of the ascent after the descent 379
- When the consciousness descends – The stirring of a new creation 380
To the human consciousness that appears as calamities and catastrophes 380
At the very outset the light descends as a shower of scattered glowing points 381
For a more effective power, other descents are necessary, descents of personalities 381
Great souls, Avatars, are a necessity in the process of evolution and ascension 381
- All terrestrial human beings share in the impurity and in the work of purification 381
- Beings come forward as conscious formations with the mission of divinising humanity 381
Love and Death 383
Sri Aurobindo – Five dramas in which the theme has been 'Love conquering Death.' 383
- To grow into consciousness is the way to the conquest of Death 383
To rise in consciousness means to rise out of the shades of egoism 383
The only antidote of egoism is love, love human or divine 383
- Perseus the Deliverer – The deliverance from the siege of the emissaries of Death 383
The legend of the destruction of a darker age of civilisation and the advent of a new age 383
- The marriage of love and heroism is the story of Eric .384
- In Rodogune, love passes through the final trial, even death – A higher fulfilment 384
- The Viziers of Bassora – Love is here of earth and yet it has maintained its purity 384
- In Vasavadutta, Love is depicted as something royal and noble and aristocratic 385
- Love depicted here in these plays of Sri Aurobindo is of earth, earthly, even earthy 385
The mould in which Sri Aurobindo has cast even earthly human love is divinely noble 385
The World Tragedy 386
The world does not tolerate its saviour – It puts him on the cross 386
- The remedy of the earthly malady – Seek a higher source of the energy of a purer light 387
Rise in your being and consciousness and by your contagion make others too rise 387
Parardha and Aparardha – The domain of death, the domain of immortality 387
- Dante speaks of a life in Hell and a life in Paradise – A stage of purification 388
- Death is the symbol of the corrosive consciousness of the ordinary ignorant life 388
The higher mind with its aspiring will is the purificatory agent – The purgatory 388
First you have to know, to become aware of the existence of ignorance 388
When you have the full consciousness of the ignorance you transcend the region of death 388
The delight of immortality is love. Love's own status and home is Paradise 388
The kingdom of heaven can be and has to be brought out and down upon and into earth 389
- Such is the full cycle of human life – Ignorance, purificatory consciousness, immortality 389
“The Hero and the Nymph” 390
The story of Kalidasa's "The Hero and the Nymph" – The marriage of heaven and earth 390
- Heaven and earth – The union can happen under certain limitations 390
The limitation of time – Not in the nature of supreme love to linger long on our earth 390
The limitation of a mixture, a dilution – Divine Love entering earth suffers an alteration 390
The limitation that the very intensity and turbulence of passion bring 390
- The heavenly Bride can stay if Pururavas consents to take up the gods' work 391
The Double Trinity 392
The human being is made of three persons – External, subtle, psychic being or soul 392
- This Divine person is in us normally behind the veil and has to be brought forward 393
In this way gradually the three persons will be integrated and unified 393
- The Divine himself has three such a triple status – Prajna, Hiranyagarbha, Virat 393
The triple person is correlated to the three states, sushupti, swapna and jagrat 394
- The human triplicity is a specialisation of the Divine Triplicity 394
Notes on Freedom 395
Man is born free, in his spirit, not in his body – The body too can attain freedom 395
You are free only when you are united with God and your will merges in His Will 395
Freedom does not consist in doing as one likes but in doing what the Divine likes 395
To attain freedom is to rise into man's own true nature, the Divine nature 396
It is the freedom of the inner being that brings about the freedom in the outer life 396
Freedom is utter self-discipline, for it means following the rhythm of the Truth 396
The Story of Dr. Faustus Retold 397
Dr. Faust wanted not only to be a learned man but a man of power – Occultism 397
- Faust did not know what the soul was. He nodded assent. Take it then, he said 397
- In the background of his mind, he felt something soft like a moonbeam 398
- Satan was slowly dragging him on towards the brink from where there is no return 399
- He yearningly looked for the soothing moonlight-beam – The Devil scattered into bits 399
The moral of it – The soul is never lost, there is no eternal hell 399
- But man has to go through trials and tribulations and ordeals in order to reach heaven 400
The great Buddha before his illumination was surrounded by dark forces 400
The Christ too – Satan came to him 400
Nachiketas who wanted to possess the truth came to Yama 400
In our Puranas, the Rishis – The rakshasas try to break their tapasya, even kill them 401
- Rakshasas are a special type of hostile force – Their greed for human flesh 401
- Human sacrifice – The rites represent a psychological operation 401
- The presence of the soul – The body is called a temple. It must be kept clean and pure 402
You must always love your soul, always remain in its embrace 402
- Man is a twofold being – One half belongs to the Divine, the other half to the un-Divine 402
The Hostile outside gains its hold upon you because of the obscurity within you 402
In proportion as the obscurity within recedes, the darkness outside also retires 402
The Sunlit Path 404
Descartes – He taught that to dispel all doubt one must begin by doubting everything 404
- Even the doubter came to be doubted in the end – Modern scientific agnosticism 404
Not to doubt outright, but to accept a probability – Suppositions and relativities 404
- Absolute Truth cannot be attained in this way of rationalism and scientism 404
The sunlit path – Here the very first thing needed is Faith 405
- Faith can be called blind only when the faith is in darkness and ignorance 405
- The lower mind, the physical mind – The source of all doubt is here 405
The physical mind should formulate only things presented to it by a higher consciousness 405
- God, truth, reality are not things to be proved – They are to be found, realised. 406
Index 407
LIGHTS OF LIGHTS
LIGHT OF LIGHTS i
Publisher’s Note i
Contents ii
LIGHT OF LIGHTS 1
A Century’s Salutation to Sri Aurobindo 3
The greatness of a person is the greatness of the Impersonal in him 3
- There are gradations of impersonality – Family, nation, mankind, transcendent ranges 3
The national is but a ladder to humanity, it is a unit in the human collectivity 3
- The Impersonal man in Sri Aurobindo was the real person always there 4
Such is the character, the very nature of the born yogi, the Godman 4
Sri Aurobindo was a man of action absolutely in the Gita's sense of the word 5
- The force which Sri Aurobindo has set free is creating a new world 6
Impersonalisation really means the replacement of the ego by the true person 6
- The true process of impersonalisation is re-personalisation – It means divinisation 6
- The true truth of things is in the Supreme – The Avatara comes down and embodies it 7
Divinisation means the descent of the Divine from above or His emergence from within 7
- The greatness of the Great is the greatness of the Divine in him 7
A Review of Sri Aurobindo's Life 9
Sri Aurobindo has not left earth's atmosphere 9
- Sri Aurobindo's life is not that of an ordinary human being – Unforeseen turns 9
The very first step or turn he took in his early childhood – A British Christian family 10
The first deliberate choice of his own – He turned away from the Indian Civil Service 10
Next he came to Baroda, entered the State service for twelve years 10
Another volte-face – He came to Bengal as a national leader 10
He had to pass a whole year in the prison – Another break from the past 10
- A few in the prison thought of escape – Sri Aurobindo chose to stand the trial 11
On coming out he engaged himself again in the national work 12
The next break or turn – He had gone to Pondicherry 12
- France was to offer Sri Aurobindo a home in Algeria – Sri Aurobindo answered No 12
The Second World War – Sri Aurobindo broke the hostile downward-speeding force 13
The last decision of a full cycle – To move out of the physical material scene 13
- The turn meant a break with the past and a moving into the future – Intervention 13
Intervention means the entry of a higher, a greater force from another world 13
The higher the destiny, the higher also the source of intervention – More radical 14
- The passing away of Sri Aurobindo as a phenomenon of intervention 14
- His birth too was a deliberate divine intervention 14
A Programme for the Second Century of the 15
Divine Manifestation 15
Our effort should now be towards integration – The psychic divine centre to be found 15
- First each element in the individual must find its soul or psychic base 15
Then only a co-ordination of all would be possible 15
- Next through the psychic level the general level should be raised to a higher potency 15
- First to deepen the Presence and then float up again into a wider and higher expanse 15
It is not sufficient that the psychic being comes forward and exercises a general influence 16
- It should enter into the inherent psychic centres of each part and make them active 16
- An uplift of consciousness is a natural consequence of the psychic's aspiration 16
- This activity is supported, initiated and inspired by the self-action of the higher nature 16
The first definitive and distinctive higher status is that of the Overmind 17
- Its character is a cosmic and universal all-inclusive existence – The world-empire 17
- sāmrājya – The world-empire or the imperial reign of the Spirit has three gradations 17
First there is the svarājya, the kingdom or reign of the individual's own self 17
- Each element has to attain a perfectly homogeneous integral spiritual whole in himself 17
Then all such individuals should achieve integrality with one another 17
- All individuals have one mind, one vital being, even one physical consciousness 17
The next grade – When groups and collectivities find and establish their own selves 18
The evolutionary force in nature is the spearhead – The luminous point is the psychic 18
- That creates the rift through which can pour down the universal consciousness 18
- When this new consciousness contacts the Supramental – To spiritualise Matter 18
The Overmind is under the direct control and guidance of the over-arching Supermind 19
- Overmind over-arches, broods over the mind and from behind guides and controls it 19
The animal is not a progressive being like man, for the Overmind does not reach it 19
The human mind is developing fast – The Overmind, the guide of the new age 19
- The operative presence, in and through the Overmind, of the Supramental upon earth 19
A Note on Supermind 21
Supermind is not a function, an extended function of the mind 21
- However far the mind may be stretched, it cannot reach the Supermind 21
- Supermind does not mean a "superior mind", it means beyond mind 21
The Supermind and Mind do not belong to the same category of objective reality 22
The Age of Reason came and deposed God – A system of morals is the base 23
- But the religious feeling is a genuine human feeling – The Religion of Humanity 23
- A Godless morality or a Religion of Humanity, even at its best is a truncated truth 24
- The ancient Rishis – To seek the one inalienable invariable Truth, to leave all the rest 24
The Transcendental can be reached only in the transcendental way 24
- One has to take a leap to cross over – There is to be a reversal of consciousness 24
- The Transcendent is also here within you – The procedure is taught by Yoga 25
The Human Divine 26
Savitri has attained the immortality as a human being, as human personality 29
- She refuses the everlasting day and turns to come down again into the twilight mortality 29
- The embodied Divine does not discard or even minimise the human 30
EIGHT TALKS 33
To Read Sri Aurobindo 35
How to study or approach Sri Aurobindo and the Mother in order to read them 35
- To study Sri Aurobindo can only be an aid or a supplementary way 35
- Simply to read them in the right way is sufficient – In an expectant silence 35
Each sentence anywhere is a living being with whom you have to make acquaintance 35
This is an approach of love, not of the intellect to understand and explain 35
Even intellectual things can be approached through your soul 37
- What are the children here for? – You acquire it even without your knowing it 37
Here without your knowing it you are soaked with the inner consciousness of your soul 37
- Sri Aurobindo used to put in contact with the life, the living personality of the poet 38
A truly great poet means a status of consciousness 38
You can approach the person in the book or outside only through your soul, through love 38
- This is the expression of the soul in you – The beautiful, the luminous, the noble things 38
Even the weakest among us should not despair 38
Occult Experiences 40
You consider this body of yours as your only form, but you have many 47
- Each level has its own individual form – This inner personality also 47
- These inner forms are changeful – There is a plasticity which is very natural 47
- The most important form is your psychic being – The Divine personality in each one 47
The psychic being in you is the Mother – An emanation of Herself that She has put in you 47
Let your psychic being guide your acts. The only thing necessary is to be sincere 47
Janaka and Yajnavalkya 49
The ultimate reality does not lie within the ken of the questioning mind 50
- This consciousness cannot be reached by reasoning nor by intelligence 50
Full of the Supreme Brahman, Yajnavalkya does not lose hold of the earthly foothold 51
- Yajnavalkya does not reject the intermediary formulations of the Supreme 51
The only light that endures and never fails is the light of the soul 52
More of Yajnavalkya 53
The āśramas – brahmacarya, gārhashtya, vānaprastha and the life of the sannyasi 53
- His second wife, Maitreyee answered to Yajnavalkya "I will also give up the world" 54
"What am I to do with that which does not give me immortality?" 54
- Yajnavalkya gives his first lesson of spiritual life to Maitreyee 54
All love is like that – Not for the sake of the person, but for the sake of the self 54
- There were four stages of life for an individual in the ancient Indian society 55
A large freedom was given to all who really wanted a spiritual life 55
- Yajnavalkya had two wives 55
In far-off early days of mankind, man led a dangerous and precarious life 55
- A necessity became a religious duty to multiply, to procreate 55
At the present day it is over-population that threatens the existence of mankind 56
In those days, service for society, not personal pleasure was the aim 56
- Sri Aurobindo said – The ideal is not individual satisfaction but a global well-being 57
One must work in view of the welfare of all – The free inner individual 57
In the spiritual sphere also Sri Aurobindo gives us the same ideal 57
- One becomes spiritually free and complete so that all may be transformed 57
The Golden Rule 58
Find the Self, that is the golden rule 58
