TERMS STARTING WITH
helamys ::: n. --> See Jumping hare, under Hare.
helcoplasty ::: n. --> The act or process of repairing lesions made by ulcers, especially by a plastic operation.
held ::: --> imp. & p. p. of Hold. ::: imp. & p. p. --> of Hold
helena ::: n. --> See St. Elmo&
hele ::: n. --> Health; welfare. ::: v. t. --> To hide; to cover; to roof.
helenin ::: n. --> A neutral organic substance found in the root of the elecampane (Inula helenium), and extracted as a white crystalline or oily material, with a slightly bitter taste.
heliac ::: a. --> Heliacal.
heliacal ::: a. --> Emerging from the light of the sun, or passing into it; rising or setting at the same, or nearly the same, time as the sun.
heliacally ::: adv. --> In a heliacal manner.
helianthin ::: n. --> An artificial, orange dyestuff, analogous to tropaolin, and like it used as an indicator in alkalimetry; -- called also methyl orange.
helianthoid ::: a. --> Of or pertaining to the Helianthoidea.
helianthoidea ::: n. pl. --> An order of Anthozoa; the Actinaria.
helical ::: a. --> Of or pertaining to, or in the form of, a helix; spiral; as, a helical staircase; a helical spring.
helices ::: pl. --> of Helix
helichrysum ::: n. --> A genus of composite plants, with shining, commonly white or yellow, or sometimes reddish, radiated involucres, which are often called "everlasting flowers."
heliciform ::: a. --> Having the form of a helix; spiral.
helicine ::: a. --> Curled; spiral; helicoid; -- applied esp. to certain arteries of the penis.
helicin ::: n. --> A glucoside obtained as a white crystalline substance by partial oxidation of salicin, from a willow (Salix Helix of Linnaeus.)
helicograph ::: n. --> An instrument for drawing spiral lines on a plane.
helicoidal ::: a. --> Same as Helicoid.
helicoid ::: a. --> Spiral; curved, like the spire of a univalve shell.
Shaped like a snail shell; pertaining to the Helicidae, or Snail family. ::: n. --> A warped surface which may be generated by a straight line moving in such a manner that every point of the line shall have a
heliconian ::: a. --> Of or pertaining to Helicon.
Like or pertaining to the butterflies of the genus Heliconius.
heliconia ::: n. --> One of numerous species of Heliconius, a genus of tropical American butterflies. The wings are usually black, marked with green, crimson, and white.
helicon ::: n. --> A mountain in Boeotia, in Greece, supposed by the Greeks to be the residence of Apollo and the Muses.
helicotrema ::: n. --> The opening by which the two scalae communicate at the top of the cochlea of the ear.
helicotrema ::: The opening at the apex of the cochlea that joins the scala vestibuli and scala tympani.
helio- ::: --> A combining form from Gr. "h`lios the sun.
heliocentric ::: a. --> Alt. of Heliocentrical
heliocentrical ::: a. --> pertaining to the sun&
heliochrome ::: n. --> A photograph in colors.
heliochromic ::: a. --> Pertaining to, or produced by, heliochromy.
heliochromy ::: n. --> The art of producing photographs in color.
heliographic ::: a. --> Of or pertaining to heliography or a heliograph; made by heliography.
heliograph ::: n. --> A picture taken by heliography; a photograph.
An instrument for taking photographs of the sun.
An apparatus for telegraphing by means of the sun&
heliography ::: n. --> Photography.
heliogravure ::: n. --> The process of photographic engraving.
heliolater ::: n. --> A worshiper of the sun.
heliolatry ::: n. --> Sun worship. See Sabianism.
heliolite ::: n. --> A fossil coral of the genus Heliolites, having twelve-rayed cells. It is found in the Silurian rocks.
heliometer ::: n. --> An instrument devised originally for measuring the diameter of the sun; now employed for delicate measurements of the distance and relative direction of two stars too far apart to be easily measured in the field of view of an ordinary telescope.
heliometric ::: a. --> Alt. of Heliometrical
heliometrical ::: a. --> Of or pertaining to the heliometer, or to heliometry.
heliometry ::: n. --> The apart or practice of measuring the diameters of heavenly bodies, their relative distances, etc. See Heliometer.
heliopora ::: n. --> An East Indian stony coral now known to belong to the Alcyonaria; -- called also blue coral.
helioscope ::: n. --> A telescope or instrument for viewing the sun without injury to the eyes, as through colored glasses, or with mirrors which reflect but a small portion of light.
heliostat ::: n. --> An instrument consisting of a mirror moved by clockwork, by which a sunbeam is made apparently stationary, by being steadily directed to one spot during the whole of its diurnal period; also, a geodetic heliotrope.
heliotrope ::: n. --> An instrument or machine for showing when the sun arrived at the tropics and equinoctial line.
A plant of the genus Heliotropium; -- called also turnsole and girasole. H. Peruvianum is the commonly cultivated species with fragrant flowers.
An instrument for making signals to an observer at a distance, by means of the sun&
heliotroper ::: n. --> The person at a geodetic station who has charge of the heliotrope.
heliotropic ::: a. --> Manifesting heliotropism; turning toward the sun.
heliotropism ::: n. --> The phenomenon of turning toward the light, seen in many leaves and flowers.
heliotype ::: n. --> A picture obtained by the process of heliotypy.
heliotypic ::: a. --> Relating to, or obtained by, heliotypy.
heliotypy ::: n. --> A method of transferring pictures from photographic negatives to hardened gelatin plates from which impressions are produced on paper as by lithography.
heliozoa ::: n. pl. --> An order of fresh-water rhizopods having a more or less globular form, with slender radiating pseudopodia; the sun animalcule.
helispheric ::: a. --> Alt. of Helispherical
helispherical ::: a. --> Spiral.
helium ::: n. --> A gaseous element found in the atmospheres of the sun and earth and in some rare minerals.
helix: A smooth curve in 3-dimensions where the tangent makes a constant angle to a line (the axis), while the angle between the projection of the tangent onto a plane perpendicular to the axis and a line on that plane changes at a constant rate.
helixes ::: pl. --> of Helix
helix ::: n. --> A nonplane curve whose tangents are all equally inclined to a given plane. The common helix is the curve formed by the thread of the ordinary screw. It is distinguished from the spiral, all the convolutions of which are in the plane.
A caulicule or little volute under the abacus of the Corinthian capital.
The incurved margin or rim of the external ear. See Illust. of Ear.
hell and heaven
hellanodic ::: n. --> A judge or umpire in games or combats.
hellbender ::: n. --> A large North American aquatic salamander (Protonopsis horrida or Menopoma Alleghaniensis). It is very voracious and very tenacious of life. Also called alligator, and water dog.
hellborn ::: a. --> Born in or of hell.
hellbred ::: a. --> Produced in hell.
hellbrewed ::: a. --> Prepared in hell.
hellbroth ::: n. --> A composition for infernal purposes; a magical preparation.
hell-cat ::: n. --> A witch; a hag.
hell-diver ::: n. --> The dabchick.
helldoomed ::: a. --> Doomed to hell.
helleborein ::: n. --> A poisonous glucoside accompanying helleborin in several species of hellebore, and extracted as a white crystalline substance with a bittersweet taste. It has a strong action on the heart, resembling digitalin.
hellebore ::: n. --> A genus of perennial herbs (Helleborus) of the Crowfoot family, mostly having powerfully cathartic and even poisonous qualities. H. niger is the European black hellebore, or Christmas rose, blossoming in winter or earliest spring. H. officinalis was the officinal hellebore of the ancients.
Any plant of several species of the poisonous liliaceous genus Veratrum, especially V. album and V. viride, both called white hellebore.
helleborin ::: n. --> A poisonous glucoside found in several species of hellebore, and extracted as a white crystalline substance with a sharp tingling taste. It possesses the essential virtues of the plant; -- called also elleborin.
helleborism ::: n. --> The practice or theory of using hellebore as a medicine.
hellene ::: n. --> A native of either ancient or modern Greece; a Greek.
hellenian ::: a. --> Of or pertaining to the Hellenes, or Greeks.
hellenic ::: a. --> Of or pertaining to the Hellenes, or inhabitants of Greece; Greek; Grecian. ::: n. --> The dialect, formed with slight variations from the Attic, which prevailed among Greek writers after the time of Alexander.
hellenism ::: n. --> A phrase or form of speech in accordance with genius and construction or idioms of the Greek language; a Grecism.
The type of character of the ancient Greeks, who aimed at culture, grace, and amenity, as the chief elements in human well-being and perfection.
hellenistic ::: a. --> Alt. of Hellenistical
hellenistical ::: a. --> Pertaining to the Hellenists.
hellenistically ::: adv. --> According to the Hellenistic manner or dialect.
hellenist ::: n. --> One who affiliates with Greeks, or imitates Greek manners; esp., a person of Jewish extraction who used the Greek language as his mother tongue, as did the Jews of Asia Minor, Greece, Syria, and Egypt; distinguished from the Hebraists, or native Jews (Acts vi. 1).
One skilled in the Greek language and literature; as, the critical Hellenist.
hellenize ::: v. i. --> To use the Greek language; to play the Greek; to Grecize. ::: v. t. --> To give a Greek form or character to; to Grecize; as, to Hellenize a word.
hellenotype ::: n. --> See Ivorytype.
hellespontine ::: a. --> Of or pertaining to the Hellespont.
hellespont ::: n. --> A narrow strait between Europe and Asia, now called the Daradanelles. It connects the Aegean Sea and the sea of Marmora.
hellgamite ::: n. --> Alt. of Hellgramite
hellgramite ::: n. --> The aquatic larva of a large American winged insect (Corydalus cornutus), much used a fish bait by anglers; the dobson. It belongs to the Neuroptera.
hellhag ::: n. --> A hag of or fit for hell.
hell-haunted ::: a. --> Haunted by devils; hellish.
hellhound ::: n. --> A dog of hell; an agent of hell.
hell-hound
hellier ::: v. t. --> One who heles or covers; hence, a tiler, slater, or thatcher.
hellish ::: a. --> Of or pertaining to hell; like hell; infernal; malignant; wicked; detestable; diabolical.
hellkite ::: n. --> A kite of infernal breed.
hello {hello, world}
hello ::: interj. & n. --> See Halloo.
hello packet ::: (networking, communications) An OSPF packet sent periodically on each network interface, real or virtual, to discover and test connections to multicasting or broadcasting to enable dynamic router discovery. They include the parameters that routers connected to a common network must agree on.Hello packets increase network resilience by, e.g., allowing a router to establish a secondary connection when a primary connection fails. (1999-11-02)
hello packet "networking, communications" An {OSPF} {packet} sent periodically on each {network interface}, real or {virtual}, to discover and test connections to neighbours. Hello packets are multicast on physical networks capable of {multicasting} or {broadcasting} to enable dynamic {router} discovery. They include the parameters that routers connected to a common network must agree on. Hello packets increase network resilience by, e.g., allowing a router to establish a secondary connection when a primary connection fails. (1999-11-02)
hello, sailor! "jargon" Occasional West Coast equivalent of {hello, world}; seems to have originated at SAIL, later associated with the game {Zork} (which also included "hello, aviator" and "hello, implementor"). Originally from the traditional hooker's greeting to a swabbie fresh off the boat, of course. [{Jargon File}] (2007-10-30)
hello, sailor! ::: Occasional West Coast equivalent of hello, world; seems to have originated at SAIL, later associated with the game Zork (which also included hello, aviator and hello, implementor). Originally from the traditional hooker's greeting to a swabbie fresh off the boat, of course.[Jargon File]
hello, world "programming" The canonical, minimal, first program that a programmer writes in a new {programming language} or {development environment}. The program just prints "hello, world" to {standard output} in order to verify that the programmer can successfully edit, compile and run a simple program before embarking on anything more challenging. Hello, world is the first example program in the {C} programming book, {K&R}, and the tradition has spread from there to pretty much every other language and many of their textbooks. Environments that generate an unreasonably large executable for this trivial test or which require a {hairy} compiler-linker invocation to generate it are considered bad. {Hello, World in over 400 programming languages (http://www.roesler-ac.de/wolfram/hello.htm)}. (2013-10-27)
hello, world ::: The canonical minimal test message in the C/Unix universe or any of the minimal programs that emit this message. Traditionally, the first program a C coder generate an unreasonably large executable for this trivial test or which require a hairy compiler-linker invocation to generate it are considered bad (see X).
hells. See NĀRAKA (hell denizens).
hells
hell ::: the abode of condemned souls and devils in some religions; the place of eternal punishment for the wicked after death. hell"s, hells.
hell ::: v. t. --> The place of the dead, or of souls after death; the grave; -- called in Hebrew sheol, and by the Greeks hades.
The place or state of punishment for the wicked after death; the abode of evil spirits. Hence, any mental torment; anguish.
A place where outcast persons or things are gathered
A dungeon or prison; also, in certain running games, a place to which those who are caught are carried for detention.
A gambling house.
hellward ::: adv. --> Toward hell.
hell ::: “What is meant by hell is a painful passage through the vital or lingering there, as for instance, in many cases of suicide where one remains surrounded by the forces of suffering and turmoil created by this unnatural and violent exit.” Letters on Yoga
helly ::: a. --> Hellish.
helmage ::: n. --> Guidance; direction.
helmed ::: imp. & p. p. --> of Helm ::: a. --> Covered with a helmet.
helmeted ::: a. --> Wearing a helmet; furnished with or having a helmet or helmet-shaped part; galeate.
helmet ::: n. --> A defensive covering for the head. See Casque, Headpiece, Morion, Sallet, and Illust. of Beaver.
The representation of a helmet over shields or coats of arms, denoting gradations of rank by modifications of form.
A helmet-shaped hat, made of cork, felt, metal, or other suitable material, worn as part of the uniform of soldiers, firemen, etc., also worn in hot countries as a protection from the heat of the sun.
helmet-shaped ::: a. --> Shaped like a helmet; galeate. See Illust. of Galeate.
helming ::: p. pr. & vb. n. --> of Helm
helminthagogue ::: n. --> A vermifuge.
helminthes ::: n. pl. --> One of the grand divisions or branches of the animal kingdom. It is a large group including a vast number of species, most of which are parasitic. Called also Enthelminthes, Enthelmintha.
helminthiasis ::: n. --> A disease in which worms are present in some part of the body.
helminthic ::: a. --> Of or relating to worms, or Helminthes; expelling worms. ::: n. --> A vermifuge; an anthelmintic.
helminthite ::: n. --> One of the sinuous tracks on the surfaces of many stones, and popularly considered as worm trails.
helminth ::: n. --> An intestinal worm, or wormlike intestinal parasite; one of the Helminthes.
helminthoid ::: a. --> Wormlike; vermiform.
helminthologic ::: a. --> Alt. of Helminthological
helminthological ::: a. --> Of or pertaining to helminthology.
helminthologist ::: n. --> One versed in helminthology.
helminthology ::: n. --> The natural history, or study, of worms, esp. parasitic worms.
helmless ::: a. --> Destitute of a helmet.
Without a helm or rudder.
helm ::: n. --> See Haulm, straw.
The apparatus by which a ship is steered, comprising rudder, tiller, wheel, etc.; -- commonly used of the tiller or wheel alone.
The place or office of direction or administration.
One at the place of direction or control; a steersman; hence, a guide; a director.
A helve.
A helmet.
helmsman ::: n. --> The man at the helm; a steersman.
helmsmen ::: pl. --> of Helmsman
helmwind ::: n. --> A wind attending or presaged by the cloud called helm.
helotism ::: n. --> The condition of the Helots or slaves in Sparta; slavery.
helot ::: n. --> A slave in ancient Sparta; a Spartan serf; hence, a slave or serf.
helotry ::: n. --> The Helots, collectively; slaves; bondsmen.
helped ::: imp. & p. p. --> of Help
helper ::: n. --> One who, or that which, helps, aids, assists, or relieves; as, a lay helper in a parish.
helper”)—one of the fallen angels in Enoch lore.
helpful ::: a. --> Furnishing help; giving aid; assistant; useful; salutary.
helping behaviour: see altruism (human) and bystander behaviour
helping ::: p. pr. & vb. n. --> of Help
help in the building of the Temple, God answered
helpless ::: a. --> Destitute of help or strength; unable to help or defend one&
helpless ::: adj. **1. Deprived of strength or power; powerless; incapacitated. 2.* Unable to help oneself; weak or dependent. adv. helplessly. n.* helplessness.
help man in the performance of baptismal rites.
helpmate ::: n. --> A helper; a companion; specifically, a wife.
helpmeet ::: n. --> A wife; a helpmate.
help ::: v. t. --> To furnish with strength or means for the successful performance of any action or the attainment of any object; to aid; to assist; as, to help a man in his work; to help one to remember; -- the following infinitive is commonly used without to; as, "Help me scale yon balcony."