- Find the Self that is in you, you will find that very Self in your neighbour, in all 58
- You must take care not to confuse yourself with your Self – This Self is not the ego 58
- There is only one Soul and every one is that – You are all and all are you 59
That universal Self, your own true Self, you have to find – That is the golden rule 59
- A golden rule to realise it – "Always behave as if the Mother was looking at you” 60
If you follow this simple rule, you will see the change miraculously happening in you 60
Liberty, Self-Control and Friendship 62
Here in the Ashram you have been given almost infinite freedom 63
- You have infinite freedom here so that you may grow in your consciousness infinitely 63
- Physical education means nothing else than controlling and disciplining the body 63
- By the inner discipline you build an inner body strong and beautiful – A subtle body 63
- Your resolve must be there, to do the right whenever it presents itself to you 64
The inner sincerity will show you your path, the next step you are to take 64
A sincere readiness to welcome the truth when it comes will bring forward the truth 64
You live together with others – You must have good friends 65
- The best friend that you can have, the Mother says, is the Divine Himself 67
- The Mother is truly your mother and as truly your friend and comrade 68
Even if you are full of errors and mistakes, it does not matter, she takes you as you are 68
Only try not to repeat the error and take your shelter in the Mother's presence 68
A Review of Our Ashram Life 70
In its early days, the Ashram from its very start grew into a community life 70
- Only those were allowed to live here, who had a real call for the spiritual life 71
- The work that Mother was doing – The creation of a region of the higher consciousness 71
It was a kind of descent of Gods which the Mother's Grace brought about 71
Arrived at one point, Sri Aurobindo happened to make an observation which meant halt! 71
The Gods withdrew, we came down to earth – We are still there, crawling 72
This creation of a luminous world could not be fully achieved 72
- One had to make a cleaning of the vital consciousness and physical consciousness 72
- This was then the task given to all to battle through and conquer here below 72
- The realisation aimed at demands a wholesale change, an integral transformation 73
All the impurities, imperfections and vilenesses show themselves – To be extirpated 73
The community-ideal that obtained among us at the outset here broke to pieces 73
- Individualism reared its gruesome head – Egoism had uncontrolled sway 73
- Like individuals collective bodies also were allowed freedom to grow independently 73
The imperfections rose and declared themselves so that the Light can deal with them 74
- The lower sphere of the vital and the physical is a mass of ignorant nature 74
- Consciousness has to come down or emerge and penetrate there 74
- The first-born of consciousness at the outset become erratic, fighting against each other 74
- That was the way towards a purer, higher, wider, integrating consciousness 74
- We are thus in a transition period – The Paradise lost will one day be thus regained 75
A Parable of Sea-gulls 76
A re-creation of the story of Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach 81
- Man has within him a beautiful being snow-white in its purity 82
That being has to be brought out and displayed even as the sea-gull tranformed itself 82
SWEET MOTHER 83
The Mother, Human and Divine 85
The Divine Mother wishes us to come to her in the divine way and not in the human way 85
- The Divine Mother even in being transcendent leans down to our human dimensions 85
She takes us by the hand, and if we only allow it, teaches us how to grow 85
It is only by remembering her twofold truth that we can hope to be her true children 86
November I7, I973 87
The Mother's body served its purpose to be the pedestal of the New Body 87
- Sweet Mother, you will come with your New Body 87
A Canadian Question 88
In the light of the Mother's passing, physical transformation is postponed 88
- Mother has prepared for us her new body in the inner world, in the subtle physical 88
- This new body of hers she sought to infuse into the material form, even press into it 88
Matter and man's physical nature were not yet ready – The material casing broke 88
- But it is there still at work towards the final consummation of its material embodiment 89
The new body is formed out of an inner mind, an inner vital and an inner physical 89
We can show our love for her by admitting her Presence into our physical being 89
So long her physical body was our protection – Her body bore our burden 89
- Mankind would have gone down to destruction for the presence of the Divine Body 89
Mankind has an assured future, that is the work done by her body 89
A little more, to show us something of the concrete form of the future – That was not to be 89
- "If only mankind consented to be spiritualised." – That was not granted to her body 89
- She has left with us her living Consciousness concretised in the earth's atmosphere 90
She has come nearer to us and a little uplift will replace us within her arms 90
- We have no longer the support of her body on which we depended almost exclusively 90
- Now a little bit of austerity will be needed to go on our own 90
- The task then for us and for the world is to make ourselves ready 90
The Mother Abides 92
It was your soul that the Mother established in you as a living reality – Her primary task 92
- The second part of her work was to build around this soul a body, a material vehicle 92
A form of the Mother's own personality has to be brought down – It was not completed 92
- The level of the earth consciousness has to be lifted up 92
- The material constitution of the earth has to be transfigured 92
- So, the earth-nature has to be prepared – Our immediate and urgent business of life 93
The earth-consciousness was not ready for the final transformation of the Mother's body 93
- As for us, let us face the day with our baby-soul in front, the Mother's Presence in us 93
The best thing to do would be to remain quiet with all the aspiration of our soul 94
- Our soul is the concrete presence of Mother in us which we carry within us always 94
Twin Prayers 95
The new creation that the Mother embodied is a living and growing entity 95
- The materialisation of the inner formation will happen in course of time inevitably 95
It will touch the ground through a process of calamities and catastrophes perhaps 95
What is our share of the work? – To be more and more perfectly consecrated 96
- The situation has somewhat changed since then and has become more difficult 96
At present it is no longer sufficient to be a warrior, not sufficient even to be a hero 96
- One must be a Yogi – Another alternative is to be a child, an ideal child of the Mother 96
"Words, Words, Words..." 98
You children who have been here for sometime are a privileged class of human beings 98
- You have within you a particle of the Mother's own consciousness 98
You are now only an embryo, a rudimentary particle of the new life 98
- Now in a general way children all over the world are a privileged class 99
Two essential qualities pre-eminently belonging to the green age – Happiness, Freedom 99
These two characteristic virtues of childhood themselves spring from simplicity 99
You must carry with you these fundamental qualities and you will remain ever young 99
- The special privilege granted to those who are here – Mother's own consciousness 99
Your soul-consciousness – You will never lose it, whatever happens to your outer life 99
- Today a new consciousness is abroad. The earth-atmosphere is filled with the new spirit 100
The Divine Personality will grow everywhere but the forerunners are among you 100
The Mother has laid the foundations here for her creation 100
Soul's Freedom 101
If there is to be a Divine destiny for earth, it must be because of its free choice 101
- The supermind has descended – At present it is simply the question of manifestation 102
At one time Mother was pleading for collaboration from the material nature 102
The earth-consciousness has now to ask for, pray for collaboration from the Divine 102
- It all depends how much the earth consciousness has assimilated of the Divine Presence 102
If we continue to be the old stock, we shall have to wait perhaps for another million years 102
- There is always the possibility of a miracle happening – You might learn to change 103
- The Mother became a human being like us to shorten the million years 103
- The Mother has not stopped her work. But the most crucial thing has been done 103
Ashram: Inner and Outer 105
I will tell you of a dream, or a vision that I had sometime ago. It was an ashram 105
- My feeling is that this ashram was in fact the inner reality of our ashram here 106
The children here, when they live here for sometime, imbibe and carry a new atmosphere 106
- It is an atmosphere or aura made of happiness and purity and luminosity 106
- The inner atmosphere still exists here – The Mother is there as concrete as before 107
Here, we lead a double life – Part of us is here, and part in that other inner ashram 107
Now our task is to come more and more in contact with the Mother's Presence 107
- You can gradually reshape the present life in the mould of the inner life – Your task 107
- That inner life you have to bring out into your body and all the external activities 107
Your work is to try to be conscious and take part more and more in the inner life 108
- You have simply to ask for it sincerely – The child's call to the Mother 108
- The Mother has left her consciousness with us – The love for her children 108
One Day More 110
The manifestation of the Supramental upon earth is no more a promise, but a living fact 110
- The new world is born – It is threading past all the obscurities that hide it 111
The substance of which this new world was made was the most material supramental 111
The material matter too has to be touched and remoulded – That means a time-lag in 111
- A thing to be created or embodied upon earth is first created in a subtle world 111
- Not merely creation – The destruction first occurs in the subtle world 112
- The 'one day more' made of material matter is yet to be done – The New Creation 112
FRENCH 113
Mater Dolorosa 115
Mater Gloriosa 121
Maximes 123
Distiques 124
TRANSLATIONS 127
SANSKRIT 129
Hymn to Dawn 129
Hymn to the Sun 132
Agni and the Gods 139
Hymn to the Purusha 141
Hymn to Hiranyagarbha 143
Hymn of the Supreme Goddess 144
Ode to Darkness 145
Last Hymn 146
Victory to the World Master 147
A Hymn 149
A Prayer 150
BENGALI 156
Padavali 156
Ramprasad 159
Tagore 162
Modern Poems 166
Ashram Poets 184
DHAMMAPADA 197
Pali 199
THE TWINS 199
VIGILANCE 202
THE MIND 203
THE FLOWERS 204
THE FOOL 206
THE WISE 208
THE ADEPT 210
THOUSANDS 212
ON EVIL 214
PUNISHMENT 215
OLD AGE 217
OF THE SELF 219
OF THE WORLD 220
THE AWAKENED 221
ON HAPPINESS 223
OF THE PLEASANT 225
ON ANGER 227
ON IMPURITY 228
OF THE JUST 231
THE PATH 233
MISCELLANY 235
OF HELL 237
OF THE ELEPHANT 239
THE CANTO OF DESIRE 241
THE BHIKKHU 244
THE BRAHMIN 247
CHARYAPADA 253
Old Bengali Mystic Poems 255
THE GOLDEN JOURNEY 289
Act I: The Descent 291
Act II: The Play on Earth 295
Act III: The Return 301
Translations in French 307
Index 311
SWEET MOTHER
SWEET MOTHER i
Publisher’s Note i
Contents ii
SWEET MOTHER 1
The Mother – 3
The Nature of Her Work 3
The Mother was born in France, in Paris – Her family came in fact from Egypt 3
- For the new light to come and manifest, you have first to receive it in your mind 3
France represents today just this mind of humanity at its best 3
- She was creating a new type of the mental world beyond the individual egoistic mind 3
- The Golden Light illumines your thoughts, enters your heart, the vital region, your feet 3
- From France the Mother went to Japan for the next stage of her work 5
The Japanese as a nation represent indeed a very sensitive vitality, an artistic vitality 5
- For the golden light to manifest in the physical world, a vitality of this kind is necessary 5
A new world is thus ushered in, the new vital world, for all the world 5
The Mother is creative consciousness, wherever she happens to be, creating a new world 6
- The golden light must come into the feet. That was the work the Mother was doing here 6
Physical education – In order to prepare the body and senses to receive the golden light 6
The soul coming to the front is the Mother's special Grace here, her gift to all of you 6
- This will give you in the end a mind beautiful, a vital beautiful, a body beautiful 6
The Golden Child is in every one of you – You must find it. That is the goal of your life 7
Gods and Men 9
Man on one side is an elevated animal. On the other side he is a diminutive god 9
- The story how God or a god has reduced himself to the stature of a human being 9
Dust particles, innumerable particles whirling about – That was how creation started 9
Dust particles – Within each one, in another dimension, there were particles of light 9
The growth of this light-particle along with the development of the dust 9
- The original light particle became a person or a psychic being 9
- The greatening of the psychic being involves the whole inner story of human destiny 9
- There comes a time when you begin to think of the life spiritual 9
- Through the spiritual life you become a being perfectly formed and fully grown 11
When a man has achieved the perfect form of the soul – Another line of growth 11
Here you do not possess the gods, but they descend and come into you 12
- This is a new fulfilment for the human being to attain to the status of a god 12
- Sri Aurobindo speaks of the divine life, the Life Divine, the life of a god 12
The god that you call upon to come into you is your presiding deity 13
The function or role of a god-man or Devarshi like Narada has been described in Savitri 13
The divinely transformed human body is the next stage of human evolution 13
The Double Ladder 15
The luminous particle behind the dead particle – Evolution has become possible 15
Now from where did this speck of light or consciousness come? 15
- The Being pulverised itself into infinite infinitesimal particles 15
- The original division was also a gradual movement of fission 15
Ishwara and Ishwari further subdivided themselves in diminishing values 15
The gods of the Overmind – Some of them appear as presiding deities or Ishta-devata 15
The gods have come down and proliferated liberally in the earth's atmosphere 16
- In the system of creation – A double ladder, one mounting up, the other coming down 17
The upward rising tree is the tree of evolution starting from matter 17
The other tree is the Vedic Ashwattha tree that has its roots up in the supreme Space 17
- In this line of devolution, the gods – Their function is to infuse themselves 17
- Each type of divinity at the appropriate stage embodies itself – The Avataras 17
- The Gods are models for new creations which are gradually coming forward 18
- The gods of the age are preparing themselves to take the field in the new creation 18
On the Brink 20
On this earth a battle is raging between the Gods and Asuras 20
Man as he is now is far removed from godliness and close to Asuras 21
- Man by actual nature is asuric. It is through aspiration that he is trying to be godly 21
Sri Aurobindo discloses that most of his disciples were Asuras 21
- The possibility of the incarnation of the Divine lies in man alone 21
- Some Asuras may like to pretend to be divine – But the truth will be out 21
- Whether any remnants of the human race will be left is a mystery 21
Man by his soul is akin to the gods, by his external being is neighbourly to the Asuras 22
- The gods and the Asuras are in eternal struggle for the mastery of the three worlds 23
Asuras however have a greater sway over man because of man's earthly constitution 23
But man has a higher destiny transcending these lower worlds – His soul 23
The solution of all problems – The attainment of divine perfection 24
- There are two realms, the physical realm of action and the subtle realm of feeling 24
You have to create the subtle world of feeling – The source of your life and delight 25
- This realm will be from base to apex entirely composed of the Mother's peace and quiet 25
- The capacity has been given to you – Nothing else but the Mother's Presence 25
The Ashram, the World and the Individual 26
Mother told us long ago that our Ashram is an epitome of India 26
- All the dark points have been exposed in the Ashram and in the country in general 26
- The Ashram was made to be a conscious collective centre – The change from within 26
- Each one of us who are here in the Ashram is in turn an epitome of the Ashram 26
The only remedy – To cure the ills individually, personally in one's own consciousness 26
Mother also said that as India is a representative or an epitome of the world 27
- The Ashram is expected to show the way to the solution of India's problems 27
The Golden Chain 28
You have been here for many many years – You have gained the Mother's touch 28
- The golden chain is there within your heart – The Mother's Presence is there always 28
- Mother called us here and She has given it of Her own Love unasked, unconditionally 29
- The Mother's Presence – In any difficulty, always know that it is there in you 30
OBSERVATIONS AND NOTES 31
Observations 33
Grace is the Divine made earthly and human. And that is our Mother 33
The Mother's body – The material stuff for the incarnation of the subtle Divine body 33
- That new material substance was being prepared in the Mother's body 33
Medicine in Mother's body is for the body to change the medicines 34
The soul under the light or influence of the supramental has to refound its instruments 34
Do not look with greedy eyes upon what others possess 35
Do not strive or struggle, there must be no tension or tautness, it should be all relaxation 35
Of all beings man is the most suffering 36
Face the difficulty that is come to you, face it at once without delay 36
Chastity is freedom from the physical and vital obsession 37
Learn to encircle your pain with the golden ring of a smile 37
Bad thoughts act always instantaneously 37
If you fall to any depth, you can rise to the same height 38
That Power is dynamic today to a degree unknown heretofore – The Divine Providence 38
Pain and suffering in the world – There is a perennial spring of delight behind 38
Moral idealism has not the necessary effective power 39
It is no longer the Age of Reason – This is the age of the luminous faith and vision 39
- One should be ashamed now of professing scepticism, agnosticism 39
Falsehood is not the negation of Truth. It is the caricature of Truth 39
Do not criticise, unless you know how to remedy the error you criticise 39
Whenever there is an impulse in you to speak of the dark side of a thing, halt then 39
Any affirmation made by the mind and the senses – Wait, invoking the higher light 40
The Divine knows how to circumvent all and turn everything to His own use 40
The Knowledge, the Will – Both together form the twin Ashwins of the Veda 40
A Power, a Presence has come down and is moulding infallibly the earth-substance 41
- Here each individual may create a secure opening for the new Power and Presence 41
A Note On "The Mother Of Dreams" 42
The Rishis spoke of the waking state, the dream state and the sleep state 42
- The three stages of the manifestation of a transcendent Fourth beyond (Turiya) 42
The Transcendent is concentrated being and consciousness (Prajna) – Hiranyagarbha 42
Last all the possibilities become earthly facts and figures. It has been named Virat 42
The Mother of Dreams then is the Mother of Energy 43
- She is the Mother not only of the Shining Ones, but also of the Dark Ones 43
Notes on “Savitri” 44
Narad himself represents a divine consummation of the human being – He is a devarshi 44
Griffin is the guardian God of this passage between the lower and the upper hemisphere 45
The New Creation coming down from above – The creation of the Mother's Love 47
- Morning Star – Embodying New Creation 47
- Amber colour representing a particular plane of consciousness 47
Vision of Dante 48
Dante was a Traveller of the Worlds in the path of the life Divine 48
- Dante describes his journey through the three worlds well-known in Christian theology 48
After death when this material sheath is not there, the subtle body is helpless 48
NEW TRANSLATIONS WITH ORIGINAL TEXTS 61
AN ITALIAN STANZA 63
HYMN TO DAWN 65
SONGS OF RAMPRASAD 67
IN LOVE WITH DARKNESS 71
HYMN TO DARKNESS 73
FORWARD 75
TEARS OF GRIEF 77
THY GRACE 79
CHILDREN'S SONG 81
WHEREFORE THIS HURRY? 83
EGO 85
AGNI 87
TEXTS OF TRANSLATIONS IN VOLUME FIVE 89
Vedic Hymns 91
Other Hymns and Prayers 100
Padavali 106
Ramprasad 110
Rabindranath Tagore 113
Modern Poets 118
Ashram Poets 141
Dhammapada 161
Charyapda 199
Le Périple d’or 223
Original Texts of Translations in French 242
SUPPLEMENTARY 247
I 249
SWEET MOTHER 249
(New Series) 249
The Golden Harvest 251
The body has the proud privilege of receiving the golden touch of the Divine materially 251
- Radha feels she is none other than Krishna, even physically himself 252
Radha feels that her body is no longer her own but Krishna's and therefore utterly sacred 252
The earth, the body that has once received the touch of the earth-made body of the Divine 252
- That contact remains imbedded in the substance of the mortal human body 252
The Human Touch Divine 253
What makes man human, not merely animal and not solely godly? 253
- This weakness in a thing ephemeral opens up a secret spring in the human soul 254
Compassion is the foundation of the Christian virtue, charity 254
The feeling of union and compassion in an exquisite beauty of expression 254
How far can human remain human and yet be truly divinised? 255
- The tear-drop in the eye of the Divine seems to be the supreme status of the human 255
- In our Mother the tear-drop, the mark of her Grace, transmuted into her smile 255
The Great Holocaust – Chhinnamasta 256
A new creation on earth was always preceded by a stage of destruction of the old 256
- The new creation is waiting for materialising on earth, but earth is not yet ready 256
Mother, when nothing more could be done, withdrew leaving the field to the breaking up 256
- Those who cling to Truth survive, those who make alliance with Falsehood perish 257
- Only the new reality will be able to come forward – Mother's mission will be fulfilled 257
- Mother's action with her own Self – She has taken her Chhinnamasta form 258
A Vision 259
The Mother says “You will see all problems solved. Forget all else. Remember me alone” 259
In Her Company 260
When the Mother was giving collective meditation, gods and angels joined in 260
When the Mother used to play on the organ, there was a crowd of invisible listeners 260
II 261
OBSERVATIONS AND NOTES 261
Observations 263
She is always there – Only we must know how to approach, to attune ourselves 263
She is accessible to our prayer, if it is genuine, spontaneous, simple and candid 263
There is some difference, Her not being in the body here 263
When the Avatar comes down – His comrades form a nucleus of the new creation 263
- It is said the Avatar descends with His family repeatedly age after age 264
Krishna and Radha typify the love of a young boy and a young girl 264
- The Vaishnava discipline is to keep and maintain love at this stage and mode 264
- The Vedantin seeks to cut away the vital urge 265
- The Tantric calls the Mother into himself so that she fights the battle for him 265
An Impression 266
Contents 267
SWEET MOTHER (New Talks)
SWEET MOTHER i
(New Talks) i
Publishers’ Note i
Contents iii
SWEET - MOTHER 1
(New Talks) 1
In Her Company 3
The evening meditation at the Playground – Invisible beings from other worlds 3
- Inhabitants of the other worlds could come near and meet the embodied Divine 3
- The earth even now retains something of that Divine touch and will retain it for ever 3
When the Mother used to play on the organ – Invisible musicians assembled there 4
- Sunil's music is a peculiar case – Grafted on the Mother's Divine music 4
The interchange between the physical world and the heavenly or otherworldly worlds 5
- These higher or otherworldly powers come nearer to the earth to extend their help 5
Some people here developed in a strange uncanny way other qualities 5
Supra-normal faculties – One can come in conscious contact with forces and influences 6
- Sri Aurobindo himself used to do automatic writing 6
- Sri Aurobindo has described at length how Vivekananda used to come to him 6
- Automatic speech is also possible. Sri Aurobindo explained how he arrived at this 7
- You are surrounded by a world of beings and influences 9
In abnormal occasions – You are truly possessed by invisible beings and entities 9
- Hysteria also is a familiar case of possession 9
- Hypnotism, mesmerism, mediumistic practices – Communion with the other world 9
- As there are adverse beings and forces, so there are good angels and helpful deities 9
Yoga is the way to be conscious of these invisible forces and to bring harmony 9
- Yoga shows how to organise your life round a single centre, your soul 9
- The path of yoga starts with purification – That is the basis 9
- The supreme unfailing help from the Mother is there almost in the same way as before 9
In other ages, to attain nearness to God needed arduous labour – The age of tapasya 11
- Now God has come down to us and continues to be in the earth atmosphere 11
- It is a turning of the consciousness that is needed – The sincerity of a child 11
Mother’s Playground 13
As soon as we stepped into the playground, a new atmosphere enveloped us 13
- The grouping in the playground – No difference of age, specially no difference of sex 14
Only capacity was the chief consideration for distinction and difference 14
In the very early days we used to address each other by our mere names 14
The organisation of physical education – No difference between boys and girls 15
- The freedom being given here to women and to the younger generation 15
The true consciousness is that you do the right thing because your nature impels you 15
- Human being could be spontaneous and natural in its action and behaviour 15
- Kartavya is one's Dharma or the spontaneous expression of one's nature 15
- In the truth of your soul you are neither man nor woman, neither young nor old 15
You are to take your stand on your soul – You have to forget the differences 18
- The birthday-celebration – Not for recording how we are getting old but the progress 18
The lesson to learn then is to get back to your soul inside you 18
- The soul is neither boy nor girl nor old person 20
Love the Mother, be one with her, you will find and be this living soul of yours 20
The Bride of Brahman 21
A very old and ancient story from the Veda – The Bride of Brahman has left Brahman 21
- The Gods must take that Brahmashakti back to her Lord, the Brahman 21
Another story in the Veda about the disappearance of the God Agni 22
- The sacrifice of the advancement of consciousness starts with the kindling of fire 22
- The Fire is the fire that is the force of your aspiration 23
The Gods accompanied Brahmajaya, the Bride of Brahman in her journey back home 23
- The prologue – The Shakti was so far away from her Lord that She became Matter 23
- Brahman separated from his Shakti and went off towards Nothingness, Shunya 23
- The return journey – The Gods came one by one and led the Shakti up the way 25
First Soma came – Delight touched the inner core of the fallen Nature 25
Next Agni was directed to take the Shakti along with him on the way 25
- First, she became identified with Him – The realisation that you are the Brahman 25
- The Bride of Brahman from her individual realisation went forward into the universal 25
- The Bride of Brahman from her universal realisation went into the Transcendent 26
It is said that this separation and this reunion meant a greater fulfilment upon earth 26
- If there has been a descent there must inevitably follow an ascent 27
A Small Talk 29
A story – A little girl met, whenever there was any difficulty, her real inner person 29
Alfred de Musset speaks of a companion who used to visit him, like his own twin brother 30
- Everyone of you have his companion – This hidden friend is the Presence of the Mother 30
- Three persons – Your outside appearance, your natural appearance, your true being 31
Your own true self, incarnating the Mother's presence and the Mother's love 31
The Iron Chain 32
The golden chain that the Mother puts on whoever comes near her and touches her 33
- Another chain with binds some people physically to her – The iron chain 33
Some Dates 34
7.7.77 – Mother herself once gave the meaning "Manifestation and Realisation" 34
- Manifestation means the appearance of the truth when it comes forward 34
- Realisation means we express this truth that has come forward in our consciousness 34
- The number seven is the number of the worlds that constitute creation 34
- Four is the number signifying a square, fullness, completeness 34
8.8.77, this date also is very remarkable – 8 equals 4 + 4. Seven means 4+3 35
- Three represents the three fundamental principles of creation, Sacchidananda 35
ORIGINAL BENGALI WRITINGS 37
(In English Translation) 37
ON ART AND LITERATURE 39
World-Literature 41
From poetry or any other artistic creation – A glimpse of the Infinite and the Eternal 41
- What is required is a glimpse of the vast, the waves of delight pervading the universe 41
- In the Vedic hymns we always come across three gods – Varuna, Mitra, Aryama 42
Varuna is the vast, the immense, the eternal, the infinite, and absolute 42
Mitra is union, harmony, beauty, bliss 42
Aryama signifies strength, power, dynamis 42
- The first principle of poetry is freedom from all narrowness 43
The poet's genius consists in his ability to show the universal in the particular 43
- The formless universality is particularly a matter of philosophy 43
- The poet seeks for a living image of the truth – The Infinite made living and visible 43
A poet utilises the elements supplied by time and space to create a world-literature 45
Every literature has a popular and a classical style 45
- The basic popular is to be re-shaped into the classical and raised to a higher status 45
Popular literature is the literature of the people, the common man 45
- When man is in his early childhood – The origin of the first poet of nature 45
Literary creation starts with proverbs and fairy tales 46
Another stage sets in when men want to narrate in a lucid and artistic manner 46
But in the parochial poet there is still a reflection of narrowness 46
- The Ballads of the English and the Romantic Songs of the French – Under this category 46