To furnish with the means of deliverance from trouble; as, to help one in distress; to help one out of prison.
To furnish with relief, as in pain or disease; to be of
hels the angel “who was made the Guardian of the
helter-skelter ::: adv. --> In hurry and confusion; without definite purpose; irregularly.
helved ::: imp. & p. p. --> of Helve
helve ::: n. --> The handle of an ax, hatchet, or adze.
The lever at the end of which is the hammer head, in a forge hammer.
A forge hammer which is lifted by a cam acting on the helve between the fulcrum and the head. ::: v. t.
helvetian ::: a. --> Same as Helvetic. ::: n. --> A Swiss; a Switzer.
helvetic ::: a. --> Of or pertaining to the Helvetii, the ancient inhabitant of the Alps, now Switzerland, or to the modern states and inhabitant of the Alpine regions; as, the Helvetic confederacy; Helvetic states.
helvine ::: n. --> Alt. of Helvite
helving ::: p. pr. & vb. n. --> of Helve
helvite ::: n. --> A mineral of a yellowish color, consisting chiefly of silica, glucina, manganese, and iron, with a little sulphur.
Hel—according to Scot, Discoverie of Witch¬
Helayaseph (Jiluyaseph, Hilujaseph)—an angel
Held to complement the political aspects of the peace process and to facilitate Israel’s relationship with the Middle East, these economic summits were held four times but eventually lacked momentum due to the failing peace process.
Helech [Abelech]
Heleleth (Eleleth)—in gnostic lore, a great
Helel—in Canaanitish mythology, a fallen
Helel sought to usurp the throne of the chief god
Helemmelek—in Enoch I, an angel governing
Helen Keller mode ::: 1. State of a hardware or software system that is deaf, dumb, and blind, i.e. accepting no input and generating no output, usually due to an infinite loop or some other excursion into deep space. (Unfair to the real Helen Keller, whose success at learning speech was triumphant.) See also go flatline, catatonic.2. On IBM PCs under MS-DOS, refers to a specific failure mode in which a screen saver has kicked in over an ill-behaved application which bypasses the very being able to see what you're doing, or to re-boot the machine. This isn't (strictly speaking) a crash.[Jargon File]
Helen Keller mode 1. State of a hardware or software system that is deaf, dumb, and blind, i.e. accepting no input and generating no output, usually due to an {infinite loop} or some other excursion into {deep space}. (Unfair to the real Helen Keller, whose success at learning speech was triumphant.) See also {go flatline}, {catatonic}. 2. On {IBM PCs} under {MS-DOS}, refers to a specific failure mode in which a screen saver has kicked in over an {ill-behaved} application which bypasses the very interrupts the screen saver watches for activity. Your choices are to try to get from the program's current state through a successful save-and-exit without being able to see what you're doing, or to {re-boot} the machine. This isn't (strictly speaking) a crash. [{Jargon File}]
Helheim, Helhem (Icelandic, Swedish) Hel’s home; in the Norse Eddas the domain of Hel, ruler of the realm of death. Hel or Hela, daughter of Loki, governs the lands where souls spend the time intervening between lives in the “victory worlds.” The realms of death vary from beautiful, peaceful meadows of delight to cages woven of venomous serpents where the occupants undergo acute suffering. The lowest of these hells contain rivers of venom in which oath-brakers and adulterers must wade.
Heliarc: See: Geoarc.
Helias the Prophet—a name for the forerunner
Helibamo 訶梨跋摩. See HARIVARMAN
Hel (Icelandic) [from helju hell, death] The mythical regent of the Norse realm of the dead, depicted as half black or blue and half flesh-colored. In myths the representative of death is usually said to be a child of mind: in the Edda she is the daughter of Loki (fire of mind) and of the giantess Angerboda (boder of regret). She rules the nine worlds of death which correspond to the nine worlds of life, and apportions to each arrival a domicile appropriate to that soul’s merit or demerit. Some may frolic in sunlit meadows, others suffer agony beneath the lower gates leading to Niflhel [from nifl cloud + hel death] where matter is ground to extinction. The realm of Hel with its varied accommodations resembles the Greek Hades more than the hell of popular belief where evil souls are sent for punishment. Rather, the kingdom of death is a restful interlude where souls spend a fitting time in their rightful environment. The Eddas relate that elves (human souls) sleep among the gods when they are feasting on the mead of a past period of life (experience); thus the resting souls are present in the divine spheres even through unconscious of their surroundings.
Helin Xuansu. (J. Kakurin Genso; K. Hangnim Hyonso 鶴林玄素) (668-752). Chinese CHAN master in the NIUTOU ZONG, also known as Daoqing or Masu (from his secular surname Ma). Helin was ordained at the monastery of Changshousi in present-day Jiangsu province, but later in his life moved to Youqisi, where he became a disciple of the fifth-generation Niutou successor Zhiwei (646-722). At another monk's request, Helin moved once again to the monastery of Helinsi on Mt. Huanghe in Yunzhou prefecture, whence he acquired his toponym. He died without any symptoms of illness in 752 at the age of eighty-four. He was subsequently given the posthumous title Chan master Dalü (Great Discipline). He claims among his disciples Jingshan Daoqin (714-792) and FAHAI, whom the Dunhuang edition of the LIUZU TAN JING ("Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch") states is the compiler of the text.
Helin Xuansu
Heliocentric The heliocentric system was universally known in antiquity as a part of the teaching of the Mysteries, and certain eminent sages of those archaic times even taught it more or less openly, among them Confucius in China, Greek philosophers, Egyptian priests, and Hindu astronomical and other writers. Pythagoras veiled the heliocentric theory under the teaching that the planets (and the sun) revolved around a mysterious central fire, invisible to us, but whose light was reflected to the earth by the sun.
Heliolatry. See SUN WORSHIP
Heliopolis was the principal seat of his worship, it being held that at that spot, with his consort Nut, he produced the great Egg of Space, out of which emerged the sun god in the shape of a phoenix (bennu). Because of this he was styled the Great Cackler. Another of his titles was Erpat (chief of the gods), as he is more like the Hindu parabrahman than even Brahma, and hence the womb of cosmic being. A favorite representation of Seb is that of a prostrated man, one hand pointing to heaven, the other to earth — the prostrated form representing the earth — over whom bends a woman, Nut, her body being spangled with stars — representing the sky.
Helios, Helion, Helius (Greek) The sun god, son of Hyperion and Theia, brother of Selene (the moon) and Eos (the dawn). He drives the chariot of the sun across the sky. Generally identical with Apollo or Phoebos; sol in Latin, sun in English, assimilated etymologically with the Hebrew ’El and ’elohim, the Chaldean Bel, and the Phoenician Ba‘al. Helios is paired with Selene the moon, as Sol is with Luna.
Helison. [Rf. Shah, The Secret Lore of Magic;
Helison
Helix ::: A hardware description language from Silvar-Lisco.
Helix A {hardware description language} from {Silvar-Lisco}.
HELL AND HEAVEN. ::: They arc often imaginary states of the soul or rather of the vital which it constructs about It after its passing. What is meant by hell is a painful passage through the vital or lingering there, as for instance, in many cases of suicide where one remains surrounded by the forces of suffering and turmoil created by this unnatural and violent exit. There are, of course, also worlds of mind and vital worlds which are penetrated with Joyful or dark experiences. One may pass through these as the result of things formed in the nature which create the necessary affimties, but the Idea of reward or retri- bution is a crude and vulgar conception which is a mere popular error.
Hell) an ophite diagram represents Raphael as a
Hell as a Count Palatine and ruler of the wicked planet Mars, served at the same time in Heaven
Hell, as a “great president and a mighty prince.”
Hell, Balberith is a grand pontiff and master of
Hellenism or the Hellinistic Period ::: (Gre. Greekish) Civilization that spread from Greece through much of the ancient world from 333 (Alexander the Great) to 76 (dominance of Rome) B.C.E. After Alexander the Great conquered the Land of Israel, Jewish theocracy remained for a while until the practice of Judaism was prohibited, causing the Hasmonean Revolt.
Hell, gives Beelzebub dominion over the under¬
Hell-in-Heaven realm). Chief among the good
Hell.” In Kent State University Bulletin (Kent, Ohio),
Hel(l)ison—one of the 5 angels of the 1st
Hell itself, one adduces from Enoch II, Testament of Levi, and other apocryphal and pseudepi-
Hell. [Rf. the Coptic Book of the Resurrection of
Hell. [R/ Sale, The Koran, “Preliminary Dis¬
Hell’s ambassador to Turkey. [Cf. Mastema.] As
Hell, says Scholem, Major Trends in Jewish
Hell. See HEAVEN AND HELL
Hell.
Hell, stationed there to serve God’s purpose—just
Hell, the notion deriving from the maskim of the
Hell under the ethnarchy of Duma(h). The other
Hell who punishes nations “for cause.” [Rf. M.
HELP 1. "language, robotics" {DEA}. A Language for industrial robots. 2. (Help Est un Lisp Paresseux - Help Is a Lazy Lisp). A {lazy} version of {Scheme} with strictness {annotations}, by Thomas Schiex "schiex@europe.cert.fr".
HELP ::: 1. (language, robotics) DEA. A Language for industrial robots.2. (Help Est un Lisp Paresseux - Help Is a Lazy Lisp). A lazy version of Scheme with strictness annotations, by Thomas Schiex .
HELPFUL FORCES. ::: If there are always forces around which are concerned to depress and discourage, there are always forces above and around us which we can draw upon, — draw into our- selves to restore, to fill up again with strength and faith and joy
HELPING OTHERS. ::: Do not be caught by the desire to
Helvetica "text" One of the most widely used {sans-serif} {typefaces}, developed in 1957 by Swiss typeface designer Max Miedinger with Eduard Hoffmann. Originally called Neue Haas Grotesk, it was renamed Helvetica for the international market. Helvetica is very similar to the common {Arial} typeface. The name is Latin for Swiss. {Linotype (http://www.linotype.com/526/helvetica-family.html)}. (2013-09-19)
Helvetius, Claude Adrien: (1715-1771) A French philosopher, he developed on the basis of Condillac's sensationalism his superficial materialistic philosophy. His theories of the original mental equality of individuals, of the egoism or self-interest as the sole motive of human action, and of the omnipotence of education, stress the basic determining influence of circumstances.
TERMS ANYWHERE
1. Fiendishly evil. 2. A mythical watchdog of hell.
(1) Not to allow the impulse of speech to assert itself too much or say anything without reflection, but to speak always with a conscious control and only what is necessary and helpful.
"1. ‘The Golden Embryo" in Hindu cosmology; the name given to the golden-hued Egg which floated on the surface of the primeval waters. In time the egg divided into two parts, the golden top half of the shell becoming the heavens and the silver lower half the earth. 2. ‘God imaginative and therefore creative"; the ‘Spirit in the middle or Dream State"; Lord of Dream-Life who takes from the ocean of subconsciously intelligent spiritual being the conscious psychic forces which He materializes or encases in various forms of gross living matter. (Enc. Br.; A)” Glossary and Index of Proper Names in Sri Aurobindo"s Works.
“1. ‘The Golden Embryo’ in Hindu cosmology; the name given to the golden-hued Egg which floated on the surface of the primeval waters. In time the egg divided into two parts, the golden top half of the shell becoming the heavens and the silver lower half the earth. 2. ‘God imaginative and therefore creative’; the ‘Spirit in the middle or Dream State’; Lord of Dream-Life who takes from the ocean of subconsciously intelligent spiritual being the conscious psychic forces which He materializes or encases in various forms of gross living matter. (Enc. Br.; A)” Glossary and Index of Proper Names in Sri Aurobindo’s Works.
1. To be inadequate or insufficient; fall short. 2. To fall short of success or achievement in something expected, attempted, desired, or approved. 3. To dwindle, pass, or die away. 4. To decline, as in strength or effectiveness; fig. of the heart. 5. Of some expected or usual resource: To prove of no use or help to. 6. Of a material thing: To break down under strain or pressure. fails, failed, failed.
1. To support or defend, as against opposition or criticism. 2. To support, sustain, maintain, by aid or assistance; to preserve unimpaired or intact. upholds, upheld.
(4) Not to mind at all if others are heated and dispute, but remain quiet and undisturbed and yourself speak only what can help things to be smooth agam.
(5) If there is gossip about others and harsh criticism not to join— for these things are helpful in no way and only lower the consciousness from its higher level.
abacinate ::: v. t. --> To blind by a red-hot metal plate held before the eyes.
abaddon ::: n. --> The destroyer, or angel of the bottomless pit; -- the same as Apollyon and Asmodeus.
Hell; the bottomless pit.
abalone ::: n. --> A univalve mollusk of the genus Haliotis. The shell is lined with mother-of-pearl, and used for ornamental purposes; the sea-ear. Several large species are found on the coast of California, clinging closely to the rocks.
abandon ::: 1. To give oneself up, devote oneself to (a person or thing); to yield oneself without restraint. 2. To withdraw one"s support or help from, especially in spite of duty, allegiance, or responsibility; desert: leave behind. 3. To give up; discontinue; withdraw from. abandons, abandoned, abandoning.
abandoned ::: 1. Given up, deserted, forsaken, cast off. 2. Left completely and finally, without help or support. 3. adj. Deserted.
absorb ::: v. t. --> To swallow up; to engulf; to overwhelm; to cause to disappear as if by swallowing up; to use up; to include.
To suck up; to drink in; to imbibe; as a sponge or as the lacteals of the body.
To engross or engage wholly; to occupy fully; as, absorbed in study or the pursuit of wealth.
To take up by cohesive, chemical, or any molecular action, as when charcoal absorbs gases. So heat, light, and electricity
abyss ::: n. --> A bottomless or unfathomed depth, gulf, or chasm; hence, any deep, immeasurable, and, specifically, hell, or the bottomless pit.
Infinite time; a vast intellectual or moral depth.
The center of an escutcheon.
academy ::: n. --> A garden or grove near Athens (so named from the hero Academus), where Plato and his followers held their philosophical conferences; hence, the school of philosophy of which Plato was head.
An institution for the study of higher learning; a college or a university. Popularly, a school, or seminary of learning, holding a rank between a college and a common school.
A place of training; a school.
A society of learned men united for the advancement of the
acatalepsy ::: n. --> Incomprehensibility of things; the doctrine held by the ancient Skeptic philosophers, that human knowledge never amounts to certainty, but only to probability.
acephala ::: n. pl. --> That division of the Mollusca which includes the bivalve shells, like the clams and oysters; -- so called because they have no evident head. Formerly the group included the Tunicata, Brachiopoda, and sometimes the Bryozoa. See Mollusca.
aconite ::: n. --> The herb wolfsbane, or monkshood; -- applied to any plant of the genus Aconitum (tribe Hellebore), all the species of which are poisonous.
An extract or tincture obtained from Aconitum napellus, used as a poison and medicinally.
acorn ::: n. --> The fruit of the oak, being an oval nut growing in a woody cup or cupule.
A cone-shaped piece of wood on the point of the spindle above the vane, on the mast-head.
See Acorn-shell.
acorn-shell ::: n. --> One of the sessile cirripeds; a barnacle of the genus Balanus. See Barnacle.
adeling ::: n. --> Same as Atheling.
adessenarian ::: n. --> One who held the real presence of Christ&
adiaphorist ::: n. --> One of the German Protestants who, with Melanchthon, held some opinions and ceremonies to be indifferent or nonessential, which Luther condemned as sinful or heretical.
adjoint ::: n. --> An adjunct; a helper.
adjourned ::: deferred, postponed; held over to another time.
adjument ::: n. --> Help; support; also, a helper.
adjutant ::: n. --> A helper; an assistant.
A regimental staff officer, who assists the colonel, or commanding officer of a garrison or regiment, in the details of regimental and garrison duty.
A species of very large stork (Ciconia argala), a native of India; -- called also the gigantic crane, and by the native name argala. It is noted for its serpent-destroying habits.
adjutor ::: n. --> A helper or assistant.
adjutory ::: a. --> Serving to help or assist; helping.
adjutrix ::: n. --> A female helper or assistant.
admeasure ::: v. t. --> To measure.
To determine the proper share of, or the proper apportionment; as, to admeasure dower; to admeasure common of pasture.
The measure of a thing; dimensions; size.
Formerly, the adjustment of proportion, or ascertainment of shares, as of dower or pasture held in common. This was by writ of admeasurement, directed to the sheriff.
adminicle ::: n. --> Help or support; an auxiliary.