Chaucer elevated English literature as from a mundane to the spiritual level 47
In French poetry, real poetry was first introduced by Ronsard 47
Poetry has had to rise one step higher – Victor Hugo holds this touch of immensity 47
Malherbe was the father of classical French literature – He paved the way for Corneille 48
- The natural march of literature towards the classical style 48
The object of true literature is to scan the details of a greater life in a higher world 48
- In Bengali literature Vidyapati and Chandidas – An attempt at creating genuine poetry 49
Madhusudan, Bankim and Rabindranath in Bengali literature – The universal muse 50
In Bengali any literature that consists of words of purest revelation is very rare 51
The literature which we call plebeian or popular cannot form the best literature 51
- Universal feeling does not necessarily mean cosmopolitanism 51
- The sense of universality means transcending the limitations of time and clime 52
What is required is to discover the universal soul in the heart and not outside 52
The poets and litterateurs – The knots of the Body, the Vital and the Mind to be cut away 52
- Realism has neither given nor can give birth to true or universal literature 52
- Vitalism stands over against materialism 53
- Idealism or romanticism stands over against realism and naturalism 53
- The Body, the Life and the Mind are only externals – The Soul is the inner reality 56
A divine vision or revelation is needed to create world-literature 56
- The body, the vital being, the mind and intellect are to be seen from a higher plane 56
- For this reason Kalidasa, Valmiki and Vyasa are poets of all ages and countries 56
That alone is real literature which sees a thing under the figure of Eternity 57
Greek Drama 58
Sophocles' famous play, Antigone – Very peculiar is the character of this Antigone 58
- This fanatical devotion to duty in Antigone is an outer mask – Her power of love 59
In Antigone – The claims of the state and the individual's right to follow his ideal 61
- There is another kind of law, derived from God, and that cannot be transgressed 61
- There is no fault or sin in obeying the Laws of Heaven in disregard of the laws of men 62
Another conflict within Antigone – She was accused of having oppressed her beloved 62
- Antigone – In her urge to carry out her vow, she has crushed the inspiration of her heart 62
Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides – The supreme creators of drama in ancient Greece 63
- Aeschylus – A seat in the very first rank, with Shakespeare, Dante and Homer 63
- Sophocles reminds one of the French dramatists with their restraint and measure 63
- Euripides reaches out towards the modern mentality, has almost come in line with it 63
The theme of tragic drama in Greek – The vital impulses in their primitive state 64
- The struggle between the divine and the undivine – Keynote in Indian art and literature 64
- The purifying of the lower nature that has been called Katharsis by the Greeks 65
One main aim of Greek tragedy was to effect this inner purification 65
The Age of Pericles – In every field there appeared in that age men of outstanding gifts 66
- A remarkable thing about these ancients is that almost all of them lived to a ripe old age 66
Spirituality in Art 68
Is there any natural opposition between art and the spiritual life? 68
- The object of art is to create joy – What is God, and what is the blissful form of God? 68
The God of a sadhu or saint and that of an artist – Are they identical? 69
- In the eyes of a sadhu, that God alone is holy who cannot be stained by earthly impulse 69
- The artist can portray both the aspects in the full manifestation of their truth and beauty 69
The aim and object of a sadhu and those of an artist are not the same 70
- A sadhu and a reformer want to mould men and the world after an ideal 70
- The art of an artist is not meant to set up an ideal however great in the world 71
- The fundamental principle of art is the expression of the infinite truth 72
Everything manifests itself through some truth in the core of its being 72
- The manifestation of this God is the aim of the artist 72
There is no conflict between art and true spirituality – Spirituality is the life-breath of art 72
- Ugliness is that which shows only the outer form, which fails to show the raison d'être 73
- The artist sees with the eyes of a seer what is the truth, the hidden principle, behind 73
- The poet or the seer creates from the inspiration derived from the truth realised by him 73
The artist and the sadhu do not tread the same path 74
- The artist pays no attention to discriminating the object – His inner attitude 74
- He reveals the true and the beautiful form in his spontaneous urge of the truth 74
- Subtle is the penetrating influence of art – The artist can get purified without austerity 75
If the aim of spirituality is to know the Self, then the aim of art too is the same 75
Intuition and Inspiration in Art 76
As intuition plays the major role in one kind of art, even so inspiration in another 76
- Intuition is inner seeing, inspiration inner hearing 76
Forms of beauty and truth come into existence through the creator's intuition 76
The rhythm, the gesture of truth and beauty come through the creator's inspiration 76
The creators of the East seem to proceed more by intuition 77
The creators of the West seem to proceed more by inspiration 77
The Classical is motivated by intuition, the Romantic by inspiration 77
Sparks of intuition are scattered all over the ancient arts. Inspiration marks the modern 77
- Intuition and inspiration – We have to look to the source from where they originate 80
Besides, intuition and inspiration exist together and over-lap each other 80
There is no such gulf between the two as we may imagine 80
Rhythm in Poetry 81
Rhythm, in its essence, is the harmony or melody underlying poetic speech 81
- Kalidasa – His Meghaduta is composed in a wonderful metrical form, mandākrāntā 81
In each line there are 17 syllables, divided into groups of four, six and seven 81
- There is also to consider the sequence of long and short vowels 81
- There is another metrical form, the śloka, which is very familiar to Sanskrit 83
Four feet making a double line, each line containing a pair of feet of eight syllables each 83
- There is not much rigidity here about the distribution of long and short vowels 84
- This metre is called anuṣṭubh by the Sanskrit prosodists 84
- Payār is the basic foundation or backbone of the metrical structure in Bengali 84
A couplet each line counting fourteen letters, simple or conjunct 84
- Bengali prosody does not recognise long or short syllables – The rhymes at the end 84
- Somewhat similar to Bengali is the basic structure of the French metrical scheme 84
French too makes no distinction of long and short vowels 84
- The basic division in French is six-six syllables – The Alexandrine 84
- English has its iambic pentameter – Each line should consist of five feet 85
The iambic has a foot of two syllables each 85
- The metrical foot in Greek or Latin consists of three syllables long or short 86
The best-known measure in Latin or Greek is the hexameter 86
- The hexameter depends especially on a particular type of foot, the dactyl 86
The difference between the rhythmic movements of Greek and Latin verse 87
- The main feature of Latin was in its strength, of Greek its beauty 88
- The rhythm or music of English verse follows the pattern of stress 88
Sri Aurobindo wanted to refashion the hexameter in the style of English prosody 88
The length of vowels or quantity, or else the stress or accent, gives quality to a metre 90
- Where the basic unit is the syllable – Ancient Greek, Latin, Sanskrit, French, Bengali 90
The metres have there a slow flowing movement 90
- The rhythm with its stress on accent – The staccato in German, English, Spanish, Italian 90
- Bengali verse has a considerable element of stress – A peculiar beauty 92
In Bengali all the sounds are pronounced distinctly no matter where the stress falls 92
In the staccato rhythms of the European languages – Prominence to the stressed sounds 92
Sweetness has made the fame of Bengali, from Vidyapati and Chandidas to Rabindranath 94
The possibilities for strength and nobility have been brought out by Madhusudan 94
The Poet and The Seer 96
Plato has exiled the poet from his Republic 96
- Plato's charge is that poets are no worshippers of truth 96
The vital world is the source of the poet and all other artists who are creators 97
- This vital itself is the magic power of the urge for enjoyment and action 97
- This vital is again the field of all desires and impulses of men 97
- The poet is really a poet only when he is a seer, one who has the direct vision of truth 98
As there is a spiritual truth so there is a mundane truth – The poet has an insight 98
The artificial imagination is nothing but fancy – The direct experience illumines the truth 99
- The divine sees the Self not only in things spiritual but also in things terrestrial 99
The true poet will seize beauty through the pure sense of delight in the purified vital 100
- The vision of the Truth breaks out of the sense of delight 100
- The sense of delight finds its foundation in the truth-vision 100
- The poet and the seer become united and the delightful and the good stand identified 100
The Poet and the Yogi 101
It is at times said that the poet is a Yogi who has failed 101
- First, whether the poet is at all a Yogi or a Sadhaka and, if so, in what sense 102
The aspiration of every poet flies to an immaculate realm of Beauty and Truth 102
The aim of a poet is to create a thing of beauty and delight with the help of words 103
The delight in the realisation of the Brahman and from poetic creation – The same source 104
The poet creates something only after he has been surcharged with Sattwic qualities 104
The purpose of reading poetry – Towards our nature's purification and emancipation 104
- In the poetic creation there can be an illusory power of Ignorance 106
But in that case it is the poet and not his poetic creation that is in fault 106
- Not the conclusion that a poet is he who has fallen from the status of a Yogi 106
The poets of the Upanishads were at once seers and yogis in the fullest measure 106
Be that as it may, it can never be said that a poet and a Yogi are one and the same 106
It is not obligatory that in order to be a Yogi one must be a poet first 106
Poetry and Mantra 108
Poetry and mantra are not one and the same thing 108
- The highest form and the most perfect perfection of poetry lie in the mantra 108
- Likewise a mantra can manifest itself in the shape and form of poetry 108
- Poetry is delightful speech. Mantra is the Brahman manifested as sound 109
It is not that mantra means something solely dealing with spiritual disciplines 109
- Here speech is the realisation of an inner delight – Mantra unveils its inner potency 110
There is a type of form that retains its own independent value – It is perishable 110
- The beauty of Greek sculpture is of this type 110
Another type which surrenders its independent existence – The vehicle of Immortality 110
- The secret of India's sculpture, and the aim of many Indian spiritual disciplines 110
- Kalidasa is only a poet and does not seem to be a seer or creator of mantras 110
- The poet – Not a creator of mantras so long as there is the stamp of an individual ego 110
Seer as poet and poet as poet are different, because of their difference in speech 111
- Vaikhari vāk is the word that maintains its own separate dignity and greatness 111
- Paśyantī vāk is the spontaneous voice, the soundless sound of this inner Being 111
- Vaikharī vāk is predominant in Bengali poetry. Paśyantī vāk is hardly available 111
Lines of Tantra 113
The age of Tantric Buddhism – A special kind of spiritual discipline and culture 113
- Fifty poems or songs, the work of a Tantric Buddhist group known as Siddhacharyas 113
They are records of spiritual experiences and are helps to their realisation 114
The path of spiritual discipline and inner practice to which it leads is the Left-hand path 114
- We shall now look a little deeper into the peculiarities of each, Vedanta and Tantra 115
Vedanta was the Path of the educated élite – Tantra was meant for the generality of men 115
Vedanta regards Brahman as if aloof from the created universe 116
Sankhya makes the Purusha or Conscious Being separate from Prakriti or Nature 116
Tantra places Purusha not outside or above Prakriti, but down into the heart of Prakriti 116
- Tantra has clung to Mother-Nature – The Natural Path, the Way of Sahajiya 116
- The Tantric discipline – The remnant of a much older practice 117
The secret Man dwelling within man – In the Sahajiya Path, called the Natural Man 117
This sadhana was the esoteric sādhanā of the "depressed" classes 120
Our ancient Rishis were not so far removed after all from these Siddhacharyas 127
The untouchables have made themselves as worthy of respect as the Brahmins 127
In one respect the realisation of these Siddhacharyas has gone farther 127
- The Upanishads and the Vedantins stop with the realisation of the Ananda plane 127
- These Siddhacharyas have passed beyond the realm of Delight to that of Divine Love 127
The Nihilism of the Buddhists and the Illusionism of Shankara – A long shadow 128
Sahaja gives a definite form to the mystic principle of the Body 128
The Greatness of Poetry 129
The source of inspiration nowadays is the brain or the nerves or a mixture of the two 129
- 'Art for Art's sake' has been the present-day principle in the field of artistic creation 129
- What is art? The creation of the artist. Who is the artist? He who creates himself 129
In ancient times the word 'self' used to signify the Psychic Being or the Supreme Self 129
In modern times 'self' signifies the surface consciousness through the brain and nerves 129
Is it obligatory that one should have a great soul in order to be a great poet? 130
- True, ethics and aesthetics are two radically different things 130
Ethics signifies morality, an ideal life and a correct conduct in one's dealings with others 130
- The Psychic Being or the inner Self – Something deeper and higher than morality 130
- The Psychic Being is the true nature of the inherent consciousness in the being 130
The truth of the inner Being can be grasped only through one's manners 131
We never find vulgarity in the artistic creation of any true artist 132
There are moralists and religious people who badly lack the virtue of the inner Being 132
Verily the greatness of the poet is the greatness of the inner consciousness 133
Modern Poetry 134
The principle that the style of poetry should be like that of prose 134
- Poetic prose is a special feature. There is the prose poem. The next step is free verse 134
- But what the moderns aim at is quite different – The style will be of prose 134
Even though the ancients speak in popular terms, they choose the zenith in poetry 136
The moderns choose their poetic note from the trough of the common day-to-day speech 136
Where the heart of the poet is in depth and intensity, his voice rings with that 137
- That which is real in creation is the dictate of the poet's inner Soul 138
A prosaic thing may be accepted, but it should be treated as something more 139
- Subjects for poetry should be developed along with their characteristic nature 139
- That is to say, the thing and the event should be shown as speaking for themselves 139
The moderns want not articulations but incantations – To have the descent of the deity 140
- The aim of poetry is to present the truth or the object as living and conscious 141
The mode of modern Western poetry is the particular expression of Western life 142
- The moderns follow the incantation of the left-wing tantriks 142
- The ancient poets took to the Vedantic and the right-wing of the Tantra as the best 142
The Obscene and the Ugly – 143
Form and Essence 143
Obscenity has its place in art, but not ugliness – To expose this brute nature to daylight 143
- From the standpoint of the creation of beauty what purpose can obscenity serve? 143
Decency is that which conforms to social rules and customs – Not necessarily beautiful 143
The ugly is only that which is artificial and perverse 144
- The decent is ugly when it is merely an outward show of purity, without any inner truth 144
There are two varieties of beauty, beauty of essence and beauty of form 145
- Rasa and rūpa – The perfect poetic beauty marries the two in an indivisible unity 146
Rabindranath the Artist 147
Rabindranath – The truth, the realisation of the inner soul in his poetry 147
- Beauty is the chief and essential thing in the poetic creation of Rabindranath 147
Rabindranath – Knowledge and power have a subordinate place in his consciousness 148
- Rabindranath – The poet in his inner soul permeated his whole being 148
- This beauty he has expressed more through the vibrations of rhythm 149
He has attained to sheer beauty through movement, through sound 149
Rabindranath was a worshipper of Brahman, more of the Brahman as the primal sound 152
Truth and Good – The objects of sadhana to Rabindranath from the aspect of their beauty 152
- Love is a main theme of his poetry – Beauty has found its highest revelation in love 153
- The beauty depicted by Rabindranath consists in harmony, contentment, serenity 153
- Rabindranath's God is supremely beautiful, loving and graceful 153
- Rabindranath's ideal of the vast human collectivity – Inspired by this sense of harmony 154
- At the root of Rabindranath's patriotism also there lies the same love for beauty 154
The beauty that he brought down into our life, particularly in the life of Bengal. 155
- Firstly, a world of fine arts, a new current of poetry, painting, music, dance and theatre 155
- Secondly, in our country a refined taste and a capacity for subtle experience 155
- Thirdly, a gradual manifestation of order and beauty in our ordinary daily life 155
Rabindranath and Modernism 157
Bengali literature has reached the stage of modernism – The contribution of Rabindranath 157
- Bankim and Madhusudan have placed Bengali literature on the road of modernism 157
- At the dawn of modernism, the currents, foreign and indigenous did not get quite fused 158
- Tagore's genius brought about a beautiful harmony between the two worlds 158
Some of the things characteristic of the West, were fused into his inspiration 159
Rabindranath's experience has far exceeded the present to climb to the lofty past 159
Thus, the harmony and synthesis of the East and the West, the present and the past 159
- The two streams of thought, oriental and occidental, were synthesised in Tagore's work 160
The European consciousness, especially modern, is centred on the physical world 160
- Tagore wanted to seize the object as a real object and touch the body physically 162
- What has bridged the gulf between the body and the soul is the heart of the devotee 162
Rabindranath has the intuition of the Brahman as the vital principle 162
- Although he gave himself to the flood-tide, he was in close touch with the inner being 163
- The object of Rabindranath's worship – Brahman in Its aspect of Pranic Energy 163
The main secret of man's modernity – To convert the supra-physical into the physical 163
- The entire future of humanity depends on this line of spiritual practice 164
Artistic skill of the past lay in harmonising the different and separate entities. 164
- There is now a unification and an assimilation – A play of irregularities and exceptions 164
- Rabindranath synthesised all in a free and vivacious metre embodied in waves of poetry 166
The sweetness, skill and power of expression in the Bengali literature of today 166
Now the question is whether the term "modern" should include the ultra-modern also 167
- Rabindranath was the worshipper of the beautiful and of beautiful forms 167
- The ultra-moderns – Under their influence, the frame-work of beauty has got dissolved 167
The Language of Rabindranath 169
If Bengali has become a world language, at the root of it there is Rabindranath 169
- The capacity of a language lies in its power of expression 169
- The Bengali language – In Rabindranath we find it in its full-blossoming 169
- The new words coined by Rabindranath – A characteristic trait of his creative genius 170
- Prodigality, luxuriance and even complexity are hall-marks of Tagore's style 171
Bankim's is more simple and straight and transparent, less decorating and ambulating 171
Here too there is a regulated order and restraint – A logic of feeling living and dynamic 172
- The difference between Saratchandra and Tagore – Without any ornamentation 172
Rabindranath's ornamentationis not an ostentatious one 173
Tagore the Unique 175
Tagore, Shakespeare, Goethe, Tolstoy, Dante, Virgil, Homer, Kalidasa – Each is a king 175
- To turn a parochial language and literature into a world language and a world literature 175
- To unfold the inner strength and the deeper genius of the language 175
Dante used a popular dialect – This he turned into the language of Italy 175
Shakespeare has revealed something of the universal in the very special style he created 175
The French – The contribution of more than one genius 176
- Racine embodies the special characteristic of the French, elegance and sensitiveness 176
- Corneille has contributed severity, virility, high seriousness, austere self-control 176
Tagore has in many ways the title and position of a Racine amongst us 177
Rabindranath, Traveller of the Infinite 179
In Rabindranathhe thing that has taken shape is the aspiration of the inner soul 179
- His special characteristic is to keep the Deity of the worship indivisible and indefinable 179
Rabindranath has not seen his Beloved with his eyes open, nor has he wished to do so 180
- A constant separation from the Beloved has made this love intense, sweet and poignant 180
- Due to the quality of the aspiration, two qualities are perceptible in his poetical style 181
First, the Style, the speed, the swing of rhyme and rhythm and the cadence of tune 181
- An uninterrupted forward march of the soul and the inner consciousness 181
- This sense of ever progressive movement is very evident in Rabindranath 182
- This movement is fundamentally a spiritual aspiration, a longing for the Divine 183
- The élan vital of Bergson is mainly a movement of nature and the life-force 183
The second quality proceeds towards the indefinable at its best 184
- Our physical eyes fail to seize a meaningful substance or a direct and clear experience 184
- In Tagore we find on the whole speech carrying more weight than substance 185
- This is why his poetic genius, as it were, somewhat falls short of perfect perfection 185
- Substance means the real essence, the very core, the thing in itself 185
- Realisation signifies union. The poet was not after union, but the yearning for union 186
How the upward urge of aspiration runs like a golden thread through all different modes 187
- The first awakening of aspiration, looking outward and given to outer things 187
- Next, consciousness is turned inward – Aspiration has struck the chords of life 187
- Further on, the journey towards the unknown destination in the midst of darkness 188
The note of union is there hidden in his pang of separation 188
- In the next phase, in his middle age, a more normal, ordinary and homely tune 189
- Afterwards we hear once again the resonance of a high emotional, impassioned voice 190
The tune reaches a lofty pitch, the melody is far flung, but it is more steady and firm 190
Boris Pasternak 192
'Doctor Zhivago' may be regarded as illustrating the life-principle of the author himself 192
- The first principle of Pasternak's vision of life is the unity of all life on earth 192
The experience of this union is perhaps the fount of an urge towards Supreme Love 192
- Individual freedom is the second note of Pasternak's life-principle 193
The whole creation is indivisible, yet it is a close-knit unity in manifold diversity 193
- In spite of a unity in the creation the individual life is a bundle of sorrows and tragedies 193
Is there no escape from this pitiful fate of life? 193
- The love for his Lord Christ has brought him liberation 198
In the vision of the poet there are veins of delight concealed in sorrow 199
- Sorrow is a form of austerity, though not voluntary but imposed 199
- The problem of life solved through the two great sayings of Christ 200
The kingdom of heaven is within you 200
- It is in the depths of our heart that the peace, freedom, light and supreme Love abide 200
Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's 201
- The calamities of nature cannot be evaded, they have to be bravely faced – Courage 201
ON NATIONAL HERITAGE 203
The Heart of Bengal 205
The Bengalis have a subtle sensitivity, they are thoughtful and imaginative 206
- The Bengalis have a deep insight and bright glimpses of experience 206
In the thought that has once been able to touch their hearts, there they have excelled 206
- In the nerves, the mind and the vital of the Bengalis, there is flexibility or instability 207
- Bengalis are a race of artists – The mere joy of creation and the appreciation of beauty 208
- There is a grace and a charm on the faces of the women of Bengal 209
Gracefulness is but a shadow of the soul on the body 209
- The speciality of the Bengalis is the intuitive lore of the soul 209
The real part they are to play is to experience and realise the Truth 210
- The Bengali race is the pioneer-guide of the new age 201
- Bengal has the power to appreciate the essence of the supreme Delight 211
Bengalis as a race are worshippers of the feminine aspect of God 211
- Bengalis have a bad reputation for being very fond of their homes 212
This signifies the attraction of the Bengalis for the intense delight of life 212
- The heart of the Bengalis is full of diverse inspirations – A harmonious union 213
- Bengal is the worshipper of wealth and grandeur – She has never disdained prosperity 213
- The fundamental quality of the Bengali race is affectionate attachment, family closeness 214
The Bengalis are often called a feminine race. There is much truth in this saying 214
The Mother-Worship of the Bengalis 215
Bengal is the hallowed seat of Mother-worship in India – Śakti-sādhanā 215
- Puruṣa and Prakṛti are the two primal principles of the world-mystery 215
Man can proceed Godward in two general directions, either to Prakṛti or to Puruṣa 215
- Vedanta proceeds with Puruṣa, and the Śakti-sādhanā with Prakṛti 215
- Knowledge is the road leading to the Vedantic realisation 216
- Surrender is the path leading to Śakti-sādhanā 216
- Bengal has realised this doctrine of Shakti-worship – The worshippers of Nature 217
The Trinity of Bengal 219
Rammohan, Bankimchandra, Vivekananda – Three steps in modern Bengal 219
- First then the awakening of the psychic Person – The call has come to the man 219
In Rammohan is visible the primal stage of the consciousness of Bengal 220
- When the truth takes birth and grows in the soul – Reason and intelligence seize on it 221
The mental being of the country awoke in Bankimchandra 221
In the literature of Bankim the mind of modern Bengal has begun to take a definite shape 221
- For the next stage, whatever has taken form in the mind, becomes living, dynamic 221
Vivekananda is the living embodiment of the life-energy of modern Bengal 221
Sri Ramakrishna 223
Sri Ramakrishna represents spirituality at its absolute, its pristine fount and power 223
- The first word about spirituality is that it is a living experience, a concrete realisation 223
The whole life and being have to be consecrated to the attainment of that only Goal 223
Perhaps we have a mission in the world, but before that we have to realise God 224
- What absurd ideas do we not cherish in the name of spirituality? 224
Firstly, to the common notion a Yogi, a sadhu is endowed with miraculous powers 224
- Sri Ramakrishna's advent – Miracles have nothing to do with spirituality 224
On the other hand, spirituality does not consist in any doctrine whatsoever 225
That the observance of ceremonials and rites comprises spirituality is far from the truth 225
- Associated with the name of Sri Ramakrishna is the synthesis of all religions 225
- Ramakrishna has taken spirituality in a simple view – A very matter-of-fact way 226
He has brought an immense reconciliation between the physical and the spiritual worlds 226
- Sri Ramakrishna – The highest aim of human life is to find God dwelling in the heart 226
Sri Ramakrishna revived for the future the real truth, the quintessence of spirituality 227
Sri Ramakrishna was the worshipper of the Divine Power, the child of the Mother 227
The dynamic Vedanta of Vivekananda, its application in life, is based on this foundation 228
- Sri Ramakrishna shook to its roots the then prevailing conception of illusionism 228
- Vivekananda – To bring down religion or spirituality on the surface of the earth 228
- The future spiritual realisation will follow this line of development 229
Sri Ramakrishna opened this immortalising fount of true spidtuality 229
Vivekananda spread it abroad to create a living spiritual atmosphere 229
Vivekananda 230
Vivekananda is the embodiment of the newly awakened, heroic and eternal soul of India 230
- Vivekananda upheld India before the world and awakened her 230
Vivekananda revealed the mystic Word, by the force of which India awoke 230
Vivekananda's gift was the mantra of strength, self-reliance, self-power and self-control 231
- Vivekananda's advent was not meant for formulating a new scripture 231
- Vivekananda's conception of the Brahman is different from the Void of Shankara 233
He wanted action founded on the Brahman, what he called practical Vedanta 233
- Vivekananda has placed India's mission also before the world 233
Vivekananda – The message of human unity and of synthesis of religions 233
- Vivekananda is the divine dynamism descended into the life-atmosphere of the world 234
Jagadish Chandra Bose 235
Jagadish Chandra Bose is a scientist – To discover the truth of matter by material means 235
- Scientists are rationalists. The senses and the mind or intellect are all they hold on to 235
- Jagadish Chandra Bose yet, while being a scientist is also a poet 236
The poet is one who has a divine vision and who creates by the force of that vision 236
A divine vision – We get at the truth of a thing by identifying ourselves with it 236
- The course of direct knowledge – The knower gets unified with the object to be known 236
- Jagadish Chandra has tested these truths attained by an inner knowledge, verified them 237
- The truth of the object that Jagadish Chandra has found is oneness – All matter is one 238
That one is not inanimate matter, it is instinct with life, not only living but conscious 238