Corroborative or explanatory proof.
adminicular ::: a. --> Supplying help; auxiliary; corroborative; explanatory; as, adminicular evidence.
adscript ::: a. --> Held to service as attached to the soil; -- said of feudal serfs. ::: n. --> One held to service as attached to the glebe or estate; a feudal serf.
advance ::: v. t. --> To bring forward; to move towards the van or front; to make to go on.
To raise; to elevate.
To raise to a higher rank; to promote.
To accelerate the growth or progress; to further; to forward; to help on; to aid; to heighten; as, to advance the ripening of fruit; to advance one&
A dynamic descent brings tapas not Jama. It is a greater and greater descent of peace that brings Jama ; the dynamic descent helps it by dispersing the element of rajasic disturbance and changing rajas into tapas.
affirmed ::: maintained as true; positively asserted; upheld, supported. affirming.
affordment ::: n. --> Anything given as a help; bestowal.
After a certain stage of preparation one must stress more on the positive side of the sadhana than on the negative side of rejection, — though this of course must remain to help the other.
aggregate ::: v. t. --> To bring together; to collect into a mass or sum. "The aggregated soil."
To add or unite, as, a person, to an association.
To amount in the aggregate to; as, ten loads, aggregating five hundred bushels. ::: a.
A glad and strong and helpful ^submission is demanded to the working of the Divine Force, the obedience of the Illumined disciple of thb Truth, of the inner warrior who fights against obscurity hnd falsehood, of the faithful servant of the Divine.
agraffe ::: n. --> A hook or clasp.
A hook, eyelet, or other device by which a piano wire is so held as to limit the vibration.
ahull ::: adv. --> With the sails furled, and the helm lashed alee; -- applied to ships in a storm. See Hull, n.
aidant ::: a. --> Helping; helpful; supplying aid.
aide ::: an assistant or helper. aides.
aidful ::: a. --> Helpful.
aidless ::: a. --> Helpless; without aid.
aid ::: n. 1. Help, assistance, support, succour, relief. v. 2. To give help, support, or assistance to; to help, assist, succour. aids.
aid ::: v. t. --> To support, either by furnishing strength or means in cooperation to effect a purpose, or to prevent or to remove evil; to help; to assist.
Help; succor; assistance; relief.
The person or thing that promotes or helps in something done; a helper; an assistant.
A subsidy granted to the king by Parliament; also, an exchequer loan.
Aiilomalic action of the Force ::: The need for calling help diminishes as one gets higher and higher or rather fuller and fuller, being replaced more and more by the automatic action of the Force.
alee ::: adv. --> On or toward the lee, or the side away from the wind; the opposite of aweather. The helm of a ship is alee when pressed close to the lee side.
“All aspects of the omnipresent Reality have their fundamental truth in the Supreme Existence. Thus even the aspect or power of Inconscience, which seems to be an opposite, a negation of the eternal Reality, yet corresponds to a Truth held in itself by the self-aware and all-conscious Infinite. It is, when we look closely at it, the Infinite’s power of plunging the consciousness into a trance of self-involution, a self-oblivion of the Spirit veiled in its own abysses where nothing is manifest but all inconceivably is and can emerge from that ineffable latency. In the heights of Spirit this state of cosmic or infinite trance-sleep appears to our cognition as a luminous uttermost Superconscience: at the other end of being it offers itself to cognition as the Spirit’s potency of presenting to itself the opposites of its own truths of being,—an abyss of non-existence, a profound Night of inconscience, a fathomless swoon of insensibility from which yet all forms of being, consciousness and delight of existence can manifest themselves,—but they appear in limited terms, in slowly emerging and increasing self-formulations, even in contrary terms of themselves; it is the play of a secret all-being, all-delight, all-knowledge, but it observes the rules of its own self-oblivion, self-opposition, self-limitation until it is ready to surpass it. This is the Inconscience and Ignorance that we see at work in the material universe. It is not a denial, it is one term, one formula of the infinite and eternal Existence.” The Life Divine
All helpful or supporting contacts in dream or vision are to be welcomed and accepted. Experiences of the right kind are a
All can be done by the Divine — the heart and nature puri- fied, the inner consciousness awakened, the veils removed, — if one gives oneself to the Divine with trust and confidence and even xf one cannot do so fully at once, yet the more one does so, the more the inner help and guidance comes and the experi- ence of the Divine grows nithin. If the questioning mind becomes less active and humility and the will to surrender grow, this ought to be perfectly possible. No other strength and tapasya are then needed, but this alone.
"All change must come from within with the felt or the secret support of the Divine Power; it is only by one"s own inner opening to that that one can receive help, not by mental, vital or physical contact with others.” Letters on Yoga
“All change must come from within with the felt or the secret support of the Divine Power; it is only by one’s own inner opening to that that one can receive help, not by mental, vital or physical contact with others.” Letters on Yoga
::: "All energies put into activity — thought, speech, feeling, act — go to constitute Karma. These things help to develop the nature in one direction or another, and the nature and its actions and reactions produce their consequences inward and outward: they also act on others and create movements in the general sum of forces which can return upon oneself sooner or later. Thoughts unexpressed can also go out as forces and produce their effects. It is a mistake to think that a thought or will can have effect only when it is expressed in speech or act: the unspoken thought, the unexpressed will are also active energies and can produce their own vibrations, effects or reactions.” Letters on Yoga*
“All energies put into activity—thought, speech, feeling, act—go to constitute Karma. These things help to develop the nature in one direction or another, and the nature and its actions and reactions produce their consequences inward and outward: they also act on others and create movements in the general sum of forces which can return upon oneself sooner or later. Thoughts unexpressed can also go out as forces and produce their effects. It is a mistake to think that a thought or will can have effect only when it is expressed in speech or act: the unspoken thought, the unexpressed will are also active energies and can produce their own vibrations, effects or reactions.” Letters on Yoga
allodial ::: a. --> Pertaining to allodium; freehold; free of rent or service; held independent of a lord paramount; -- opposed to feudal; as, allodial lands; allodial system.
Anything held allodially.
allodium ::: n. --> Freehold estate; land which is the absolute property of the owner; real estate held in absolute independence, without being subject to any rent, service, or acknowledgment to a superior. It is thus opposed to feud.
allurement ::: n. --> The act alluring; temptation; enticement.
That which allures; any real or apparent good held forth, or operating, as a motive to action; as, the allurements of pleasure, or of honor.
"Along with purity and as a help to bring it about, concentration. Purity and concentration are indeed two aspects, feminine and masculine, passive and active, of the same status of being; purity is the condition in which concentration becomes entire, rightly effective, omnipotent; by concentration purity does its works and without it would only lead to a state of peaceful quiescence and eternal repose.” The Synthesis of Yoga
“Along with purity and as a help to bring it about, concentration. Purity and concentration are indeed two aspects, feminine and masculine, passive and active, of the same status of being; purity is the condition in which concentration becomes entire, rightly effective, omnipotent; by concentration purity does its works and without it would only lead to a state of peaceful quiescence and eternal repose.” The Synthesis of Yoga
altrices ::: n. pl. --> Nursers, -- a term applied to those birds whose young are hatched in a very immature and helpless condition, so as to require the care of their parents for some time; -- opposed to praecoces.
alveolus ::: n. --> A cell in a honeycomb.
A small cavity in a coral, shell, or fossil
A small depression, sac, or vesicle, as the socket of a tooth, the air cells of the lungs, the ultimate saccules of glands, etc.
Amal: “On the plane described, we find what is concealed on earth by the form of things. A wonder is revealed.”“By the way, the word ‘Here’ in the line: Here sheltered behind form’s insensible screen does not refer to the plane described but to our earth.”
Amal: “‘The Fiend’ is the demonic power which deceives and destroys us by making us believe that it is a divine helper.”
amazement ::: n. --> The condition of being amazed; bewilderment [Obs.]; overwhelming wonder, as from surprise, sudden fear, horror, or admiration.
Frenzy; madness.
amaze ::: v. t. --> To bewilder; to stupefy; to bring into a maze.
To confound, as by fear, wonder, extreme surprise; to overwhelm with wonder; to astound; to astonish greatly.
Bewilderment, arising from fear, surprise, or wonder; amazement. ::: v. i.
ambitus ::: n. --> The exterior edge or border of a thing, as the border of a leaf, or the outline of a bivalve shell.
A canvassing for votes.
ammonite ::: n. --> A fossil cephalopod shell related to the nautilus. There are many genera and species, and all are extinct, the typical forms having existed only in the Mesozoic age, when they were exceedingly numerous. They differ from the nautili in having the margins of the septa very much lobed or plaited, and the siphuncle dorsal. Also called serpent stone, snake stone, and cornu Ammonis.
ammunition ::: n. --> Military stores, or provisions of all kinds for attack or defense.
Articles used in charging firearms and ordnance of all kinds; as powder, balls, shot, shells, percussion caps, rockets, etc.
Any stock of missiles, literal or figurative. ::: v. t.
anaptychus ::: n. --> One of a pair of shelly plates found in some cephalopods, as the ammonites.
anhelation ::: n. --> Short and rapid breathing; a panting; asthma.
anhele ::: v. i. --> To pant; to be breathlessly anxious or eager (for).
anhelose ::: a. --> Anhelous; panting.
anhelous ::: a. --> Short of breath; panting.
anchored ::: imp. & p. p. --> of Anchor ::: a. --> Held by an anchor; at anchor; held safely; as, an anchored bark; also, shaped like an anchor; forked; as, an anchored tongue.
Having the extremities turned back, like the flukes of an
— and allowed by the Divine because that is part of the soul's training and helps it to know itself, its powers and the limita- tions it has to outgrow.
and not by an opening of themselves to a superior Povver or by the way of surrender ; for the Impersonal is not something that guides and helps, but something to be attained, and it leaves each man to attain it according to the way an^ capacity of his naturc.
and the power that perseveres and conquers. It is really a habit that one has to get of opening to these helpful forces and either passively receiving them or actively drawing upon them — for one can do either. It is easier if you have the conception of them above and around you and the faith and the will to receive them ; for that brings the experience and concrete sense of them and the capacity to receive at need or at will. It is a question of habituating your consciousness to get into touch and keep in touch with these helpful forces ; and for that you must accustom yourself to reject the impressions forced on you by the others, depression, self-distrust, repining and all similar disturbances.
And these are in fact always acting upon our subliminal selves unknown to our vvaking mind and with considerable effect on our life and nature. The physical mind is only a little part of us and there is much more considerable range of our being in which the presence, infiuence and powers of the other planes are active upon us and help to shape our external being and its activities. The awakening of the psychical consciousness enables us fb become aware of these powers, presences and influences in and around us ; and while in the impure or yet ignorant and imperfect mind this unveiled contact has its dangers, it enables us too, if lightly used and directed, to be no longer their subject but their master and to coroe into conscious and seJf-confroJled possession of the inner secrets of our nature. The psychical consciousness reveals this interaction between the inner and the outer planes, this world and others, partly by an awareness, which may be very constant, vast and vivid, of their impacts, suggestions, communications to our inner thought and conscious being and a capacity of reaction upon them there, partly ako through many kinds of symbolic, transcriptive or representative images presented to the different psychical senses. But also
angiostomous ::: a. --> With a narrow mouth, as the shell of certain gastropods.
anglican ::: a. --> English; of or pertaining to England or the English nation; especially, pertaining to, or connected with, the established church of England; as, the Anglican church, doctrine, orders, ritual, etc.
Pertaining to, characteristic of, or held by, the high church party of the Church of England. ::: n.
anglicanism ::: n. --> Strong partiality to the principles and rites of the Church of England.
The principles of the established church of England; also, in a restricted sense, the doctrines held by the high-church party.
Attachment to England or English institutions.
angoumois moth ::: --> A small moth (Gelechia cerealella) which is very destructive to wheat and other grain. The larva eats out the interior of the grain, leaving only the shell.
An inert passivity is constantly confused with the real sur- render, but out of an inert passivity nothing true and powerful can come. It is the inert passivity of physical Nature that leaves it at the mercy of every obscure or undivlne influence. A glad and strong and helpful submission Is demanded to the working of the Divine Force, the obedience of the illumined disciple of the
anisopleura ::: n. pl. --> A primary division of gastropods, including those having spiral shells. The two sides of the body are unequally developed.
annuloida ::: n. pl. --> A division of the Articulata, including the annelids and allied groups; sometimes made to include also the helminths and echinoderms.
anomalistical ::: a. --> Irregular; departing from common or established rules.
Pertaining to the anomaly, or angular distance of a planet from its perihelion.
anomaly ::: n. --> Deviation from the common rule; an irregularity; anything anomalous.
The angular distance of a planet from its perihelion, as seen from the sun. This is the true anomaly. The eccentric anomaly is a corresponding angle at the center of the elliptic orbit of the planet. The mean anomaly is what the anomaly would be if the planet&
anomia ::: n. --> A genus of bivalve shells, allied to the oyster, so called from their unequal valves, of which the lower is perforated for attachment.
anthelia ::: pl. --> of Anthelion
anthelion ::: n. --> A halo opposite the sun, consisting of a colored ring or rings around the shadow of the spectator&
anthelix ::: n. --> Same as Antihelix.
anthelmintic ::: a. --> Good against intestinal worms. ::: n. --> An anthelmintic remedy.
antelucan ::: a. --> Held or being before light; -- a word applied to assemblies of Christians, in ancient times of persecution, held before light in the morning.
antenicene ::: a. --> Of or in the Christian church or era, anterior to the first council of Nice, held a. d. 325; as, antenicene faith.
antihelix ::: n. --> The curved elevation of the cartilage of the ear, within or in front of the helix. See Ear.
antiscolic ::: a. --> Anthelmintic.
aphelia ::: pl. --> of Aphelion
aphelion ::: n. --> That point of a planet&
apheliotropic ::: a. --> Turning away from the sun; -- said of leaves, etc.
apheliotropism ::: n. --> The habit of bending from the sunlight; -- said of certain plants.
A person, such as a priestess, through whom a deity is held to respond when consulted. 2. The response given through such a medium, often in the form of an enigmatic statement or allegory. 3. A command or revelation from God. oracles.
aplacophora ::: n. pl. --> A division of Amphineura in which the body is naked or covered with slender spines or setae, but is without shelly plates.
apodeme ::: n. --> One of the processes of the shell which project inwards and unite with one another, in the thorax of many Crustacea.
aport ::: adv. --> On or towards the port or left side; -- said of the helm.
apostatize ::: v. i. --> To renounce totally a religious belief once professed; to forsake one&
apothesis ::: n. --> A place on the south side of the chancel in the primitive churches, furnished with shelves, for books, vestments, etc.
A dressing room connected with a public bath.
apsis ::: n. --> One of the two points of an orbit, as of a planet or satellite, which are at the greatest and least distance from the central body, corresponding to the aphelion and perihelion of a planet, or to the apogee and perigee of the moon. The more distant is called the higher apsis; the other, the lower apsis; and the line joining them, the line of apsides.
In a curve referred to polar coordinates, any point for which the radius vector is a maximum or minimum.
aptychus ::: n. --> A shelly plate found in the terminal chambers of ammonite shells. Some authors consider them to be jaws; others, opercula.
archelogy ::: n. --> The science of, or a treatise on, first principles.
areopagus ::: n. --> The highest judicial court at Athens. Its sessions were held on Mars&
argonauta ::: n. --> A genus of Cephalopoda. The shell is called paper nautilus or paper sailor.
argus shell ::: --> A species of shell (Cypraea argus), beautifully variegated with spots resembling those in a peacock&
arian ::: a. & n. --> See Aryan. ::: a. --> Pertaining to Arius, a presbyter of the church of Alexandria, in the fourth century, or to the doctrines of Arius, who held Christ to be inferior to God the Father in nature and dignity, though the first and noblest of all created beings.
ark shell ::: --> A marine bivalve shell belonging to the genus Arca and its allies.
armet ::: n. --> A kind of helmet worn in the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries.
arming ::: p. pr. & vb. n. --> of Arm ::: n. --> The act of furnishing with, or taking, arms.
A piece of tallow placed in a cavity at the lower end of a sounding lead, to bring up the sand, shells, etc., of the sea bottom.