Spirit and Matter – Jagadish Chandra acts as a bridge between this twofold truth 238
Shyamakanta 240
Another great Bengali – Shyamakanta, later on known as So'ham Swami 240
- Shyamakanta was able to retain the physical strength of the Universal Nature 241
The Unity of India 242
India is one. But wherein lies that unity, what is its nature? 242
- Many are of the opinion that India has no 'unity' but at the most a 'union' 242
- The unity of India lies in her soul-power – Behind India stands the 'One Being' 243
The unity of India not in the mental plane alone – Gradually the vital and the physical 243
The political unity of India is not only possible but inevitable 243
If we compare India with Europe, the difference of the two will stand out in bold relief 243
- Every European country has a well-developed and distinct personality of its own 243
- Europe has a similarity to Asia, but not to India 244
- The unity of India is vaster and more complex than of any of the nations of Europe 245
- In India a higher and greater synthesis is worked out or about to be wrought 245
- The collective union of Europe – The inner being has not as yet become conscious 245
- In the case of India the awakening of her inner being has stood by far the first 245
The Cause of India's Decline 247
The fundamental cause of India's decline – A loss of vitality 247
- There are three primary causes that have led to the diminution of India's life-energy 247
Firstly, the institution of Sannyasa, ascetic renunciation, and the theory of illusion 247
- The conception of life as a mirage is sure to effect a gradual cessation of life 248
- The ideal of Sannyasa, renunciation, was never meant for the whole of humanity 248
- But the ideal of renunciation gained slowly and occupied people's mind 249
The religious codes of Manu and others prescribed the routine of life in all its details 250
- The hard and fast rules – This is the second cause that robbed India of her vitality 250
The Caste-system is the third cause – The differentiation of castes and sub-castes 250
- Continuance of the type, fixity for its own sake, leads to stagnation and disintegration 250
East and West 253
The East is spiritual by nature, while the West is inclined towards materialism 253
- The West has become skilful in action, lively and dynamic 253
- The East has become meditative, peace-loving and indifferent to life-activities 253
- The present urge of mankind is to synthesise these different traits – A wider ideal 253
We will compare the genius of Valmiki and that of Shakespeare in the field of literature 253
- On reading Shakespeare a stamp of characters that are human is left on our mind 253
- Valmiki impresses us with characters that are superhuman 253
- The gift of the West is to bring to the fore the speciality of the finite through the senses 253
- The gift of the East is to manifest the Infinite with the senses as a means 253
Let us compare the image of Venus with that of the Buddha 255
- The Greek goddess marks the highest human conception of beauty and love 255
- The image of the Buddha does not represent a man in contemplation – It is a symbol 255
- The East wants to discover the true nature, the truth of things present in the Infinite 255
- The West dwells in the finite, the diverse, the duality 255
Beethoven characteristically represents the West in music 256
- As a contrast how calm, profound and unitonal is the kirtan of Tyagraj! 256
- Occidental music expresses the multitudinous diversity of Nature 256
- Oriental music represents the oneness of the truth beyond Nature 256
Let us turn to the spiritual practices of the East and the West and their effects on life 257
- The nature of European religion – Harmony of a mental or rational idealism 257
A kind of temporising and understanding with the lower propensities of men 257
The Christian church has succeeded in establishing something of an earthly kingdom 257
- The West has brought religion down to the level of the mundane 257
The East has pushed religion up and is at last on the verge of losing the world 257
The West tries to attain perfection in every sphere of work in the outer world 258
- The East in its natural bent has aspired for the Divine, the Infinite, the Eternal 259
In this new epoch our aspiration should be for the self-realisation of the East 260
- We shall give full importance to every one of the infinite activities of life 260
ON SPIRITUALITY 261
Where is God? 263
God you do not find? – How much of yourself have you offered to Him? 263
- The first step towards freedom is the consciousness of and revolt against subjection 263
Your denial of God is the first step towards God-realisation 264
- The second step is a calm expectation, a persistent faith, one-pointed love and devotion 264
With the firm consent of the soul, Compassion liberates it from its entanglements 264
- When the receptacle becomes hallowed and serene, then will God be reflected therein 265
Reason and Yoga 266
Nothing is proved by reason – What is truth is independent of any proof 266
- The process that brings the direct vision of God is called the practice of Yoga 267
In This Crisis 268
The world has now pushed itself into the grip of a tremendous crisis 268
- Human beings have become infrahuman – A demoniac influence has possessed them 269
An asuric force has descended on earth. It wants to appropriate the whole earth 269
- It is from this angle that we view the strifes and tussles going on throughout the world 269
- Each of us has before him an immense responsibility 270
We have to know clearly on which side we are, on the side of truth or of falsehood 270
Those who are grouped round Sri Aurobindo – Their responsibility is twice 270
- We have to face the situation with a firm faith, showing that the Divine also has power 270
We will not suffer the field of life and its richnesses to pass into the asuric hold 271
- There can therefore be no compromise or friendship with the Asura, with the untruth 271
- We have gradually to establish the ways and doings of Truth, Light and God 271
Thus will be possible the creation of a new world – Individuals or groups 271
- In these critical days, the best friend of man is the divine being in him 272
The Human Body 273
The human form is a unique thing. This earth is, as it were, the centre of the world-play 273
- Beings have appeared in the different stages of the descent – The first mystery 274
The descent of God in human form – A subtle truth in the Christian doctrine 274
- God has come down in the human form to expiate the sin of man – Redemption 274
- Through the Eucharist, a disciple makes the body of Christ a part and parcel of his own 274
That the Guru takes upon himself the sins of his disciple is well known to us 275
Herein lies the real mystery – God has accepted the human weakness 275
- We see this human weakness in Christ on the last day of his life 275
God having become a man shows by example how one can rise to a divine nature 275
- The second mystery – For the collectivity the human form of God has a significance 276
On behalf of man God conquers Nature so that it may be easy for man to reconquer it 276
What necessity is there to accept a human form in order to do the work? 276
- The divine Body shows how even Matter can aspire for spirituality 276
- The divine heart-cave is the fount of a new sight and a new creation 277
- The work of God – To accept the creation as it is and to purify and transform it 278
- An eternal truth of the human form – An intimate connection with the divine Body 279
The Culture of the Body 280
Three elements in the culture of the body – Healthy, strong, efficient 280
- First, the question of health. The body must remain free from disease 280
There are special remedial exercises to serve the particular ends 280
- The body needs to be made strong and given fitness and capacity 280
- The third stage of physical culture – Making the body able and efficient 280
The body must not only be healthy, strong and efficient, it must also become conscious 281
- There are two ways of becoming conscious – Becoming conscious of one's self 281
The "I" who does the work – I remain aware that it is I who am doing the work 281
The individual consciousness of the particular organ or limb that does the work 281
The body must not only become conscious, it must become rightly conscious 282
Within the realm of spiritual discipline by following the line of physical culture 282
By right consciousness I mean a true and harmonious consciousness 282
- The inner consciousness, the environmental consciousness, the higher consciousness 282
The main gradations in the growth of consciousness – The seven layers of our being 282
Right consciousness – For acquiring health there is no better means or medecine 283
To be truly conscious, one has to be conscious with the inner self 284
- So we see how the culture of the body can lead up to the spiritualisation of the body 284
The Novel Alchemy 285
The story of evolution has opened the door to many hidden mysteries 285
- The deepest of all mysteries of Creation is the origin and prevalence of suffering 285
Why is our earth afflicted with disease and suffering and sorrow and pain? 285
- Teilhard de Chardin has seen a spiritual meaning in the Christian's bearing of the cross 286
- Sri Aurobindo too has given us a full theory and history of suffering 287
Not merely to escape from suffering but to transform it is the real problem 288
- At the final end, suffering ceases to exist, it too is transformed into delight 288
- Chardin has been speaking of the gradual unfolding of a spiritual consciousness 289
Chardin has suggested that the new earth will not be a thing of the gross material world 290
- In the vision of Sri Aurobindo, the process involves a going upward and a descent 291
The aim is to take one's stand on this material plane itself and transmute it 291
The establishment of the spirit will not mean the extinction of the material world 291
To prepare this new earth-matter will be the novel alchemy of the new age 292
The God of the Scientist 293
It is not rare to find more than one scientist who believes in God 293
- The reasoning faculty is the instrument by which the scientist carries on his search 293
The intellect has attained its acme in the scientist 293
To arrive at a universal law as wide as possible marks the special genius of the scientist 293
- We shall try to investigate whether the scientific method can lead us any further 294
The theism of the scientist may be the natural outcome of his scientific intellect 295
A hidden inspiration of the scientist behind the veil is a glimpse of a conscious existence 295
Reasoning steps in later – The inner perception and intuition come first 296
Nevertheless this scientific faculty has not come up to the level of integral spirituality 296
The rational mind, attracted to the pure Vedanta or the Buddhistic philosophy of India 297
- At the highest level of the brain, there takes place the first revelation of spirituality 297
The aesthetic taste of the artist is not born of the intellect but is allied to it 298
Philosophy – Intellectual expressions of different spiritual visions and realisations 298
For materialistic science to become united with the supreme spiritual Knowledge 299
- When we shall search not only with physical senses but with subtler and inner senses 299
Fit and Unfit 300
Only a few are actually great – God's Grace or the results of previous lives 300
- Everybody must be his own self. Your whole greatness lies in what you should be 301
Surrender to the Divine means to let the hidden power act according to its will within 302
- Modesty is simply to keep off pride and vanity 302
To think oneself inferior to all is also a sign of pride – This is called tamasic pride 302
Tamasic, rajasic, sattwic – We must rise above all the three modes of pride 303
On Karmayoga 304
What you will do and how far you will go depends solely on what you have become 304
- To become is to build yourself up within 304
- To change work, to change the surroundings is not the one thing needful 304
- The aim of sadhana – For that one has first to change one's thought, mind and feeling 305
Thought is changed mainly by thought, by meditation, by will and Tapasya 305
- To be at work and to remain self-poised in of knowledge, this is true Karmayoga 305
A Letter 307
Yoga is a quite natural thing if we turn to it in the right manner 307
- Yoga is an attempt at discovering the Law of Divine Life 308
To rise into the highest spiritual nature is called Yoga 308
The lower nature can be moulded by the infusion and the law of the higher 308
- The evolution of Nature – All Nature is anxious to give birth to the Supermind 308
Life and Self-Control 310
The exact meaning of control of the senses and what is its necessity in life 310
- Whether self-control is necessary or not depends on the nature of our ideal 310
Two approaches to life – To follow the lead of the senses or to move inward or upward 310
- The real sense of self-mastery – Instead of slipping down, one has to climb up 310
- Between self-restraint and self-indulgence – A synthesis in India 311
In Europe this conflict has led to two extremes, self-mortification and unbridled license 311
In India there has been an attempt at a synthesis of these two aspects of life 311
No country or race can build its greatness except on the foundation of self-control 312
Not a religion of mental conventions but a universal one founded on truth 313
The Evolutionary Imperative 314
Evolution is merely self-manifestation, the urge to bring out step by step all the degrees 314
- The stage of evolution now reached – It will be a conscious process 314
Man has learnt to accept the reality in his inner consciousness 315
Man's life, even the life of the very best, is still that of a mortal creature 315
The solution – To incarnate the spirit-life in the manifest form of the earthly body 316
Man is only half-willing – His will must be whole and entire 316
A fateful crisis faces humanity today – Shall humanity yield or shall it be foolish 317
The Superman will be born, whether breaking the mould that humanity is or reshaping it 317
REMINISCENCES 319
The Initiation of Swadeshi 321
The Swadeshi Movement of 1905 in India – Sudden and irresistible 321
- Swadeshi, boycott, national education, rural uplift, these were the slogans 322
- There went on, in secret, preparations for revolution and revolt and armed attack 322
- A whole nation rushing away from its old moorings in search of the unknown 323
The first declaration of Boycott, on the 7th of August, 1905 324
During the holidays, we roamed the streets singing 325
Groups of young boys came out and roamed about the streets singing 325
- The 'Bande Mataram' cry in itself was in the official view a symbol of resistance 325
- My mind had taken a completely different turn 328
To become a devoted child of the Mother implied that one must give up everything else 328
The mind had settled on its one attraction – It had now no other way 329
Subhash, Oaten: Ullas, Russell 331
Subhash once gave a thrashing with his shoes to one of his British professors, Oaten 331
- This incident was a mere replica or imitation of an earlier and identical performance 331
- Loud protests had arisen on account of the Bengal Partition 332
- One of the Englishmen in our college, Russell, our professor, thrashed with shoes 333
He had got it into his head to come out with something tactless against the Bengalis 333
Ullaskar Datta had come to college with a slipper and had made good use of it 334
Muraripukur – I 336
I made up my mind finally to join the Manicktolla Gardens in Muraripukur 336
- I had already taken a vow about a year ago, in front of a picture of Kali 336
It was decided that the entire group should be formed into two sections 340
- The "military" section was to include the active members 340
- The "civil" side was to deal with work like journalism, propaganda and recruitment 340
The Yugantar, and later the Navashakti, became our publicity organs 340
The secret societies in Russia had a system which should have been taken over by us 341
A military organisation was now to give place to a terrorist organisation 342
- The activities of the Gardens – To manufacture bombs, distribute guns and rifles 343
Deoghar 348
The scene was Deoghar – To manufacture bombs, there is going to be a real test 348
It had been part of our plan to devote some time to inner life 348
- Barin got Lele Maharaj down here for our initiation and training in sādhanā 349
When Lele Maharaj came to know about the bomb, he raised an objection 349
The bomb was ready – The testing would be done on top of a hill known as Dighiriya 351
- Prafulla threw the bomb – It caught fire as soon as it came into contact with air 351
What a gruesome spectacle! – The body lay motionless, showed no signs of life 352
Muraripukur – II 356
Now I come to the last phase of our life at Manicktolla Gardens 356
What was needed was a favourable atmosphere – A keen desire and hope for freedom 356
- That is why Sri Aurobindo started his daily newspaper, Bandemataram 356
Bandemataram had to keep within the letter of the law – The path of Passive Resistance 356
But Yugantar declared openly for an armed revolt and spoke in terms of regular warfare 356
Those who had hitherto been on the staff of the paper joined the Manicktolla Gardens 356
It was decided to have a paper in Bengali analogous to Bandemataram 356
A paper named Navashakti was already there – An understanding was reached 356
The Navashakti too did not last long 359
Now let me come to the story of this final rounding up 359
- We were all arrested in a body – We were taken to Alipore Jail one evening 364
Alipore Court 365
The court proceeded in its own way – We remained perfectly neutral and indifferent 365
- Judge Beachcroft had been contemporaneous with Sri Aurobindo at Cambridge 365
- Sri Aurobindo had to devote time in jail to his counsel, Chittaranjan Das 367
Alipore Jail 373
In Alipore Jail we spent a whole year, from 2nd May 1908 to 6th May 1909 373
- This period might be divided into four distinct phases, according to the type of quarters 373
The ward we were assigned in the first instance, this was known as the "44 Degrees" 373
- The ward consisted of 44 rooms – We were kept in batches of three 373
- Shame and disgust and fear – These we had to give up while we lived in jail 374
- This first phase of our life was over by the end of a month and a half 375
The second phase – A spacious hall divided into three compartments 375
- The three compartments of the hall came to be divided into three distinct groups 375
Close on this second phase of our life came the third 377
- There was the big hall where all the forty of us were lodged 377
We were back again to the 44 Degrees, now separately and alone in our cells 379
- Kanai and others had wanted to get rid of Naren Gosain, a traitor – This saved us all 380
- The court-room was now the only place where we could meet 380
- The trial once over, came a period of utter loneliness 380
I Tried Sannyas 383
Three times did I have the urge to take to the life of an ascetic, sannyāsa 383
- The first time. I had just come out of jail 383
I decided to try the Belur Math – Sarat Maharaj could not accept me as an inmate 383
- Next – Bejoy and I decided that we should set out on a career of wandering ascetics 387
Sri Aurobindo proposed to come with him on a tour of the country 387
- Out on tour, Sri Aurobindo used to address meetings 389
We toured the country for about ten or twelve days and then we came back 389
- The story of my third attempt at sannyāsa – Before the final arrival of the Mother 389
The Supreme Prakriti – The heaven-kissing thorny hedge of wedlock 389
Shyampukur 391
On coming out of jail, Sri Aurobindo decided to bring out two weekly papers 391
- So we came to stay at Shyampukur, on the Dharma and Karmayogin premises 392
It is here that began our true education and our initiation too 392
- Sri Aurobindo had his own novel method of education 392
- By giving me that work of editing the news he made me slowly grow into a journalist 392
- Here in Shyampukur Sri Aurobindo made us hear examples of automatic speech 394
Everybody knows about automatic writing 394
There are worlds upon worlds in a regular series 395
- Any of the beings from any of these worlds or planes can manifest himself 395
Sri Aurobindo left the book entitled Yogic Sadhan written entirely in this manner 396
- The Police Inspector in the Alipore bomb case had been shot down 397
Sri Aurobindo received the Divine Command to leave for Chandernagore 397
Pondicherry – I 400
Sri Aurobindo came to Pondicherry to find a quiet spot 400
- Pondicherry of those days – Complete anarchy seemed to reign 400
- The French Government – It was a matter of honour for them to give us their protection 403
Where it is a question of honour, the French as a race are willing to risk anything 403
- The city of Pondicherry had at one time been known as a city of the Veda 405
This Vedic college was located where the main building of our Ashram now stands 405
- Sri Aurobindo was in Pondicherry for forty years 407
The first few years were spent in establishing a seat 407
The seat established, Sri Aurobindo had to prepare the ground – From 1910 to 1914 407
The work of building the foundation took him till 1920 408
From 1920 to 1926 he worked with the Mother in giving it strength 408
In 1926 there began the construction of the superstructure 408
Pondicherry – II 409
Sri Aurobindo has taught me languages – His method has often evoked surprise 421
- The education of children must begin with books written for children 421
For adults, the reading material must be adapted to their age and mental development 421
The Mother came and installed Sri Aurobindo on his high pedestal of Master 422
Pondicherry Cyclone 424
In those days, Pondicherry used to have regularly every year cyclones 426
- The Mother's presence seems to have pacified a great deal the wild forces of Nature 426
Sometimes we would request Sri Aurobindo for some automatic writing after the dinner 428
It was not till 1926 that we began to call the Mother by that name 428
My Professors 429
My professors at college are memorable names in the fields of scholarship 429
- The power of influence, the touch of an awakened soul – The true quality of a teacher 429
In India, the obstacle to accepting Wordsworth as a poet would be his simple manner 440
- Tranquillity and a pleasant sweetness are the first doors of entry 441
- Through the second doors we come to a wide intimacy, an all-pervading unity 441
- In Wordsworth the poetic mind has soared to the voice of a summit infinity 442
Sri Aurobindo has said that Vyasa is the most masculine of writers 443
- This classification of poets into "masculine" and "feminine" was made by Coleridge 443
I Played Football 445
Some of you have asked to hear about my performance in football 445
- I was an extremely calm and steady player 447
My aim was always to pass on the ball and to receive it back 447
My aim was to play a clean game – I had nothing to do with what they call a robust game 447
- Let me conclude with some reflections concerning "style" in games 456
There are two essentials to a good game, grammar and style, or grammar and rhythm 456
- Style is mainly a matter of rhythm but it presumes grammar 457
- By grammar I mean the right arrangement of the different limbs 457
- Rhythm or style in a game is a quality of the inner body-consciousness 457
My Athletics 459
We in the Ashram received a call to plunge into the activities of our Playground 459
- I was then perhaps the oldest among the inmates – I was in fact in my early sixties 459
- For at least twenty years previous to that, we were doing very little physical exercise 459
- I had to start on this new athletic career without any preliminary practice or training 461
"Training" implies a special preparation of the body for a special kind of activity 461
- Formerly, the entire emphasis was on the game itself, not so much on the person 463
Now, the concentration is on the player himself and his training is the main thing 463
Whatever the method you adopt, your strength and capacity have to be increased 464
- The life-force or physical energy in the body 466
The method of acquiring and storing that energy is what may be called relaxation 466
Relaxation is not merely an end-product of exercise, it has a place in. exercise itself 466
Relaxation – Consciousness in rest is helped to get infused with new force 468
- First, there comes a general relaxation and immobility of the whole body 468
- Next, there has to be a relaxation of each separate part, one after the other 468
- One may rise to a higher plane – In the Beyond is the Force of the Mother 469
- An easy method of breaking through the centres – The end of Hathayoga and Tantra 469
The same work or action – The result will be very different if it is done consciously 470
- An elderly person taking part in exercises – There is a definite feature of gain 471
There is a real difference, a difference in kind, between the old and the young 471
- To young people physical exercise is something that is easy, spontaneous and natural 471
- With an elderly person – The movements have to be done consciously 471
The very aim of life is to grow in consciousness 472
Soviet Gymnasts 473
A group of Soviet Gymnasts – The group went to the Mother in April 3, 1956 473
- These dates in their sequence are significant – They indicate some occult phenomena 473
- Women doing physical exercises – Women's body acquires a new poise and proportion 474
Charm, grace or delightfulness – From the ease and clarity of the vital Force in us 474
- Even in the midst of intense pain and torture people have been known to live 475
The physical culture that the Russians are following – The hidden resources of the body 475
The Soviet gymnasts expressed a desire to know more about us 476
- It is wrong to think that for spirituality comfort and affluence are a sine qua non 479
The true seeker longs for the spirit in the midst of comfort and discomfort alike 479
- The Russians raised a question “We are told you do not like to be parents of children” 480
For all those who set out to acquire a new capacity self-imposed restraint is a "must" 481
Parental relations – Not the link of biology but the closeness of the spirit within 481
Two Great Wars 483
We have been through two great World Wars in the course of our life in Pondicherry 483
- The two Wars were identical in their inner nature – A battle of the gods and titans 483
Whenever there is a New Creation in the offing – The forces of Evil want to hold man 483
- The first Great War can be taken as ushering a finale to the French Revolution 486
The end of this War – The disappearance of practically all the crowned heads of Europe 486
The awakening of the masses and their coming to power 486
A third boon was to lay the foundations of the League of Nations 487
- The origins of the second Great War – Evil incarnate to bar the descent of the Divine 488
Sri Aurobindo stood for the Allies, entirely and without the shadow of a doubt 488
- The inner meaning of the attack that fell on Sri Aurobindo's body in 1938 488
The Mother at once made it known that this War was her war 489
The way shown by Sri Aurobindo – India's independence would have been easier 490
At this time – People with young children, seeking shelter in the safety of the Ashram 491
- The Chinese attack – Was India to be invaded and subjugated by a foreign Power? 492
The Mother gave a smile – "Can't you see who is guarding India?" 492
- The Lion of Mother Durga on our northern frontier 492
- On the southern tip of India bordering the sea, the Elephant on which rides Lakshmi 492
I Bow to the Mother 494
Those of you who came to the Ashram as children recognised the Mother 494
- In our case somebody had to introduce us to the Mother 494
The Mother showed a special interest in cats as representatives of the animal world 496
- The Mother helped animals in their upward march with a touch of her Consciousness 496
The training that the Mother has been giving us – Of putting our things in order 499
- The Mother taught us to use our things with care – A consciousness of their own 499
The Mother gave herself up to the Lord with the candid simplicity of a child 500
- The Mother's capacity of making her mind a complete blank – Her mental acquisitions 501
The capacity for an entire rejection of the past – The Mother has given a living example 502
VEDIC HYMNS
VEDIC HYMNS i
Publishers’ Note ii
Contents iii
VEDIC HYMNS 1
Hymn to Indra 2
RIGVEDA 2
Mandala I: Sukta 84 2
Hymn to All-Gods 7
RIGVEDA 7
Mandala I: Sukta 89 7
Hymn to Dawn 10
RIGVEDA 10
Mandala I: Sukta 92 10
Hymn of Aspiration 14
RIGVEDA 14
Mandala X: Sukta 57 14
Hymn to the Mental Being 16
Mandala X: Sukta 58 16
Hymn to Sindhu 19
(The Mother of Rivers) 19
RIGVEDA 19
Mandala X: Sukta 75 19
The Bride of Brahman 22
RIGVEDA 22
Mandala X: Sukta 109 22
- How did Maya enter into and possess Brahman – The result of a separation 23
The Rishi says here that this fall and eclipse was for a greater Rising 24
- The powers that help and operate the process are the high Gods 24
Varuna means Infinite Consciousness, Mitra, Supreme Harmony and Love 24
Agni, the Fiery Force of ascension or Tapas, Soma, the supreme Delight 24
Vayu, the Lord of the vital who breaks down all barriers and difficulties and forges on 24
- Brahman's dark bride is the fallen dark Nature 24
- Brāhmana is Brahman as the Divine Word, the expression of the soul-truth 24
- The Divine Bride reveals herself as the mighty traveller on the path 24
- This separation and division is a play through which a higher union is effected 25
Hymn to Forest-Range 26
RIGVEDA 26
Mandala X: Sukta 146 26
Hymn to the Pillar 28
(Skambha) 28
ATHARVAVEDA 28
Kanda X: Sukta 7 28
- The Pillar is the Brahman, the Supreme Reality – It is the tree, the Aswattha tree 28
It is Agni the Divine Force, Indra the Divine Mind, Soma the Divine Delight 28
It is Tapas, the upward urge in the Universe 28
It is Satyam the Truth and Ritam the Truth-action, Vak the Truth-word 28
- The image of twin sisters (rivers) refers to this double movement of consciousness 28
Hymn to Earth 38
ATHARVAVEDA 38
Kanda XII: Sukta 1 38
Hymn to Peace and Power 44
(Sam yoh) 44
YAJURVEDA 44
Chapter 36 44
OTHER HYMNS AND PRAYERS 49
Hymn to the Sweet Lord 51
Hymn to Hara-Gauri 53
Hymn to Bhavani 55
Hymn to Surya 57
Hymn to Saraswati 58
Who Seeks Holy Places? 59
ON THE VEDA 61
An Introduction to the Vedas 63
The Vedas are the perennial fount of Indian culture and education 63
- Hinduism is the most catholic of all the religions. It is the most complex and diverse 63
- It is a need of the hour to investigate the contents of the Vedas 64
Very few people in India have any acquaintance with the Vedas 65