Red dress cloths formerly hung fore and aft outside of a
ARRESTS IN SADHANA. ::: A difficulty comes or an arrest in some movement which you have begun or have been carrying on for some time. Such arrests are inevitably frequent enough; one might almost say that every step forward is followed by an arrest. It is to be dealt with by becoming always more quiet, more firm in the will to go through, by opening oneself more and more so that any obstructing non-receptivity in the nature may diminish or disappear, by an affirmation of faith even in the midst of obscurity, faith in the presence of a Power that is working behind the cloud and the veil, in the guidance of the Guru, by an observation of oneself to find any cause of the arrest, not in a spirit of depression or discouragement but with the will to find out and remove it. This is the only right attitude and, if one is persistent in taking it, the periods of arrest are not abolished, - for that cannot be at this stage, - but greatly shortened and lightened in their incidence. Sometimes these arrests are periods, long or short, of assimilation or unseen preparation, their appearance of sterile immobility is deceptive ::: in that case, with the right attitude, one can after a time, by opening, by observation, by accumulated experience, begin to feel, to get some inkling of what is being prepared or done. Sometimes it is a period of true obstruction in which the Power at work has to deal with the obstacles in the way, obstacles in oneself, obstacles of the opposing cosmic forces or any other or of all together, and this kind of arrest may be long or short according to the magnitude or obstinacy or complexity of the impediments that are met. But here, too, the right attitude can alleviate or shorten and, if persistently taken, help to a more radical removal of the difficulties and greatly diminish the necessity of complete arrests hereafter.
On the contrary, an attitude of depression or unfaith in the help or the guidance or in the certitude of the victory of the guiding Power, a shutting up of yourself in the sense of the difficulties, helps the obstructions to recur with force instead of progressively diminishing in their incidence.
articulata ::: v. --> One of the four subkingdoms in the classification of Cuvier. It has been much modified by later writers.
One of the subdivisions of the Brachiopoda, including those that have the shells united by a hinge.
A subdivision of the Crinoidea.
artificer ::: n. --> An artistic worker; a mechanic or manufacturer; one whose occupation requires skill or knowledge of a particular kind, as a silversmith.
One who makes or contrives; a deviser, inventor, or framer.
A cunning or artful fellow.
A military mechanic, as a blacksmith, carpenter, etc.; also, one who prepares the shells, fuses, grenades, etc., in a military
asiphonate ::: a. --> Destitute of a siphon or breathing tube; -- said of many bivalve shells. ::: n. --> An asiphonate mollusk.
"As long as we live in the ignorant seeming, we are the ego and are subject to the modes of Nature. Enslaved to appearances, bound to the dualities, tossed between good and evil, sin and virtue, grief and joy, pain and pleasure, good fortune and ill fortune, success and failure, we follow helplessly the iron or gilt and iron round of the wheel of Maya.” *The Synthesis of Yoga
“As long as we live in the ignorant seeming, we are the ego and are subject to the modes of Nature. Enslaved to appearances, bound to the dualities, tossed between good and evil, sin and virtue, grief and joy, pain and pleasure, good fortune and ill fortune, success and failure, we follow helplessly the iron or gilt and iron round of the wheel of Maya.” The Synthesis of Yoga
aspergillum ::: n. --> The brush used in the Roman Catholic church for sprinkling holy water on the people.
See Wateringpot shell.
aspidobranchia ::: n. pl. --> A group of Gastropoda, with limpetlike shells, including the abalone shells and keyhole limpets.
"Aspiration should be not a form of desire, but the feeling of an inner soul"s need, and a quiet settled will to turn towards the Divine and seek the Divine. It is certainly not easy to get rid of this mixture of desire entirely — not easy for anyone; but when one has the will to do it, this also can be effected by the help of the sustaining Force.” Letters on Yoga
“Aspiration should be not a form of desire, but the feeling of an inner soul’s need, and a quiet settled will to turn towards the Divine and seek the Divine. It is certainly not easy to get rid of this mixture of desire entirely—not easy for anyone; but when one has the will to do it, this also can be effected by the help of the sustaining Force.” Letters on Yoga
assidean ::: n. --> One of a body of devoted Jews who opposed the Hellenistic Jews, and supported the Asmoneans.
assistance ::: n. --> The act of assisting; help; aid; furtherance; succor; support.
An assistant or helper; a body of helpers.
Persons present.
assistant ::: a. --> Helping; lending aid or support; auxiliary.
Of the second grade in the staff of the army; as, an assistant surgeon. ::: n. --> One who, or that which, assists; a helper; an auxiliary; a means of help.
assister ::: n. --> An assistant; a helper.
assistful ::: a. --> Helpful.
assistive ::: a. --> Lending aid, helping.
assistless ::: a. --> Without aid or help.
assists ::: gives support or aid to; helps. assisting.
assist ::: v. t. --> To give support to in some undertaking or effort, or in time of distress; to help; to aid; to succor. ::: v. i. --> To lend aid; to help.
To be present as a spectator; as, to assist at a public meeting.
associational ::: a. --> Of or pertaining to association, or to an association.
Pertaining to the theory held by the associationists.
associationism ::: n. --> The doctrine or theory held by associationists.
astrophel ::: n. --> See Astrofel.
Asura and are most generally misheld and misused by those who retain them. The seekers or keepers of wealth are more often possessed rather than its possessors ; few escape entirely a certain distorting influence stamped on it by its long seizure and perversion by the Asura. For this reason most spiritual disciplines insist on a complete self-control, detachment and renunciation of all bondage to wealth and of all personal and egoistic desire for its possession. Some even put a ban on money and riches and proclaim poverty and bareness of life as the only spiritual condition. But this is an error ; it leaves the power in the hands of the hostile forces. To reconquer it for the Divine to whom it belongs 'and use it divinely for the divine life is the supramental way for the sadhaka.
Aswapati ::: Sri Aurobindo: “Aswapati, the Lord of the Horse, her [Savitri’s] human father, is the Lord of Tapasya, the concentrated energy of spiritual endeavour that helps us to rise from the mortal to the immortal planes; …” (Author’s Note at the beginning of Savitri.)
Aswapati ::: Sri Aurobindo: “Aswapati, the Lord of the Horse, her [Savitri’s] human father, is the Lord of Tapasya, the concentrated energy of spiritual endeavour that helps us to rise from the mortal to the immortal planes; …” (From a letter of Sri Aurobindo to a disciple, listed now as the Author’s Note at the beginning of Savitri.)
aswapati ::: Sri Aurobindo: "Aswapati, the Lord of the Horse, her [Savitri"s] human father, is the Lord of Tapasya, the concentrated energy of spiritual endeavour that helps us to rise from the mortal to the immortal planes; . . . .” (From a letter written by Sri Aurobindo) Aswapati"s.
asylum ::: n. --> A sanctuary or place of refuge and protection, where criminals and debtors found shelter, and from which they could not be forcibly taken without sacrilege.
Any place of retreat and security.
An institution for the protection or relief of some class of destitute, unfortunate, or afflicted persons; as, an asylum for the aged, for the blind, or for the insane; a lunatic asylum; an orphan asylum.
atheling ::: n. --> An Anglo-Saxon prince or nobleman; esp., the heir apparent or a prince of the royal family.
atlantean ::: a. --> Of or pertaining to the isle Atlantis, which the ancients allege was sunk, and overwhelmed by the ocean.
Pertaining to, or resembling, Atlas; strong.
ATTITUDE. ::: A glad and strong and helpful submission is demanded to the working of the Divine Force, the obedience of the illumined disciple of the Truth, of the inner Warrior who fights against obscurity and falsehood, of the faithful servant of the Divine.
augustinism ::: n. --> The doctrines held by Augustine or by the Augustinians.
aureole ::: n. --> A celestial crown or accidental glory added to the bliss of heaven, as a reward to those (as virgins, martyrs, preachers, etc.) who have overcome the world, the flesh, and the devil.
The circle of rays, or halo of light, with which painters surround the figure and represent the glory of Christ, saints, and others held in special reverence.
A halo, actual or figurative.
See Areola, 2.
auricula ::: n. --> A species of Primula, or primrose, called also, from the shape of its leaves, bear&
auriculated ::: a. --> Having ears or appendages like ears; eared. Esp.: (a) (Bot.) Having lobes or appendages like the ear; shaped like the ear; auricled. (b) (Zool.) Having an angular projection on one or both sides, as in certain bivalve shells, the foot of some gastropods, etc.
auto-da-fe ::: n. --> A judgment of the Inquisition in Spain and Portugal condemning or acquitting persons accused of religious offenses.
An execution of such sentence, by the civil power, esp. the burning of a heretic. It was usually held on Sunday, and was made a great public solemnity by impressive forms and ceremonies.
A session of the court of Inquisition.
AUTO-SUGGESTIONS. ::: Auto-suggestions- it is really faith in a mental form - act both on the subliminal and the subconscient. In the subliminal they set in action the powers of the inner being, its occult power to make thought, will or simple conscious force effective on the body - in the subconscient they silence or block the suggestions of death and illness (expressed or unexpressed) that prevent the return of health. They help also to combat the same things (adverse suggestions) in the mind, vital, body consciousness. Where all this is completely done or with some completeness, the effects can be very remarkable.
auxiliarly ::: adv. --> By way of help.
auxiliary ::: a. --> Conferring aid or help; helping; aiding; assisting; subsidiary; as auxiliary troops. ::: n. --> A helper; an assistant; a confederate in some action or enterprise.
Foreign troops in the service of a nation at war;
auxiliatory ::: a. --> Auxiliary; helping.
avail ::: v. t. --> To turn to the advantage of; to be of service to; to profit; to benefit; to help; as, artifices will not avail the sinner in the day of judgment.
To promote; to assist. ::: v. i. --> To be of use or advantage; to answer the purpose; to have
aventail ::: n. --> The movable front to a helmet; the ventail.
averroist ::: n. --> One of a sect of peripatetic philosophers, who appeared in Italy before the restoration of learning; so denominated from Averroes, or Averrhoes, a celebrated Arabian philosopher. He held the doctrine of monopsychism.
awe ::: an overwhelming feeling of reverence, admiration, fear, etc., produced by that which is grand, sublime, extremely powerful, or the like.
aweather ::: adv. --> On the weather side, or toward the wind; in the direction from which the wind blows; -- opposed to alee; as, helm aweather!
awning ::: n. --> A rooflike cover, usually of canvas, extended over or before any place as a shelter from the sun, rain, or wind.
That part of the poop deck which is continued forward beyond the bulkhead of the cabin.
axe ::: n. --> A tool or instrument of steel, or of iron with a steel edge or blade, for felling trees, chopping and splitting wood, hewing timber, etc. It is wielded by a wooden helve or handle, so fixed in a socket or eye as to be in the same plane with the blade. The broadax, or carpenter&
axle guard ::: --> The part of the framing of a railway car or truck, by which an axle box is held laterally, and in which it may move vertically; -- also called a jaw in the United States, and a housing in England.
babel ::: “The legend of the Tower of Babel speaks of the diversity of tongues as a curse laid on the race; but whatever its disadvantages, and they tend more and more to be minimised by the growth of civilisation and increasing intercourse, it has been rather a blessing than a curse, a gift to mankind rather than a disability laid upon it. The purposeless exaggeration of anything is always an evil, and an excessive pullulation of varying tongues that serve no purpose in the expression of a real diversity of spirit and culture is certainly a stumbling-block rather than a help: but this excess, though it existed in the past, is hardly a possibility of the future. The tendency is rather in the opposite direction. In former times diversity of language helped to create a barrier to knowledge and sympathy, was often made the pretext even of an actual antipathy and tended to a too rigid division. The lack of sufficient interpenetration kept up both a passive want of understanding and a fruitful crop of active misunderstandings. But this was an inevitable evil of a particular stage of growth, an exaggeration of the necessity that then existed for the vigorous development of strongly individualised group-souls in the human race. These disadvantages have not yet been abolished, but with closer intercourse and the growing desire of men and nations for the knowledge of each other’s thought and spirit and personality, they have diminished and tend to diminish more and more and there is no reason why in the end they should not become inoperative.” The Human Cycle
babel ::: "The reference is to the mythological story of the construction of the Tower of Babel, which appears to be an attempt to explain the diversity of human languages. According to Genesis, the Babylonians wanted to make a name for themselves by building a mighty city and tower ‘with its top in the heavens". God disrupted the work by so confusing the language of the workers that they could no longer understand one another. The tower was never completed and the people were dispersed over the face of the earth.” (Encyclopaedia Britannica) Glossary and Index of Proper Names in Sri Aurobindo"s Works Sri Aurobindo: "The legend of the Tower of Babel speaks of the diversity of tongues as a curse laid on the race; but whatever its disadvantages, and they tend more and more to be minimised by the growth of civilisation and increasing intercourse, it has been rather a blessing than a curse, a gift to mankind rather than a disability laid upon it. The purposeless exaggeration of anything is always an evil, and an excessive pullulation of varying tongues that serve no purpose in the expression of a real diversity of spirit and culture is certainly a stumbling-block rather than a help: but this excess, though it existed in the past, is hardly a possibility of the future. The tendency is rather in the opposite direction. In former times diversity of language helped to create a barrier to knowledge and sympathy, was often made the pretext even of an actual antipathy and tended to a too rigid division. The lack of sufficient interpenetration kept up both a passive want of understanding and a fruitful crop of active misunderstandings. But this was an inevitable evil of a particular stage of growth, an exaggeration of the necessity that then existed for the vigorous development of strongly individualised group-souls in the human race. These disadvantages have not yet been abolished, but with closer intercourse and the growing desire of men and nations for the knowledge of each other"s thought and spirit and personality, they have diminished and tend to diminish more and more and there is no reason why in the end they should not become inoperative.” The Human Cycle
baby jumper ::: --> A hoop suspended by an elastic strap, in which a young child may be held secure while amusing itself by jumping on the floor.
bachelordom ::: n. --> The state of bachelorhood; the whole body of bachelors.
bachelorhood ::: n. --> The state or condition of being a bachelor; bachelorship.
bachelorism ::: n. --> Bachelorhood; also, a manner or peculiarity belonging to bachelors.
bachelor ::: n. --> A man of any age who has not been married.
An unmarried woman.
A person who has taken the first or lowest degree in the liberal arts, or in some branch of science, at a college or university; as, a bachelor of arts.
A knight who had no standard of his own, but fought under the standard of another in the field; often, a young knight.
In the companies of London tradesmen, one not yet
bachelorship ::: n. --> The state of being a bachelor.
bachelry ::: n. --> The body of young aspirants for knighthood.
baccalaureate ::: n. --> The degree of bachelor of arts. (B.A. or A.B.), the first or lowest academical degree conferred by universities and colleges.
A baccalaureate sermon. ::: a. --> Pertaining to a bachelor of arts.
bagatelle ::: n. --> A trifle; a thing of no importance.
A game played on an oblong board, having, at one end, cups or arches into or through which balls are to be driven by a rod held in the hand of the player.
baggage ::: n. --> The clothes, tents, utensils, and provisions of an army.
The trunks, valises, satchels, etc., which a traveler carries with him on a journey; luggage.
Purulent matter.
Trashy talk.
A man of bad character.
A woman of loose morals; a prostitute.
A romping, saucy girl.
bagnio ::: n. --> A house for bathing, sweating, etc.; -- also, in Turkey, a prison for slaves.
A brothel; a stew; a house of prostitution.
bairam ::: n. --> The name of two Mohammedan festivals, of which one is held at the close of the fast called Ramadan, and the other seventy days after the fast.
balanite ::: n. --> A fossil balanoid shell.
balanoid ::: a. --> Resembling an acorn; -- applied to a group of barnacles having shells shaped like acorns. See Acornshell, and Barnacle.
balloon ::: n. --> A bag made of silk or other light material, and filled with hydrogen gas or heated air, so as to rise and float in the atmosphere; especially, one with a car attached for aerial navigation.
A ball or globe on the top of a pillar, church, etc., as at St. Paul&
banquette ::: n. --> A raised way or foot bank, running along the inside of a parapet, on which musketeers stand to fire upon the enemy.
A narrow window seat; a raised shelf at the back or the top of a buffet or dresser.
banyan ::: n. --> A tree of the same genus as the common fig, and called the Indian fig (Ficus Indica), whose branches send shoots to the ground, which take root and become additional trunks, until it may be the tree covers some acres of ground and is able to shelter thousands of men.
barmote ::: n. --> A court held in Derbyshire, in England, for deciding controversies between miners.
barns ::: a large farm building used for storing farm products and sheltering livestock.
barony ::: n. --> The fee or domain of a baron; the lordship, dignity, or rank of a baron.
In Ireland, a territorial division, corresponding nearly to the English hundred, and supposed to have been originally the district of a native chief. There are 252 of these baronies. In Scotland, an extensive freehold. It may be held by a commoner.
barrage ::: an overwhelming quantity or explosion as of artillery fire, words, blows, or criticisms.
barth ::: n. --> A place of shelter for cattle.
bascinet ::: n. --> A light helmet, at first open, but later made with a visor.
basilica ::: n. --> Originally, the place of a king; but afterward, an apartment provided in the houses of persons of importance, where assemblies were held for dispensing justice; and hence, any large hall used for this purpose.
A building used by the Romans as a place of public meeting, with court rooms, etc., attached.
A church building of the earlier centuries of Christianity, the plan of which was taken from the basilica of the
baste ::: v. t. --> To beat with a stick; to cudgel.
To sprinkle flour and salt and drip butter or fat on, as on meat in roasting.
To mark with tar, as sheep.
To sew loosely, or with long stitches; -- usually, that the work may be held in position until sewed more firmly.
battery ::: v. t. --> The act of battering or beating.
The unlawful beating of another. It includes every willful, angry and violent, or negligent touching of another&
bawdyhouse ::: n. --> A house of prostitution; a house of ill fame; a brothel.
beak ::: n. --> The bill or nib of a bird, consisting of a horny sheath, covering the jaws. The form varied much according to the food and habits of the bird, and is largely used in the classification of birds.
A similar bill in other animals, as the turtles.
The long projecting sucking mouth of some insects, and other invertebrates, as in the Hemiptera.
The upper or projecting part of the shell, near the hinge of a bivalve.
beard ::: n. --> The hair that grows on the chin, lips, and adjacent parts of the human face, chiefly of male adults.
The long hairs about the face in animals, as in the goat.
The cluster of small feathers at the base of the beak in some birds
The appendages to the jaw in some Cetacea, and to the mouth or jaws of some fishes.
The byssus of certain shellfish, as the muscle.
beaver ::: n. --> An amphibious rodent, of the genus Castor.
The fur of the beaver.
A hat, formerly made of the fur of the beaver, but now usually of silk.
Beaver cloth, a heavy felted woolen cloth, used chiefly for making overcoats.
That piece of armor which protected the lower part of the face, whether forming a part of the helmet or fixed to the breastplate.
beheld ::: --> imp. & p. p. of Behold. ::: imp. & p. p. --> of Behold
beheld ::: pt. of behold.
bedplate ::: n. --> The foundation framing or piece, by which the other parts are supported and held in place; the bed; -- called also baseplate and soleplate.
beetlehead ::: n. --> A stupid fellow; a blockhead.
The black-bellied plover, or bullhead (Squatarola helvetica). See Plover.
beild ::: n. --> A place of shelter; protection; refuge.
belemnite ::: n. --> A conical calcareous fossil, tapering to a point at the lower extremity, with a conical cavity at the other end, where it is ordinarily broken; but when perfect it contains a small chambered cone, called the phragmocone, prolonged, on one side, into a delicate concave blade; the thunderstone. It is the internal shell of a cephalopod related to the sepia, and belonging to an extinct family. The belemnites are found in rocks of the Jurassic and Cretaceous ages.
belief ::: 1. Confidence in the truth or existence of something not immediately susceptible to rigorous proof. 2. Trust or confidence, faith. 3. Something believed; an opinion or conviction. beliefs.
Question: "Sweet Mother, l don"t understand very clearly the difference between faith, belief and confidence.”
Mother: "But Sri Aurobindo has given the full explanation here. If you don"t understand, then. . . He has written ‘Faith is a feeling in the whole being." The whole being, yes. Faith, that"s the whole being at once. He says that belief is something that occurs in the head, that is purely mental; and confidence is quite different. Confidence, one can have confidence in life, trust in the Divine, trust in others, trust in one"s own destiny, that is, one has the feeling that everything is going to help him, to do what he wants to do. Faith is a certitude without any proof. Words of the Mother, MCW Vol. 6.
bellerophon ::: n. --> A genus of fossil univalve shells, believed to belong to the Heteropoda, peculiar to the Paleozoic age.
beneficial ::: a. --> Conferring benefits; useful; profitable; helpful; advantageous; serviceable; contributing to a valuable end; -- followed by to.
Receiving, or entitled to have or receive, advantage, use, or benefit; as, the beneficial owner of an estate.
King.
beneficially ::: adv. --> In a beneficial or advantageous manner; profitably; helpfully.
bergander ::: n. --> A European duck (Anas tadorna). See Sheldrake.
bergmeal ::: n. --> An earthy substance, resembling fine flour. It is composed of the shells of infusoria, and in Lapland and Sweden is sometimes eaten, mixed with flour or ground birch bark, in times of scarcity. This name is also given to a white powdery variety of calcite.
berlin ::: n. --> A four-wheeled carriage, having a sheltered seat behind the body and separate from it, invented in the 17th century, at Berlin.
Fine worsted for fancy-work; zephyr worsted; -- called also Berlin wool.
berme ::: n. --> A narrow shelf or path between the bottom of a parapet and the ditch.
A ledge at the bottom of a bank or cutting, to catch earth that may roll down the slope, or to strengthen the bank.
berth ::: n. --> Convenient sea room.
A room in which a number of the officers or ship&
bescreen ::: v. t. --> To cover with a screen, or as with a screen; to shelter; to conceal.
Besides these transcriptions or impresses the psychical vision receives thought Images and other forms created by constant activity of consciousaess in ourselves or in other human beings, and these may be according to the character of the activity, images of truth or falsehood or else mixed things, partly true, partly false, and may be too either mere shells and representa- tions or images inspired wth a temporary life and consciousness and, it may be, canjing in them in one way or another some kind of beneficent or maleficent action or some willed or unwilled effectiveness on our minds or vital being or through them e^'cn on the body. These transcriptions, impresses, thought images, life images, projections of the consciousness may also be representa- tions or creations not of the physical wxtrJd, but of vital, psychic or mental worlds beyond us, seen in our own minds or projected from other than human beings. And as there is this psychical vision of which some of the more cxremaf ana’ ordinary marrr- festaUons arc well enough known by the name of clairvoyance, so there is a psychical hearing and psychical touch, taste, smell
bethel ::: n. --> A place of worship; a hallowed spot.
A chapel for dissenters.
A house of worship for seamen.
betel ::: n. --> A species of pepper (Piper betle), the leaves of which are chewed, with the areca or betel nut and a little shell lime, by the inhabitants of the East Indies. It is a woody climber with ovate many-nerved leaves.
betel nut ::: --> The nutlike seed of the areca palm, chewed in the East with betel leaves (whence its name) and shell lime.
::: hell and heaven
hell and heaven
hell-hound
hell ::: the abode of condemned souls and devils in some religions; the place of eternal punishment for the wicked after death. hell"s, hells.
hell ::: “What is meant by hell is a painful passage through the vital or lingering there, as for instance, in many cases of suicide where one remains surrounded by the forces of suffering and turmoil created by this unnatural and violent exit.” Letters on Yoga
helpless ::: adj. **1. Deprived of strength or power; powerless; incapacitated. 2.* Unable to help oneself; weak or dependent. adv. helplessly. n.* helplessness.
' help ’ others ; do and speak yourself the right thing from the inner poise and leave the help to come to them from the Divine.
bield ::: n. --> A shelter. Same as Beild. ::: v. t. --> To shelter.
bill holder ::: --> A person who holds a bill or acceptance.
A device by means of which bills, etc., are held.
bimarginate ::: a. --> Having a double margin, as certain shells.
binnacle ::: n. --> A case or box placed near the helmsman, containing the compass of a ship, and a light to show it at night.
bipeltate ::: a. --> Having a shell or covering like a double shield.
bitternut ::: n. --> The swamp hickory (Carya amara). Its thin-shelled nuts are bitter.
bivalve ::: n. --> A mollusk having a shell consisting of two lateral plates or valves joined together by an elastic ligament at the hinge, which is usually strengthened by prominences called teeth. The shell is closed by the contraction of two transverse muscles attached to the inner surface, as in the clam, -- or by one, as in the oyster. See Mollusca.
A pericarp in which the seed case opens or splits into two parts or valves.
bivouac ("s) ::: a temporary camp with shelters such as tents, as used by soldiers or mountaineers, often unprotected from an enemy.
blacksmith ::: n. --> A smith who works in iron with a forge, and makes iron utensils, horseshoes, etc.
A fish of the Pacific coast (Chromis, / Heliastes, punctipinnis), of a blackish color.
blamed ::: found fault with; censured; held responsible.
blaspheme ::: v. --> To speak of, or address, with impious irreverence; to revile impiously (anything sacred); as, to blaspheme the Holy Spirit.
Figuratively, of persons and things not religiously sacred, but held in high honor: To calumniate; to revile; to abuse. ::: v. i. --> To utter blasphemy.
blasphemy ::: n. --> An indignity offered to God in words, writing, or signs; impiously irreverent words or signs addressed to, or used in reference to, God; speaking evil of God; also, the act of claiming the attributes or prerogatives of deity.
Figuratively, of things held in high honor: Calumny; abuse; vilification.
blaze ::: n. --> A stream of gas or vapor emitting light and heat in the process of combustion; a bright flame.
Intense, direct light accompanied with heat; as, to seek shelter from the blaze of the sun.
A bursting out, or active display of any quality; an outburst; a brilliant display.
A white spot on the forehead of a horse.
A spot made on trees by chipping off a piece of the bark,
blaze of intimate truth-perception is lit in its depths. This close perception is more than sight, more than conception: it is the result of a penetrating and revealing touch which carries in it sight and conception as part of itself or as its natural consequence. A concealed or slumbering identity, not yet recovering itself, still remembers or conveys by the intuition its own contents and the intimacy of its self-feeling and self-vision of things, its light of truth, its overwhelming and automatic certitude.” The Life Divine
bleak ::: 1. Exposed to the elements; unsheltered and barren; desolate; cold and cutting; raw, windswept. 2. Offering little or no hope or encouragement.
blinded ::: 1. Sightless; deprived of sight or withheld the light from. 2. Fig. Unable or unwilling to perceive or understand, lacking in perception or foresight; deprived or destitute of spiritual light or guidance. thought-blinded.
blithely ::: adv. --> In a blithe manner.
bloodstone ::: n. --> A green siliceous stone sprinkled with red jasper, as if with blood; hence the name; -- called also heliotrope.
Hematite, an ore of iron yielding a blood red powder or "streak."
board ::: n. --> A piece of timber sawed thin, and of considerable length and breadth as compared with the thickness, -- used for building, etc.
A table to put food upon.
Hence: What is served on a table as food; stated meals; provision; entertainment; -- usually as furnished for pay; as, to work for one&
boathouse ::: n. --> A house for sheltering boats.
boat shell ::: --> A marine gastropod of the genus Crepidula. The species are numerous. It is so named from its form and interior deck.
A marine univalve shell of the genus Cymba.
bockland ::: n. --> See Bookland.
Charter land held by deed under certain rents and free services, which differed in nothing from free socage lands. This species of tenure has given rise to the modern freeholds.
boll ::: n. --> The pod or capsule of a plant, as of flax or cotton; a pericarp of a globular form.
A Scotch measure, formerly in use: for wheat and beans it contained four Winchester bushels; for oats, barley, and potatoes, six bushels. A boll of meal is 140 lbs. avoirdupois. Also, a measure for salt of two bushels. ::: v. i.
bollworm ::: n. --> The larva of a moth (Heliothis armigera) which devours the bolls or unripe pods of the cotton plant, often doing great damage to the crops.
bolstered ::: imp. & p. p. --> of Bolster ::: a. --> Supported; upheld.
Swelled out.
Both for fevers and for mental trouble sleep is a great help and its absenoe very undesirable ; it is thd loss of a curative
bundles ::: a group of objects held together, as by tying or wrapping; packages.
But still it is the personal effort that Is prominent and assumes most of the burden. The other way is that of the psychic being, the consciousness opening to the Divine, not only opening the psychic and bringing it forward, but opening the mind, the vital and the physical, receiving the Light, perceiving what is to be done, feeling and seeing it done by the Divine Force itself and helping constantly by its own vigilant and conscious assent to and call for the Divine working.
"But the Titan will have nothing of all this; it is too great and subtle for his comprehension. His instincts call for a visible, tangible mastery and a sensational domination. How shall he feel sure of his empire unless he can feel something writhing helpless under his heel, — if in agony, so much the better? What is exploitation to him, unless it diminishes the exploited? To be able to coerce, exact, slay, overtly, irresistibly, — it is this that fills him with the sense of glory and dominion. For he is the son of division and the strong flowering of the Ego. To feel the comparative limitation of others is necessary to him that he may imagine himself immeasurable; for he has not the real, self-existent sense of infinity which no outward circumstance can abrogate. Contrast, division, negation of the wills and lives of others are essential to his self-development and self-assertion. The Titan would unify by devouring, not by harmonising; he must conquer and trample what is not himself either out of existence or into subservience so that his own image may stand out stamped upon all things and dominating all his environment.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
“But when I speak of the Divine Will, I mean something different,—something that has descended here into an evolutionary world of Ignorance, standing at the back of things, pressing on the Darkness with its Light, leading things presently towards the best possible in the conditions of a world of Ignorance and leading it eventually towards a descent of a greater power of the Divine, which will be not an omnipotence held back and conditioned by the law of the world as it is, but in full action and therefore bringing the reign of light, peace, harmony, joy, love, beauty and Ananda, for these are the Divine Nature.” Letters on Yoga
camp ::: n. 1. A place where tents, huts, or other temporary shelters are set up, as by soldiers, nomads, or travelers. 2. The people using such shelters. 3. Temporary living quarters for soldiers or prisoners. v. 4. To make or set up a camp. or to live temporarily in or as if in a camp or outdoors. 5. To settle down securely and comfortably; become ensconced. camps, camped.
captive ::: n. 1. One, such as a prisoner of war, who is forcibly confined, subjugated, or enslaved. captives. v. 2. Those taken and held as a prisoners. captived. adj. 3. Kept under restraint or control; confined. 4. Enraptured, as by beauty; captivated.
cellar ::: an underground shelter, as from storms. cellars.
cherished ::: treated with affection and tenderness; held dear.
CIRCUMSTANCES. ::: When someone is destined for the Path, all circumstances, through all deviations of mind and life, help in one way or another to lead him to it. It is his own psychic being within him and Divine Power above that use to that end the vicissitudes both of mind and outward circumstance.
clustering ::: a number of things of the same kind, growing or held together; a bunch. 2. A group of things or persons close together.
colonist ::: a person who settles in a new colony or moves into and helps found a colony or new country.
common estimation or opinion generally held of a person or thing; reputation. (when capitalized often [quasi-] personified). Fame.
CONCENTRATION ::: Fixing the consciousness in one place or on one object and in a single condition.
A gathering together of the consciousness and either centralising at one point or turning on a single object, e.g. the Divine; there can also be a gathered condition throughout the whole being, not at a point.
Concentration is necessary, first to turn the whole will and mind from the discursive divagation natural to them, following a dispersed movement of the thoughts, running after many-branching desires, led away in the track of the senses and the outward mental response to phenomena; we have to fix the will and the thought on the eternal and real behind all, and this demands an immense effort, a one-pointed concentration. Secondly, it is necessary in order to break down the veil which is erected by our ordinary mentality between ourselves and the truth; for outer knowledge can be picked up by the way, by ordinary attention and reception, but the inner, hidden and higher truth can only be seized by an absolute concentration of the mind on its object, an absolute concentration of the will to attain it and, once attained, to hold it habitually and securely unite oneself with it.
Centre of Concentration: The two main places where one can centre the consciousness for yoga are in the head and in the heart - the mind-centre and the soul-centre.
Brain concentration is always a tapasyā and necessarily brings a strain. It is only if one is lifted out of the brain mind altogether that the strain of mental concentration disappears.
At the top of the head or above it is the right place for yogic concentration in reading or thinking.
In whatever centre the concentration takes place, the yoga force generated extends to the others and produces concentration or workings there.
Modes of Concentration: There is no harm in concentrating sometimes in the heart and sometimes above the head. But concentration in either place does not mean keeping the attention fixed on a particular spot; you have to take your station of consciousness in either place and concentrate there not on the place, but on the Divine. This can be done with eyes shut or with eyes open, according as it best suits.
If one concentrates on a thought or a word, one has to dwell on the essential idea contained in the word with the aspiration to feel the thing which it expresses.
There is no method in this yoga except to concentrate, preferably in the heart, and call the presence and power of the Mother to take up the being and by the workings of her force to transform the consciousness; one can concentrate also in the head or between the eye-brows, but for many this is a too difficult opening. When the mind falls quiet and the concentration becomes strong and the aspiration intense, then there is a beginning of experience. The more the faith, the more rapid the result is likely to be.