According to the Europeans the Vedas are a mere collection of pastoral songs 65
Acharya Sayana is the foremost scholar to whom the current Indian view owes its origin 67
Indians trying to synthesise the commentaries of the Western and Eastern scholars 67
- The naturalistic interpretation of the Western scholars 68
- The sacrificial explanation offered by our orthodox scholars 68
The supreme authority of the Veda has not been recognised out of mere courtesy 68
The Upanishad is the culmination of or a complement to the Veda 68
What is the proper way to be followed for the right understanding of the Vedas? 71
- At the very outset we have to be acquainted with the bare texts of the Vedas 71
- The Veda is the expression of Yogic realisations, spiritual experiences 73
- The Upanishads – The first commentary on the living ideas of the Vedas 77
The Upanishads have made liberal use of innumerable Vedic mantras 77
There are innumerable words common to the Vedas and the Upanishads 79
- The Puranas – Based on the truth of the Vedic and Upanishadic realizations 80
- We should first endeavour to understand the easy and clear portions of the Vedas 80
- The study of the Vedas – Those seeking for the attainment of the truth 80
The Vedas – The modern theory of evolution has coloured the entire outlook of Europe 81
- Archaeological excavation – Evidence of ancient culture and education 82
Older civilisations – The age of civilised man can be put at about a lakh of years 82
- Evolution proceeds in a zigzag spiral movement 83
The Indian conception of time – Cycles presided over by some great creators (Manus) 83
- The ancients had a culture of their own which need not tally with ours 84
To develop superior faculties was the sole ideal of the Vedic Rishis 84
- The faculty of knowledge has its different levels – Ila, Saraswati, Sarama and Dakshina 84
The ancient seers realised and tried to express the transcendental Truth and its Power 85
- They discovered that the world consists of different levels of existence 85
- Their realisations can be applied to all the levels and phases of creation 85
- We have to enquire into the symbolism of the ancients 86
The ceremonials and the sacrifices are but symbols of inner experiences 86
Not only in India, but in all countries of the world, symbolism was in vogue 87
- Egypt – We are unable to grasp her spiritual genius 87
- In the earlier period of Greek civilisation there was a current of deep spiritual culture 87
- Spirituality behind the mythologies of China, Japan, old-world America and Australia 87
The ancients – Expressing the subtle concepts of their experiences through gross symbols 88
- The Veda is a system of science and knowledge acquired through Yoga 88
The Veda signifies knowledge – It was realised by a body of aspirants called Rishis 89
- The Seers received, by an occult hearing, these mantras pregnant with knowledge 89
- At times they could see the mantras during their meditation – The Seers of mantras 89
- The mantras of the Veda – Revealed to the different Seers at different times and places 90
Different groups of spiritual seekers followed different types of discipline 90
- Available Vedic mantras were principally divided into three – Rik, Sama and Yajur 90
Miscellaneous things were collected in the Atharva 90
- There are four Vedas and each Veda consists of several parts 91
The principal parts of each Veda are known as the Samhitas and the Brahmanas 91
- The Samhitas are the collection of the mantras, the Veda proper 91
- The Brahmanas are the commentaries, interpretations or new suggestions 91
- The Brahmanas – Divided into the Brahmanas proper, the Aranyakas, the Upanishads 91
These four divisions of the Veda are said to correspond to the four stages of human life 91
The Samhitas, the Brahmanas and the Upanishads – Changes in the practice of the Veda 92
The stages of the Samhitas, the Brahmanas and the Upanishads – Not successive stages 92
- The Samhitas from which arose the two branches, Brahmanas and the Upanishads 92
- The Rigveda is the oldest of all the parts of the Vedas 93
The Rigveda Samhita has been divided into ten books – Each book is called a Mandala 93
- Different series of mantras – Each series is called a sūkta, each mantra is called a ṛk 93
Each Mandala or book is generally attributed to a Rishi 93
- The true significance of the Veda – The attainment of a higher and nobler life 94
A Commentary on the First Six Suktas of Rigveda 95
The First Sukta 95
- Sacrifice indicates movement towards the fulfilment of evolution 95
It is the gods who are the primal powers holding and controlling this sacrifice 95
The discipline of human life is a sacrifice – The lower levels quietened and surrendered 95
The truth-seeker gives birth to the gods in his being – The gods draw him towards them 96
- Fire – The light and heat that signify the power born of spiritual discipline 97
Fire is the offerer – Fire is also called the carrier. He is called the priest 97
That which is the foundation of Truth is the own home of Agni and all the other gods 97
Fire is the foremost God – The aspirant must become a worshipper of Fire (ańgiras) 97
The Second Sukta 98
- The aspiration-fire resides at the root of all spiritual disciplines – Different steps 98
Body, life and mind – There are three stages of purification and transformation 98
- The purification and transformation of life-energy – Vayu is the presiding Deity 99
- For that the mind must first be purified and made perfect – Indra is the presiding Deity 99
- The full realisation – Varuna is the presiding Deity. Mitra is our divine Guide 100
The Third Sukta 100
- In the present sukta there are four groups according to the spiritual progression 101
The first group begins with the invocation of the twin Riders – The Aswinikumaras 101
- The two horsemen – They are the leaders in our spiritual adventure 101
The second – Immortal delight will lead the spiritual practicant to the realm of Indra 102
- With the divine Intelligence of Indra the aspirant enjoys a pure delight in life 102
The third group – The aspirant rises into the realm of Truth, the Right and the Vast 102
- The universal Godhead is the collective power of all the gods 102
The fourth – Saraswati gives the divine name and Ila gives the divine form to the truth 103
- Saraswati manifests the complete knowledge in all its facets and makes them living 103
- Vāk is the living image of truth – A true mantra, the primal form and rhythm of truth 103
The aspirant who has acquired this mantra has acquired truth and the power of truth 103
The Fourth Sukta 104
- The gradual progression by virtue of the bliss-power in the pure mind – Indra 104
Indra is the inexhaustible source from which a seeker draws the nectar of immortality 104
The aspirant has to purify first his lower nature before invoking the truth and power 105
Vritra is only a name for the obstacles in one's spiritual practice 106
Vedic discipline was essentially collective 106
- The help of companions and helpers in sadhana 106
- The gods too were companions and helpers in the spiritual endeavour 106
The Fifth Sukta 107
- We are to establish the manifold fullness and perfection of Indra 107
The real function of Indra is to harmonise the hidden truth of all objects and movements 108
The Sixth Sukta 109
- The help of the Maruts, the mental faculties, to awaken the power of Indra 109
Vayu is the life-energy and Indra is the divine mental being 109
Aditi means the undivided, indivisible and infinite consciousness 109
It is the Maruts who help the mind in its march towards the Goal 109
The Maruts turn the flow of knowledge and power towards an inner spiritual discipline 109
With the gradual development of pure thoughts the true mental being takes birth 110
The true nature of the pure thought-power is to reveal the mental being by degrees 110
In inert matter lie hidden the Light of knowledge – The divine mental being brings dawn 110
Indra reveals the Light of knowledge – A clear and pointed intellect 110
Indra and Maruts – The true mental being and his pure thought-powers 111
Indra is the being of knowledge and delight and Marut is his power of divine play 111
The truth and riches of all the levels and worlds of consciousness make their appearance 111
Body, life, mind and the vast Truth beyond mind become manifest in their divine essence 111
ON UPANISHADIC THOUGHT 113
Yama – Nachiketa 115
Two different paths – One is that of the good, the other of what is pleasant 120
- He alone who can recognise and choose the good path gains the supreme Reality 120
Nachiketas wants to know if there is beyond the physical death any surpassing of death 121
- The Upanishads speak of two kinds of immortality, one cosmic, the other transcendental 121
- Yama himself is in possession of this knowledge, the Truth that lies beyond him 122
Yama has been called Vaivasvata, he is born of Vivasvan, the Sun-god, Surya Savitri 122
Surya Savitri is the Supreme Consciousness from which comes the creation 122
Yama is the Life-Force, the Ordainer of the worlds – Fire is his vehicle 122
Surya is supra-cosmic, belongs to the Beyond. Fire is cosmic, belongs to our worlds 122
Fire is the symbol of the conscious power and energy lying concealed within 122
Within the Subconscient, this Fire of conscious force keeps Himself concealed 123
- Nachiketas gained this knowledge, the entire method of the Yoga 123
The Story of Jabala-Satyakama 125
Having not swerved from the truth, Satyakama was admitted to the Ashrama of Gautama 125
Brahman has to be known in his four aspects 126
- North, south, east and west are the four limbs of the first aspect of Brahman 126
- The second aspect of Brahman has four limbs, earth, mid-air, the heavens and the ocean 127
- The third aspect of Brahman consists of Fire, the Sun, the Moon and Lightning 127
- The fourth aspect of Brahman – The Life-force, the Eyes, the Ears and Mind 128
Some explanations of the knowledge given to Satyakama – Brahman is the only Reality 129
- Brahman is manifest on all sides, above and below, in every direction 129
- Brahman is the Infinite – Earth, mid-airm, mind, above the mind 129
- God is Luminosity – The fire, the sun, the moon and the stars 129
- God is made up of Form – Touch, vision or sight, hearing, the power of mind 129
Satyakama and Upakoshala 133
Something of the aim and method of Satyakama's work as teacher 133
- The teacher is there to give an occult help, but there is needed a capacity to receive 134
The Fires are three – Lord of the House, the Fire of the Right, the Fire of the Call 135
- The Fire that is Lord of the House burns within our physical frame – It aims at the sun 136
- The Fire of the Right has for its dwelling the waters – Its goal is the moon of Delight 136
- The Fire of the Call has for its seat the life-breath – It seeks a light like the lightning 136
Earth, mid-air and heaven comprise the universal aspects of Reality – The Fires are three 137
- The first Fire has its seat in the body. It is the power of the body's upward endeavour 137
- The Fire of the Right – In the inner consciousness of which mid-air is the symbol 137
- The Fire of the Call has to be called down from on high – The worlds of pure mind 137
Agni dwells not only on the three cosmic planes – His own home in the supreme status 138
The Story of Rishi Yajnavalkya 139
Brahman is none other than He who sees, hears, thinks and knows 142
- Not by argument can this Knowledge be had 143
Maitreyi – "What then am I to do with that which does not make me immortal?" 144
Yajnavalkya – Whatever there be that is held to be dear is so because of the Self 145
- “The Self being seen, heard of, thought about, meditated upon, all else will be known” 145
Narada – Sanatkumara 147
(Chhandogya Upanishad) 147
The ascent of the consciousness has taken a zigzag serpentine path 149
- First to develop – The parts of the externalised or manifest being, the waking mentality 149
- In the second stage – A turning back the cultivation of the physical base 149
- Another stage – A progress in the realm of the inner being behind the physical mind 149
- The fourth step – Behind the veil, to the gates of the spiritual consciousness 149
At the beginning of the series is the physical mind, at the end is the spiritual mind 150
Indra – Virochana and Prajapati 152
(Ckhandogya Upanishad) 152
This is the Asuras' gospel, that the body has to be pampered by luxurious living 154
The All-Conscious Self stands above the states of waking, dream or deep sleep 156
The Asura had remained contented with the first steps of the true Knowledge 156
- Quick is their gain and early their victory 156
- The effort of the gods is long – Their victory is in the end 156
A hundred and one years – A hundred denotes perfection 156
Ushasti Chakrayana 157
(Chhandogya Upanishad) 157
Life, Mind and Body – Bhūḥ, Bhuvaḥ, Svar, that is, Earth, Sky and Heaven 159
- First of all comes the God of Life – Life and Life-Force, this comes first 159
- Next comes, the Sun-God, Aditya, and ordinarily, mind is His field 159
- This force and this light have to take physical shape with matter as the basis 159
Force and Light and Being are the three cosmic Principles – Three presiding Deities 159
A gesture against the Truth and the Right – The possibility of a derangement of the head 160
- To play with the spiritual force without an inner devotion and sincerity invites dangers 160
Only one or two Rishis had demanded an equal fullness in the outer as in the inner life 161
- The first and foremost aim of the Rishis was to acquire an inner mastery 161
- A certain fullness of the outer life as well was not entirely beyond their ken 161
The rule over self and the domination of the outer life – The integral realisation 161
BENGALI ESSAYS AND POEMS OF 163
SRI AUROBINDO 163
Asceticism and Renunciation 165
Hymns and Prayers 170
Mute 175
Great Time 176
Living Matter 179
Ravana Vanquished 183
A Poem 188
MODERN BENGALI POEMS 193
Release 195
Just Be There Where You Are 196
O, Wake Up from Vain Slumber 197
A Prayer 199
APPENDIX – I 201
November 24, 1926 203
The Mother's endeavour at that time was for a new creation 205
- The Mother had brought down the Higher Forces, the Gods, into the earth atmosphere 205
- She had placed each of us in touch with his inner godhead – An individual divine being 205
Each individual consciousnes – A particular line of manifestation of divine power 205
- This was a period of extreme concentration of the sadhana – A temporary necessity 205
- The Mother could see that the new creation would be something narrow and confined 206
The new creation must embrace the entire human race – A new race of men 206
In that new creation – Not only the inner being of man but also his vital and physical life 206
- We have taken a plunge outwards – This too was necessary and still is 207
Whatever changes we succeed in effectuating in ourselves here – All the world over 207
- We have to harmonise the two extremes – To keep the path open for the inner sadhana 207
The Two Chains of the Mother 208
That Mother had two chains, one of gold and the other of iron 208
- The golden chain is in your soul and the iron one is in your body 208
- The Mother's look is always upon you, her look of love and protection 209
APPENDI X – II 211
Original Texts and Translations 211
Vedic Hymns 213
Bengalis Poems of Sri Aurobindo 240
Index – Volume VII 261
Index – Volume VIII 277
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