Powers (three) of Concentration ::: By concentration on anything whatsoever we are able to know that thing, to make it deliver up its concealed secrets; we must use this power to know not things, but the one Thing-in-itself. By concentration again the whole will can be gathered up for the acquisition of that which is still ungrasped, still beyond us; this power, if it is sufficiently trained, sufficiently single-minded, sufficiently sincere, sure of itself, faithful to itself alone, absolute in faith, we can use for the acquisition of any object whatsoever; but we ought to use it not for the acquisition of the many objects which the world offers to us, but to grasp spiritually that one object worthy of pursuit which is also the one subject worthy of knowledge. By concentration of our whole being on one status of itself we can become whatever we choose ; we can become, for instance, even if we were before a mass of weaknesses and fears, a mass instead of strength and courage, or we can become all a great purity, holiness and peace or a single universal soul of Love ; but we ought, it is said, to use this power to become not even these things, high as they may be in comparison with what we now are, but rather to become that which is above all things and free from all action and attributes, the pure and absolute Being. All else, all other concentration can only be valuable for preparation, for previous steps, for a gradual training of the dissolute and self-dissipating thought, will and being towards their grand and unique object.
Stages in Concentration (Rajayogic) ::: that in which the object is seized, that in which it is held, that in which the mind is lost in the status which the object represents or to which the concentration leads.
Concentration and Meditation ::: Concentration means fixing the consciousness in one place or one object and in a single condition Meditation can be diffusive,e.g. thinking about the Divine, receiving impressions and discriminating, watching what goes on in the nature and acting upon it etc. Meditation is when the inner mind is looking at things to get the right knowledge.
vide Dhyāna.
conch-shells :: 1. The spiral shell of a gastropod, often used as a horn. 2. The fabled shell trumpet of the Tritons.
Conditions essfntitd for meditation ::: There are no essential external conditions, but solitude and seclusion at the time of meditation as as stillness of the body arc helpful, sometimes almost necessary to the beginner. Bui one should not bound b' external conditions. Once the habit of meditation is formed, it should be mads possible to do it in all circumstances, l.ving. sitting, walking, alone, in company, in silettce or in the midst of noise etc. The first imeroal condition necessary is concentration of the will against the obstacles to meditation. i.e. wandermg of the mind, forgetfulness, sfeep, phjsieal and nervous impatience and restlessness etc. The second is an increasing purity and calm of the inner consciousness (citia) out of which thought and emotion arise, i.e. a freedom frona all disturb i ng reactions, such as anger, grief, depression, anxiet>' about w-orldly happenings etc. Mental perfection and moral are always closely allied to each other.
CONFESSION. ::: Helps to purge the consciousness of ham- pering elements and clears the inner air and makes for a closer and more intimate relation between the Guru and the disciple.
Consecration vs. Conversion ::: Conversion is a spontaneous movement of the consciousness, a turning of it away from external things towards the Divine. It comes as well as is the result of a touch from within and above. Self-consecration may help one to open to the touch or the touch may come of itself.
contents ::: things contained or held, as in a receptacle. Often used in the plural.
conviction ::: “Conviction—intellectual belief held on what seems to be good reasons.” Letters on Yoga
CONVICTION. ::: Intellectual belief held on what seems to be good reasons.
cosmic mind ::: Sri Aurobindo: "Nevertheless, the fact of this intervention from above, the fact that behind all our original thinking or authentic perception of things there is a veiled, a half-veiled or a swift unveiled intuitive element is enough to establish a connection between mind and what is above it; it opens a passage of communication and of entry into the superior spirit-ranges. There is also the reaching out of mind to exceed the personal ego limitation, to see things in a certain impersonality and universality. Impersonality is the first character of cosmic self; universality, non-limitation by the single or limiting point of view, is the character of cosmic perception and knowledge: this tendency is therefore a widening, however rudimentary, of these restricted mind areas towards cosmicity, towards a quality which is the very character of the higher mental planes, — towards that superconscient cosmic Mind which, we have suggested, must in the nature of things be the original mind-action of which ours is only a derivative and inferior process.” *The Life Divine
"If we accept the Vedic image of the Sun of Truth, . . . we may compare the action of the Higher Mind to a composed and steady sunshine, the energy of the Illumined Mind beyond it to an outpouring of massive lightnings of flaming sun-stuff. Still beyond can be met a yet greater power of the Truth-Force, an intimate and exact Truth-vision, Truth-thought, Truth-sense, Truth-feeling, Truth-action, to which we can give in a special sense the name of Intuition; . . . At the source of this Intuition we discover a superconscient cosmic Mind in direct contact with the supramental Truth-Consciousness, an original intensity determinant of all movements below it and all mental energies, — not Mind as we know it, but an Overmind that covers as with the wide wings of some creative Oversoul this whole lower hemisphere of Knowledge-Ignorance, links it with that greater Truth-Consciousness while yet at the same time with its brilliant golden Lid it veils the face of the greater Truth from our sight, intervening with its flood of infinite possibilities as at once an obstacle and a passage in our seeking of the spiritual law of our existence, its highest aim, its secret Reality.” The Life Divine
"There is one cosmic Mind, one cosmic Life, one cosmic Body. All the attempt of man to arrive at universal sympathy, universal love and the understanding and knowledge of the inner soul of other existences is an attempt to beat thin, breach and eventually break down by the power of the enlarging mind and heart the walls of the ego and arrive nearer to a cosmic oneness.” *The Synthesis of Yoga
"[The results of the opening to the cosmic Mind:] One is aware of the cosmic Mind and the mental forces that move there and how they work on one"s mind and that of others and one is able to deal with one"s own mind with a greater knowledge and effective power. There are many other results, but this is the fundamental one.” Letters on Yoga
"The cosmic consciousness has many levels — the cosmic physical, the cosmic vital, the cosmic Mind, and above the higher planes of cosmic Mind there is the Intuition and above that the overmind and still above that the supermind where the Transcendental begins. In order to live in the Intuition plane (not merely to receive intuitions), one has to live in the cosmic consciousness because there the cosmic and individual run into each other as it were, and the mental separation between them is already broken down, so nobody can reach there who is still in the separative ego.” Letters on Yoga*
covert ::: 1. Secret or hidden from view or knowledge; not openly practiced or engaged in, shown or avowed. 2. Concealment; secrecy. 3. A covered place or shelter; hiding place.
dazzled ::: 1. Overpowered or dimmed the vision of (someone) by intense light. 2. Impressed deeply; awed, overwhelmed. 3. Overpowered by light.
den ::: 1. The shelter or retreat of a wild animal; a lair. 2. A cave used as a place of shelter or concealment. 3. A squalid or vile abode or place.
::: ". . . desire, wrath and greed, the three powers of the rajasic ego, and these are the threefold doors of Hell. . . .” Essays on the Gita
“… desire, wrath and greed, the three powers of the rajasic ego, and these are the threefold doors of Hell….” Essays on the Gita
destiny ::: “Destiny in the rigid sense applies only to the outer being so long as it lives in the Ignorance. What we call destiny is only in fact the result of the present condition of the being and the nature and energies it has accumulated in the past acting on each other and determining the present attempts and their future results. But as soon as one enters the path of spiritual life, this old predetermined destiny begins to recede. There comes in a new factor, the Divine Grace, the help of a higher Divine Force other than the force of Karma, which can lift the sadhak beyond the present possibilities of his nature. One’s spiritual destiny is then the divine election which ensures the future.” Letters on Yoga
DESTINY. ::: Destiny in the ripd sense applies only to the outer being so long as it lives in the Ignorance. What we call destiny is only in fact the result of the present condition of the being and the nature and energies it has accumulated in the past acting on each other and detenmning the present attempts and their future results. But as soon as one enters the path of spiri- tual life, this old predetermined destiny begins to recede. There comes in a new factor, the Divine Grace, the help of a higher
Discovered suddenly Hell"s trademark there.
Discovered suddenly Hell’s trademark there.
DISCUSSIONS. ::: They usually bring on the sadhaka a stress of the opposing atmosphere and cannot be helpful to his pro- gress. Reserve is the best attitude.
Divine, a protection can come which helps or directly guides or mo^es us ; it does not throw aside all difficulties, sufferings or dangers, but it carries us through them and out of them — except where for a special purpose there is need of the opposite.
Divine Will is something that has descended here into an evolutionary world of Ignorance, standing at the back of things, pressing on the ‘Darkness with its Light, leading things presently towards the best possible in the conditions of a world of Ignorance and leading it eventually towards a descent of a greater power of the Divine, which will be not an omnipotence held back and conditioned by the law of the world as it is, but in full action and therefore bringing the reign of light, peace, harmony, joy, love, beauty, and Ananda, for these arc the Divine Nature.
dragonflies ::: any of various large insects of the order Odonata or suborder Anisoptera, having a long slender body and two pairs of narrow, net-veined wings that are usually held outstretched while the insect is at rest.
dread ::: n. **1. Profound fear; terror. 2. An object of fear, awe, or reverence. v. 3. To be in fear or terror of. 4. To anticipate with alarm, distaste, or reluctance. adj. 5. Fearful terrible; causing terror. 6. Held in awe or reverential fear. Dread, dreads, dreaded.**
drown ::: fig. To overwhelm or smother; to immerse, inundate, flood. drowned.
drowning ::: something that is overwhelming or overpowering.
Ecstasy ::: “It has been held that ecstasy is a lower and transient passage, the peace of the Supreme is the supreme realisation, the consummate abiding experience. This may be true on the spiritual-mind plane: there the first ecstasy felt is indeed a spiritual rapture, but it can be and is very usually mingled with a supreme happiness of the vital parts taken up by the Spirit; there is an exaltation, exultation, excitement, a highest intensity of the joy of the heart and the pure inner soul-sensation that can be a splendid passage or an uplifting force but is not the ultimate permanent foundation. But in the highest ascents of the spiritual bliss there is not this vehement exaltation and excitement; there is instead an illimitable intensity of participation in an eternal ecstasy which is founded on the eternal Existence and therefore on a beatific tranquillity of eternal peace. Peace and ecstasy cease to be different and become one. The Supermind, reconciling and fusing all differences as well as all contradictions, brings out this unity; a wide calm and a deep delight of all-existence are among its first steps of self-realisation, but this calm and this delight rise together, as one state, into an increasing intensity and culminate in the eternal ecstasy, the bliss that is the Infinite.” The Life Divine
EMANATION. ::: An emanation of the Mother is something of her consciousness and power put forth from her which, so long as it is in play, is held in close connection with her and, when its play is no longer required, is withdrawn back into its source, but can always be put out and brought into play once more. But also the detaining thread of connection can be severed and loosened and that came iorth as am tTnanation can
EMOTION, Emotion h a good element in yoga ; but emo- tional desire becomes easily a cause of perturbation and an obstacle. Turn your emotions towards the Divine, aspire for their purification ; they will then become a help and no longer a cause of suffering.
emotion ::: “Emotion itself is not a bad thing; it is a necessary part of the nature, and psychic emotion is one of the most powerful helps to the sadhana. Psychic emotion, bringing tears of love for the Divine or tears of Ananda, ought not to be suppressed: …” Letters on Yoga
"Emotion is a good element in yoga; but emotional desire becomes easily a cause of perturbation and an obstacle. Turn your emotions towards the Divine, aspire for their purification; they will then become a help on the way and no longer a cause of suffering.” Letters on Yoga*
“Emotion is a good element in yoga; but emotional desire becomes easily a cause of perturbation and an obstacle. Turn your emotions towards the Divine, aspire for their purification; they will then become a help on the way and no longer a cause of suffering.” Letters on Yoga
ENERGIES. ::: All energies put info activity — thought, speech, feeling, act — go to constitute Karma. These things help to develop the nature in one direction or Another, and the nature and Us actions and reactions produce their consequences inward and outward ::: they also act on others and create movements in the general sum of forces which can return upon oneself sooner or later. Thoughts unexpressed can also go out as forces and produce their elTccts. It Is a mistake to think that a thought or will can have effect only when it is expressed in speech or act ::: the unspoken thought, the unexpressed w-ill arc also active energies and can produce their own vibrations, effects or reac- tions.
engulfed ::: swallowed up or overwhelmed by or as if by overflowing and enclosing. engulfing.
ensleeved ::: A word coined by Sri Aurobindo. The prefix en, occurring originally in loanwords from French, forms verbs with the general sense “to cause (a person or thing) to be in” a place, condition, or state. Hence, ensleeved in this instance is “held within a sleeve”.
ensleeved ::: a word coined by Sri Aurobindo. The prefix en, occurring originally in loanwords from French, forms verbs with the general sense "to cause (a person or thing) to be in” a place, condition, or state. Hence, ensleeved in this instance is "held within a sleeve”.
Entire physical retirement is seWom heafthy,' aMougft a tempo- rary retirement is often helpfuL But the main thing is the inner detachment and complete tnniing to the Divine. ‘
Equality means another thing — to have an equal view of men and their nature and acts and the forces that move them ; it helps one to see tlte truth about them by pushing away from the mind all personal feeling in one’s seeing and judgment and even all the mental bias. Personal feeling always distorts and makes one see in men’s actions, not only the actions themselves, but things behind them which, more often than not, are not there.
estranged ::: kept at a distance; withdrawn; withheld; displaying or evincing a feeling of alienation.
Experiences of sounds, lights etc . ::: The sounds of bells and the seeing of lights and colours are signs of the opening of the inner consciousness which brings with it an opening also to sights and sounds of other planes than the physical. Some of these things like the sound of bells, crickets, etc. seem even to help the opening.
Faith — fouf kinds ::: Mental fmth combats doubt and helps to open to the true knowledge ; \Ual faith prevents the attacks of the hostile forces or defeats them and helps to open to the true spiritual will and action ; physical faith keeps one firm through all physical obscurity, inertia or suffering and helps to open to the foundation of the true consciousness ; psychic faith
::: **"Fear and anxiety are perverse forms of will. What thou fearest & ponderest over, striking that note repeatedly in thy mind, thou helpest to bring about; for, if thy will above the surface of waking repels it, it is yet what thy mind underneath is all along willing, & the subconscious mind is mightier, wider, better equipped to fulfil than thy waking force & intellect. But the spirit is stronger than both together; from fear and hope take refuge in the grandiose calm and careless mastery of the spirit.” Essays Divine and Human
“Fear and anxiety are perverse forms of will. What thou fearest & ponderest over, striking that note repeatedly in thy mind, thou helpest to bring about; for, if thy will above the surface of waking repels it, it is yet what thy mind underneath is all along willing, & the subconscious mind is mightier, wider, better equipped to fulfil than thy waking force & intellect. But the spirit is stronger than both together; from fear and hope take refuge in the grandiose calm and careless mastery of the spirit.” Essays Divine and Human
Fear creates imaginary terrors ; even if there is real danger, fear does not help ; it clouds the intelligence, takes away pre- sence of mind and prevents one seeing the right thing to do.
flood ::: n. **1. A large body of water; a great flow or stream of any fluid; any great overwhelming quantity, also poet. & fig. 2. The rise and flowing in of the tide. 3. The rising of a body of water and its overflowing onto normally dry land. 4. Any great outpouring or stream. floods. v. 5. To flow or pour in or as if in a flood. flooded, flooding. ::: And heard the questioning of the unsatisfied flood **
"For good is all that helps the individual and the world towards their divine fullness, and evil is all that retards or breaks up that increasing perfection.” The Synthesis of Yoga ::: *goodness.
“For good is all that helps the individual and the world towards their divine fullness, and evil is all that retards or breaks up that increasing perfection.” The Synthesis of Yoga
forsake ::: 1. To give up (something formerly held dear); renounce. 2. To leave altogether; abandon. forsaking.
forsaken ::: completely deserted or helpless; abandoned.
For the others, the “ baby monkey ” type or those who are still more independent, following their own ideas, doing their own sadhana, asking only for some instruction or help, the grace of the Guru is there, but it acts according to the nature of the sadhaka and counts upon his efforts to a greater or less degree ; it helps, succours in difficulty, saves in the time of danger ; the disciple is not always, is perhaps hardly at all aware of what is being done as he is absorbed in himself and his endeavour. In such cases the decisive psychological movement, the touch that makes all clear, may lake longer to come.
funeral ::: adj. A ceremony or group of ceremonies held in connection with the burial or cremation of a dead person.
gesture ::: 1. A motion of the limbs or body made to express or help express thought or to emphasize speech. 2. The act of moving the limbs or body as an expression of thought or emphasis. 3. An act or a remark made as a formality or as a sign of intention or attitude. gesture"s, gestures.
hampered ::: held back; hindered; impeded.
handle ::: n. 1. A part that is designed to be held or operated with the hand. v. 2. To deal with or have responsibility for; conduct.
harbour ::: n. 1. A sheltered port where ships can take on or discharge cargo. 2. Any place of shelter or refuge. v. 3. To give shelter or refuge to. 4. To cherish within one"s breast. 5. To house or contain. harbours, harboured, harbouring, all-harbouring.
harp ::: a usually large musical instrument which is held upright, and which has many strings of varying length which are plucked with the fingers. harp"s, harps.
Hathayoga with its physical material, first to purify and to tran- quillisc. The normal state of man is a condition of trouble and disorder, a kingdom either at war with itself or badly governed ; for the lord, the Purusha, is subjected to his ministers the facul- ties, subjected even to his subjects, the instruments of sensation, emotion, action, enjoyment. Suarajya. self-rule, must be sub- stituted for this subjection. Fits!, therefore, the powers of ordei must be helped to overcome the powers of disorder. The pre- liminary movement of Rajayoga is a careful self-discipline by which good habits of mind are substituted for the lawless move- ments that indulge the lower nervous being. By the practice of
“Hell and heaven are often imaginary states of the soul or rather of the vital which it constructs about it after its passing. What is meant by hell is a painful passage through the vital or lingering there, as for instance, in many cases of suicide where one remains surrounded by the forces of suffering and turmoil created by this unnatural and violent exit. There are, of course, also worlds of mind and vital worlds which are penetrated with joyful or dark experiences. One may pass through these as the result of things formed in the nature which create the necessary affinities, but the idea of reward or retribution is a crude and vulgar conception which is a mere popular error.” Letters on Yoga
HELL AND HEAVEN. ::: They arc often imaginary states of the soul or rather of the vital which it constructs about It after its passing. What is meant by hell is a painful passage through the vital or lingering there, as for instance, in many cases of suicide where one remains surrounded by the forces of suffering and turmoil created by this unnatural and violent exit. There are, of course, also worlds of mind and vital worlds which are penetrated with Joyful or dark experiences. One may pass through these as the result of things formed in the nature which create the necessary affimties, but the Idea of reward or retri- bution is a crude and vulgar conception which is a mere popular error.
HELPFUL FORCES. ::: If there are always forces around which are concerned to depress and discourage, there are always forces above and around us which we can draw upon, — draw into our- selves to restore, to fill up again with strength and faith and joy
HELPING OTHERS. ::: Do not be caught by the desire to
If we regard the Powers of the Reality as so many Godheads, we can say that the Overmind releases a million Godheads into action, each empowered to create its own world, each world capable of relation, communication and interplay with the others. There are in the Veda different formulations of the nature of the Gods: it is said they are all one Existence to which the sages give different names; yet each God is worshipped as if he by himself is that Existence, one who is all the other Gods together or contains them in his being; and yet again each is a separate Deity acting sometimes in unison with companion deities, sometimes separately, sometimes even in apparent opposition to other Godheads of the same Existence. In the Supermind all this would be held together as a harmonised play of the one Existence; in the Overmind each of these three conditions could be a separate action or basis of action and have its own principle of development and consequences and yet each keep the power to combine with the others in a more composite harmony. As with the One Existence, so with its Consciousness and Force. The One Consciousness is separated into many independent forms of consciousness and knowledge; each follows out its own line of truth which it has to realise. The one total and many-sided Real-Idea is split up into its many sides; each becomes an independent Idea-Force with the power to realise itself. The one Consciousness-Force is liberated into its million forces, and each of these forces has the right to fulfil itself or to assume, if needed, a hegemony and take up for its own utility the other forces. So too the Delight of Existence is loosed out into all manner of delights and each can carry in itself its independent fullness or sovereign extreme. Overmind thus gives to the One Existence-Consciousness-Bliss the character of a teeming of infinite possibilities which can be developed into a multitude of worlds or thrown together into one world in which the endlessly variable…
I know by wWch the taking up of sadbaoa by the Dmne becomes a sensible fact before the preparation of the nature is done. In other methods the Divine action may be felt from time to time, but it remains mostly behind the veil till all is ready. In some the ditioe action Is not recognised ; all must be done by (apioya. In most there is a mixing of the two ::: the iapas>3 finally calling the direct help and intervention. The idea and experience of the Divine doing all belong to the Yoga based on surrender. But whatever way is followed, the one thing to be done is to be faithful and go on to the end.
ils place and can pause to understand its held an 1 “’'"S in
immortality ::: “By immortality we mean the absolute life of the soul as opposed to the transient and mutable life in the body which it assumes by birth and death and rebirth and superior also to its life as the mere mental being who dwells in the world subjected helplessly to this law of death and birth or seems at least by his ignorance to be subjected to this and to other laws of the lower Nature.” The Upanishads
IMPULSE. ::: An ovenvhelming impulse is not necessarily an inspiration of true guidance ; in following always such impulses one is more likely to become a creature of random caprices.
IMPURITY. ::: The Anaoda descending cannot be held if there is too much sexual impurity creating an intoxicant or degrading mixture ; the Power recedes, if there is ambition, vanity or other aggressive form of lower self, the Oght if there is an attachment to obscurity or to any form of the Ignorance, the Presence if the chamber of the heart has not been made pure.
inconscience ::: Sri Aurobindo: "The Inconscience is an inverse reproduction of the supreme superconscience: it has the same absoluteness of being and automatic action, but in a vast involved trance; it is being lost in itself, plunged in its own abyss of infinity.” *The Life Divine
"All aspects of the omnipresent Reality have their fundamental truth in the Supreme Existence. Thus even the aspect or power of Inconscience, which seems to be an opposite, a negation of the eternal Reality, yet corresponds to a Truth held in itself by the self-aware and all-conscious Infinite. It is, when we look closely at it, the Infinite"s power of plunging the consciousness into a trance of self-involution, a self-oblivion of the Spirit veiled in its own abysses where nothing is manifest but all inconceivably is and can emerge from that ineffable latency. In the heights of Spirit this state of cosmic or infinite trance-sleep appears to our cognition as a luminous uttermost Superconscience: at the other end of being it offers itself to cognition as the Spirit"s potency of presenting to itself the opposites of its own truths of being, — an abyss of non-existence, a profound Night of inconscience, a fathomless swoon of insensibility from which yet all forms of being, consciousness and delight of existence can manifest themselves, — but they appear in limited terms, in slowly emerging and increasing self-formulations, even in contrary terms of themselves; it is the play of a secret all-being, all-delight, all-knowledge, but it observes the rules of its own self-oblivion, self-opposition, self-limitation until it is ready to surpass it. This is the Inconscience and Ignorance that we see at work in the material universe. It is not a denial, it is one term, one formula of the infinite and eternal Existence.” *The Life Divine
"Once consciousnesses separated from the one consciousness, they fell inevitably into Ignorance and the last result of Ignorance was Inconscience.” Letters on Yoga
*inconscience.
(inertia) and therefore does not help recovery.
inferno ::: a place or condition suggestive of hell, especially with respect to human suffering or death; the infernal regions. Inferno"s.
In mental vision the images arc invented by the mind and are partly true, partly a play of possibilities. Or a mental vision like the vital may be only a suggestion, — that is, a formation of some possibility on the menial or vital plane which presents itself to the sadhaka in the hope of being accepted and helped to rcalbe itself.
INNER SIGHT. ::: When one tries to meditate, the first obstacle in the beginning is sleep. When you get over this obstacle, there comes a condition in which, with the eyes closed, you begin to see things, people, scenes of all kinds. It is a good sign and means that you are making progress in yoga. There is, besides the outer physical sight which sees external objects, an inner .sight in us which can see things yet unseen and unknown, things at a distance, things belonging to another place or time or to other worlds.
Inner vision is vivid like actual sight, always precise and contains a truth in it. In mental vision the images are invented by the mind and are partly true, partly a play of possibilities. Or a mental vision like the vital may be only a suggestion,- that is a formation of some possibility on the mental or vital plane which presents itself to the sādhaka in the hope of being accepted and helped to realise itself.
INTEGRAL YOGA ::: This yoga accepts the value of cosmic existence and holds it to be a reality; its object is to enter into a higher Truth-Consciousness or Divine Supramental Consciousness in which action and creation are the expression not of ignorance and imperfection, but of the Truth, the Light, the Divine Ānanda. But for that, the surrender of the mortal mind, life and body to the Higher Consciousnessis indispensable, since it is too difficult for the mortal human being to pass by its own effort beyond mind to a Supramental Consciousness in which the dynamism is no longer mental but of quite another power. Only those who can accept the call to such a change should enter into this yoga.
Aim of the Integral Yoga ::: It is not merely to rise out of the ordinary ignorant world-consciousness into the divine consciousness, but to bring the supramental power of that divine consciousness down into the ignorance of mind, life and body, to transform them, to manifest the Divine here and create a divine life in Matter.
Conditions of the Integral Yoga ::: This yoga can only be done to the end by those who are in total earnest about it and ready to abolish their little human ego and its demands in order to find themselves in the Divine. It cannot be done in a spirit of levity or laxity; the work is too high and difficult, the adverse powers in the lower Nature too ready to take advantage of the least sanction or the smallest opening, the aspiration and tapasyā needed too constant and intense.
Method in the Integral Yoga ::: To concentrate, preferably in the heart and call the presence and power of the Mother to take up the being and by the workings of her force transform the consciousness. One can concentrate also in the head or between the eye-brows, but for many this is a too difficult opening. When the mind falls quiet and the concentration becomes strong and the aspiration intense, then there is the beginning of experience. The more the faith, the more rapid the result is likely to be. For the rest one must not depend on one’s own efforts only, but succeed in establishing a contact with the Divine and a receptivity to the Mother’s Power and Presence.
Integral method ::: The method we have to pursue is to put our whole conscious being into relation and contact with the Divine and to call Him in to transform Our entire being into His, so that in a sense God Himself, the real Person in us, becomes the sādhaka of the sādhana* as well as the Master of the Yoga by whom the lower personality is used as the centre of a divine transfiguration and the instrument of its own perfection. In effect, the pressure of the Tapas, the force of consciousness in us dwelling in the Idea of the divine Nature upon that which we are in our entirety, produces its own realisation. The divine and all-knowing and all-effecting descends upon the limited and obscure, progressively illumines and energises the whole lower nature and substitutes its own action for all the terms of the inferior human light and mortal activity.
In psychological fact this method translates itself into the progressive surrender of the ego with its whole field and all its apparatus to the Beyond-ego with its vast and incalculable but always inevitable workings. Certainly, this is no short cut or easy sādhana. It requires a colossal faith, an absolute courage and above all an unflinching patience. For it implies three stages of which only the last can be wholly blissful or rapid, - the attempt of the ego to enter into contact with the Divine, the wide, full and therefore laborious preparation of the whole lower Nature by the divine working to receive and become the higher Nature, and the eventual transformation. In fact, however, the divine strength, often unobserved and behind the veil, substitutes itself for the weakness and supports us through all our failings of faith, courage and patience. It” makes the blind to see and the lame to stride over the hills.” The intellect becomes aware of a Law that beneficently insists and a Succour that upholds; the heart speaks of a Master of all things and Friend of man or a universal Mother who upholds through all stumblings. Therefore this path is at once the most difficult imaginable and yet in comparison with the magnitude of its effort and object, the most easy and sure of all.
There are three outstanding features of this action of the higher when it works integrally on the lower nature. In the first place, it does not act according to a fixed system and succession as in the specialised methods of Yoga, but with a sort of free, scattered and yet gradually intensive and purposeful working determined by the temperament of the individual in whom it operates, the helpful materials which his nature offers and the obstacles which it presents to purification and perfection. In a sense, therefore, each man in this path has his own method of Yoga. Yet are there certain broad lines of working common to all which enable us to construct not indeed a routine system, but yet some kind of Shastra or scientific method of the synthetic Yoga.
Secondly, the process, being integral, accepts our nature such as it stands organised by our past evolution and without rejecting anything essential compels all to undergo a divine change. Everything in us is seized by the hands of a mighty Artificer and transformed into a clear image of that which it now seeks confusedly to present. In that ever-progressive experience we begin to perceive how this lower manifestation is constituted and that everything in it, however seemingly deformed or petty or vile, is the more or less distorted or imperfect figure of some elements or action in the harmony of the divine Nature. We begin to understand what the Vedic Rishis meant when they spoke of the human forefathers fashioning the gods as a smith forges the crude material in his smithy.
Thirdly, the divine Power in us uses all life as the means of this integral Yoga. Every experience and outer contact with our world-environment, however trifling or however disastrous, is used for the work, and every inner experience, even to the most repellent suffering or the most humiliating fall, becomes a step on the path to perfection. And we recognise in ourselves with opened eyes the method of God in the world, His purpose of light in the obscure, of might in the weak and fallen, of delight in what is grievous and miserable. We see the divine method to be the same in the lower and in the higher working; only in the one it is pursued tardily and obscurely through the subconscious in Nature, in the other it becomes swift and selfconscious and the instrument confesses the hand of the Master. All life is a Yoga of Nature seeking to manifest God within itself. Yoga marks the stage at which this effort becomes capable of self-awareness and therefore of right completion in the individual. It is a gathering up and concentration of the movements dispersed and loosely combined in the lower evolution.
Key-methods ::: The way to devotion and surrender. It is the psychic movement that brings the constant and pure devotion and the removal of the ego that makes it possible to surrender.
The way to knowledge. Meditation in the head by which there comes the opening above, the quietude or silence of the mind and the descent of peace etc. of the higher consciousness generally till it envelops the being and fills the body and begins to take up all the movements.
Yoga by works ::: Separation of the Purusha from the Prakriti, the inner silent being from the outer active one, so that one has two consciousnesses or a double consciousness, one behind watching and observing and finally controlling and changing the other which is active in front. The other way of beginning the yoga of works is by doing them for the Divine, for the Mother, and not for oneself, consecrating and dedicating them till one concretely feels the Divine Force taking up the activities and doing them for one.
Object of the Integral Yoga is to enter into and be possessed by the Divine Presence and Consciousness, to love the Divine for the Divine’s sake alone, to be tuned in our nature into the nature of the Divine, and in our will and works and life to be the instrument of the Divine.
Principle of the Integral Yoga ::: The whole principle of Integral Yoga is to give oneself entirely to the Divine alone and to nobody else, and to bring down into ourselves by union with the Divine Mother all the transcendent light, power, wideness, peace, purity, truth-consciousness and Ānanda of the Supramental Divine.
Central purpose of the Integral Yoga ::: Transformation of our superficial, narrow and fragmentary human way of thinking, seeing, feeling and being into a deep and wide spiritual consciousness and an integrated inner and outer existence and of our ordinary human living into the divine way of life.
Fundamental realisations of the Integral Yoga ::: The psychic change so that a complete devotion can be the main motive of the heart and the ruler of thought, life and action in constant union with the Mother and in her Presence. The descent of the Peace, Power, Light etc. of the Higher Consciousness through the head and heart into the whole being, occupying the very cells of the body. The perception of the One and Divine infinitely everywhere, the Mother everywhere and living in that infinite consciousness.
Results ::: First, an integral realisation of Divine Being; not only a realisation of the One in its indistinguishable unity, but also in its multitude of aspects which are also necessary to the complete knowledge of it by the relative consciousness; not only realisation of unity in the Self, but of unity in the infinite diversity of activities, worlds and creatures.
Therefore, also, an integral liberation. Not only the freedom born of unbroken contact of the individual being in all its parts with the Divine, sāyujya mukti, by which it becomes free even in its separation, even in the duality; not only the sālokya mukti by which the whole conscious existence dwells in the same status of being as the Divine, in the state of Sachchidananda ; but also the acquisition of the divine nature by the transformation of this lower being into the human image of the divine, sādharmya mukti, and the complete and final release of all, the liberation of the consciousness from the transitory mould of the ego and its unification with the One Being, universal both in the world and the individual and transcendentally one both in the world and beyond all universe.
By this integral realisation and liberation, the perfect harmony of the results of Knowledge, Love and Works. For there is attained the complete release from ego and identification in being with the One in all and beyond all. But since the attaining consciousness is not limited by its attainment, we win also the unity in Beatitude and the harmonised diversity in Love, so that all relations of the play remain possible to us even while we retain on the heights of our being the eternal oneness with the Beloved. And by a similar wideness, being capable of a freedom in spirit that embraces life and does not depend upon withdrawal from life, we are able to become without egoism, bondage or reaction the channel in our mind and body for a divine action poured out freely upon the world.
The divine existence is of the nature not only of freedom, but of purity, beatitude and perfection. In integral purity which shall enable on the one hand the perfect reflection of the divine Being in ourselves and on the other the perfect outpouring of its Truth and Law in us in the terms of life and through the right functioning of the complex instrument we are in our outer parts, is the condition of an integral liberty. Its result is an integral beatitude, in which there becomes possible at once the Ānanda of all that is in the world seen as symbols of the Divine and the Ānanda of that which is not-world. And it prepares the integral perfection of our humanity as a type of the Divine in the conditions of the human manifestation, a perfection founded on a certain free universality of being, of love and joy, of play of knowledge and of play of will in power and will in unegoistic action. This integrality also can be attained by the integral Yoga.
Sādhanā of the Integral Yoga does not proceed through any set mental teaching or prescribed forms of meditation, mantras or others, but by aspiration, by a self-concentration inwards or upwards, by a self-opening to an Influence, to the Divine Power above us and its workings, to the Divine Presence in the heart and by the rejection of all that is foreign to these things. It is only by faith, aspiration and surrender that this self-opening can come.
The yoga does not proceed by upadeśa but by inner influence.
Integral Yoga and Gita ::: The Gita’s Yoga consists in the offering of one’s work as a sacrifice to the Divine, the conquest of desire, egoless and desireless action, bhakti for the Divine, an entering into the cosmic consciousness, the sense of unity with all creatures, oneness with the Divine. This yoga adds the bringing down of the supramental Light and Force (its ultimate aim) and the transformation of the nature.
Our yoga is not identical with the yoga of the Gita although it contains all that is essential in the Gita’s yoga. In our yoga we begin with the idea, the will, the aspiration of the complete surrender; but at the same time we have to reject the lower nature, deliver our consciousness from it, deliver the self involved in the lower nature by the self rising to freedom in the higher nature. If we do not do this double movement, we are in danger of making a tamasic and therefore unreal surrender, making no effort, no tapas and therefore no progress ; or else we make a rajasic surrender not to the Divine but to some self-made false idea or image of the Divine which masks our rajasic ego or something still worse.
Integral Yoga, Gita and Tantra ::: The Gita follows the Vedantic tradition which leans entirely on the Ishvara aspect of the Divine and speaks little of the Divine Mother because its object is to draw back from world-nature and arrive at the supreme realisation beyond it.
The Tantric tradition leans on the Shakti or Ishvari aspect and makes all depend on the Divine Mother because its object is to possess and dominate the world-nature and arrive at the supreme realisation through it.
This yoga insists on both the aspects; the surrender to the Divine Mother is essential, for without it there is no fulfilment of the object of the yoga.
Integral Yoga and Hatha-Raja Yogas ::: For an integral yoga the special methods of Rajayoga and Hathayoga may be useful at times in certain stages of the progress, but are not indispensable. Their principal aims must be included in the integrality of the yoga; but they can be brought about by other means. For the methods of the integral yoga must be mainly spiritual, and dependence on physical methods or fixed psychic or psychophysical processes on a large scale would be the substitution of a lower for a higher action. Integral Yoga and Kundalini Yoga: There is a feeling of waves surging up, mounting to the head, which brings an outer unconsciousness and an inner waking. It is the ascending of the lower consciousness in the ādhāra to meet the greater consciousness above. It is a movement analogous to that on which so much stress is laid in the Tantric process, the awakening of the Kundalini, the Energy coiled up and latent in the body and its mounting through the spinal cord and the centres (cakras) and the Brahmarandhra to meet the Divine above. In our yoga it is not a specialised process, but a spontaneous upnish of the whole lower consciousness sometimes in currents or waves, sometimes in a less concrete motion, and on the other side a descent of the Divine Consciousness and its Force into the body.
Integral Yoga and other Yogas ::: The old yogas reach Sachchidananda through the spiritualised mind and depart into the eternally static oneness of Sachchidananda or rather pure Sat (Existence), absolute and eternal or else a pure Non-exist- ence, absolute and eternal. Ours having realised Sachchidananda in the spiritualised mind plane proceeds to realise it in the Supramcntal plane.
The suprcfhe supra-cosmic Sachchidananda is above all. Supermind may be described as its power of self-awareness and W’orld- awareness, the world being known as within itself and not out- side. So to live consciously in the supreme Sachchidananda one must pass through the Supermind.
Distinction ::: The realisation of Self and of the Cosmic being (without which the realisation of the Self is incomplete) are essential steps in our yoga ; it is the end of other yogas, but it is, as it were, the beginning of outs, that is to say, the point where its own characteristic realisation can commence.
It is new as compared with the old yogas (1) Because it aims not at a departure out of world and life into Heaven and Nir- vana, but at a change of life and existence, not as something subordinate or incidental, but as a distinct and central object.
If there is a descent in other yogas, yet it is only an incident on the way or resulting from the ascent — the ascent is the real thing. Here the ascent is the first step, but it is a means for the descent. It is the descent of the new coosdousness attain- ed by the ascent that is the stamp and seal of the sadhana. Even the Tantra and Vaishnavism end in the release from life ; here the object is the divine fulfilment of life.
(2) Because the object sought after is not an individual achievement of divine realisation for the sake of the individual, but something to be gained for the earth-consciousness here, a cosmic, not solely a supra-cosmic acbievement. The thing to be gained also is the bringing of a Power of consciousness (the Supramental) not yet organised or active directly in earth-nature, even in the spiritual life, but yet to be organised and made directly active.
(3) Because a method has been preconized for achieving this purpose which is as total and integral as the aim set before it, viz., the total and integral change of the consciousness and nature, taking up old methods, but only as a part action and present aid to others that are distinctive.
Integral Yoga and Patanjali Yoga ::: Cilia is the stuff of mixed mental-vital-physical consciousness out of which arise the movements of thought, emotion, sensation, impulse etc.
It is these that in the Patanjali system have to be stilled altogether so that the consciousness may be immobile and go into Samadhi.
Our yoga has a different function. The movements of the ordinary consciousness have to be quieted and into the quietude there has to be brought down a higher consciousness and its powers which will transform the nature.
intelligence ::: “Intelligence does not depend on the amount one has read, it is a quality of the mind. Study only gives it material for its work as life also does. There are people who do not know how to read and write who are more intelligent than many highly educated people and understand life and things better. On the other hand, a good intelligence can improve itself by reading because it gets more material to work on and grows by exercise and by having a wider range to move in. But book-knowledge by itself is not the real thing, it has to be used as a help to the intelligence but it is often only a help to stupidity or ignorance—ignorance because knowledge of facts is a poor thing if one cannot see their true significance.” Letters on Yoga
"In the spiritual sense, however, sacrifice has a different meaning — it does not so much indicate giving up what is held dear as an offering of oneself, one"s being, one"s mind, heart, will, body, life, actions to the Divine. It has the original sense of ‘making sacred" and is used as an equivalent of the word yajna. When the Gita speaks of the ‘sacrifice of knowledge", it does not mean a giving up of anything, but a turning of the mind towards the Divine in the search for knowledge and an offering of oneself through it. It is in this sense, too, that one speaks of the offering or sacrifice of works. The Mother has written somewhere that the spiritual sacrifice is joyful and not painful in its nature. On the spiritual path, very commonly, if a seeker still feels the old ties and responsibilities strongly he is not asked to sever or leave them, but to let the call in him grow till all within is ready. Many, indeed, come away earlier because they feel that to cut loose is their only chance, and these have to go sometimes through a struggle. But the pain, the struggle, is not the essential character of this spiritual self-offering.” Letters on Yoga
“In the spiritual sense, however, sacrifice has a different meaning—it does not so much indicate giving up what is held dear as an offering of oneself, one’s being, one’s mind, heart, will, body, life, actions to the Divine. It has the original sense of ‘making sacred’ and is used as an equivalent of the word yajna. When the Gita speaks of the ‘sacrifice of knowledge’, it does not mean a giving up of anything, but a turning of the mind towards the Divine in the search for knowledge and an offering of oneself through it. It is in this sense, too, that one speaks of the offering or sacrifice of works. The Mother has written somewhere that the spiritual sacrifice is joyful and not painful in its nature. On the spiritual path, very commonly, if a seeker still feels the old ties and responsibilities strongly he is not asked to sever or leave them, but to let the call in him grow till all within is ready. Many, indeed, come away earlier because they feel that to cut loose is their only chance, and these have to go sometimes through a struggle. But the pain, the struggle, is not the essential character of this spiritual self-offering.” Letters on Yoga
“In the way that one treads with the greater Light above, even every difficulty gives its help and has its value and Night itself carries in it the burden of the Light that has to be.” Letters on Yoga
In this yoga there is no fixed Mantra, no stress is laid on Mantras although sadhakas can use one if they find it helpful or so long as they find it helpful. The stress is rather on an aspiration in the Consciousness and a concentration of the mind, heart, will, all the being. If a Mantra is found helpful for that, one uses if.
intuition ::: direct perception of truth, fact, etc., independent of any reasoning process. intuition"s, intuitions, half-intuition.
Sri Aurobindo: "Intuition is a power of consciousness nearer and more intimate to the original knowledge by identity; for it is always something that leaps out direct from a concealed identity. It is when the consciousness of the subject meets with the consciousness in the object, penetrates it and sees, feels or vibrates with the truth of what it contacts, that the intuition leaps out like a spark or lightning-flash from the shock of the meeting; or when the consciousness, even without any such meeting, looks into itself and feels directly and intimately the truth or the truths that are there or so contacts the hidden forces behind appearances, then also there is the outbreak of an intuitive light; or, again, when the consciousness meets the Supreme Reality or the spiritual reality of things and beings and has a contactual union with it, then the spark, the flash or the blaze of intimate truth-perception is lit in its depths. This close perception is more than sight, more than conception: it is the result of a penetrating and revealing touch which carries in it sight and conception as part of itself or as its natural consequence. A concealed or slumbering identity, not yet recovering itself, still remembers or conveys by the intuition its own contents and the intimacy of its self-feeling and self-vision of things, its light of truth, its overwhelming and automatic certitude.” *The Life Divine
"Intuition is always an edge or ray or outleap of a superior light; it is in us a projecting blade, edge or point of a far-off supermind light entering into and modified by some intermediate truth-mind substance above us and, so modified, again entering into and very much blinded by our ordinary or ignorant mind-substance; but on that higher level to which it is native its light is unmixed and therefore entirely and purely veridical, and its rays are not separated but connected or massed together in a play of waves of what might almost be called in the Sanskrit poetic figure a sea or mass of ``stable lightnings"". When this original or native Intuition begins to descend into us in answer to an ascension of our consciousness to its level or as a result of our finding of a clear way of communication with it, it may continue to come as a play of lightning-flashes, isolated or in constant action; but at this stage the judgment of reason becomes quite inapplicable, it can only act as an observer or registrar understanding or recording the more luminous intimations, judgments and discriminations of the higher power. To complete or verify an isolated intuition or discriminate its nature, its application, its limitations, the receiving consciousness must rely on another completing intuition or be able to call down a massed intuition capable of putting all in place. For once the process of the change has begun, a complete transmutation of the stuff and activities of the mind into the substance, form and power of Intuition is imperative; until then, so long as the process of consciousness depends upon the lower intelligence serving or helping out or using the intuition, the result can only be a survival of the mixed Knowledge-Ignorance uplifted or relieved by a higher light and force acting in its parts of Knowledge.” *The Life Divine
"I use the word ‘intuition" for want of a better. In truth, it is a makeshift and inadequate to the connotation demanded of it. The same has to be said of the word ‘consciousness" and many others which our poverty compels us to extend illegitimately in their significance.” *The Life Divine - Sri Aurobindo"s footnote.
"For intuition is an edge of light thrust out by the secret Supermind. . . .” The Life Divine
". . . intuition is born of a direct awareness while intellect is an indirect action of a knowledge which constructs itself with difficulty out of the unknown from signs and indications and gathered data.” The Life Divine
"Intuition is above illumined Mind which is simply higher Mind raised to a great luminosity and more open to modified forms of intuition and inspiration.” Letters on Yoga
"Intuition sees the truth of things by a direct inner contact, not like the ordinary mental intelligence by seeking and reaching out for indirect contacts through the senses etc. But the limitation of the Intuition as compared with the supermind is that it sees things by flashes, point by point, not as a whole. Also in coming into the mind it gets mixed with the mental movement and forms a kind of intuitive mind activity which is not the pure truth, but something in between the higher Truth and the mental seeking. It can lead the consciousness through a sort of transitional stage and that is practically its function.” Letters on Yoga
“Intuition is always an edge or ray or outleap of a superior light; it is in us a projecting blade, edge or point of a far-off supermind light entering into and modified by some intermediate truth-mind substance above us and, so modified, again entering into and very much blinded by our ordinary or ignorant mind-substance; but on that higher level to which it is native its light is unmixed and therefore entirely and purely veridical, and its rays are not separated but connected or massed together in a play of waves of what might almost be called in the Sanskrit poetic figure a sea or mass of ``stable lightnings’’. When this original or native Intuition begins to descend into us in answer to an ascension of our consciousness to its level or as a result of our finding of a clear way of communication with it, it may continue to come as a play of lightning-flashes, isolated or in constant action; but at this stage the judgment of reason becomes quite inapplicable, it can only act as an observer or registrar understanding or recording the more luminous intimations, judgments and discriminations of the higher power. To complete or verify an isolated intuition or discriminate its nature, its application, its limitations, the receiving consciousness must rely on another completing intuition or be able to call down a massed intuition capable of putting all in place. For once the process of the change has begun, a complete transmutation of the stuff and activities of the mind into the substance, form and power of Intuition is imperative; until then, so long as the process of consciousness depends upon the lower intelligence serving or helping out or using the intuition, the result can only be a survival of the mixed Knowledge-Ignorance uplifted or relieved by a higher light and force acting in its parts of Knowledge.” The Life Divine
IS a valuable power helpful in the s5t£an5 and shfu"' discouraged. But one must see and observe i J ”« <» keeping always the main object in front, realisS' ft"’’™™!.
IS Rvalue for help or guidance in inner sadhans “nd wLi
— it can come in afterwards as a powerful aid to experience; it can be full of indications which help to self-knowledge or knowledge of things or knowledge of people ; it can be veridical and lead to prevision, premonition and other openings of less importance but very useful to a Yogi. In short, vision is a great instrument though not absolutely indispensable.
“It could be affirmed as a consequence that there is one all-pervading Life or dynamic energy—the material aspect being only its outermost movement—that creates all these forms of the physical universe, Life imperishable and eternal which, even if the whole figure of the universe were quite abolished, would itself still go on existing and be capable of producing a new universe in its place, must indeed, unless it be held back in a state of rest by some higher Power or hold itself back, inevitably go on creating. In that case Life is nothing else than the Force that builds and maintains and destroys forms in the world; it is Life that manifests itself in the form of the earth as much as in the plant that grows upon the earth and the animals that support their existence by devouring the life-force of the plant or of each other. All existence here is a universal Life that takes form of Matter. It might for that purpose hide life-process in physical process before it emerges as submental sensitivity and mentalised vitality, but still it would be throughout the same creative Life-principle.” The Life Divine
It is only the ordinaiy vital emotions which waste the energy and disturb the concentration and peace that have to be dis- couraged. Emotion itself is not a bad thing ; it is a necessary part of nature and psychic emoiion is one of the most powerful helps to the sadhana. Psychic emotion, bringing tears of love for the Divine or tears of Ananda, ought not to be suppressed ::: it is only a vital mixture that brings disturbance in the sadhana.
It is the cryptic verses of the Veda that help us here; for they contain, though concealed, the gospel of the divine and immortal Supermind and through the veil some illumining flashes come to us. We can see through these utterances the conception of this Supermind as a vastness beyond the ordinary firmaments of our consciousness in which truth of being is luminously one with all that expresses it and assures inevitably truth of vision, formulation, arrangement, word, act and movement and therefore truth also of result of movement, result of action and expression, infallible ordinance or law. Vast all-comprehensiveness; luminous truth and harmony of being in that vastness and not a vague chaos or self-lost obscurity; truth of law and act and knowledge expressive of that harmonious truth of being: these seem to be the essential terms of the Vedic description.” *The Life Divine
It is the cryptic verses of the Veda that help us here; for they contain, though concealed, the gospel of the divine and immortal Supermind and through the veil some illumining flashes come to us. We can see through these utterances the conception of this Supermind as a vastness beyond the ordinary firmaments of our consciousness in which truth of being is luminously one with all that expresses it and assures inevitably truth of vision, formulation, arrangement, word, act and movement and therefore truth also of result of movement, result of action and expression, infallible ordinance or law. Vast all-comprehensiveness; luminous truth and harmony of being in that vastness and not a vague chaos or self-lost obscurity; truth of law and act and knowledge expressive of that harmonious truth of being: these seem to be the essential terms of the Vedic description.” The Life Divine
It is this expectation in the mind that helps most to maintain
Jhumur: “Every ideal is like a kind of guide on a certain path, it helps to make a path clear, defines a line of advance. So to me, the word Angel is associated with a conscious, luminous guide on the way, and here this is the heaven of the ideal so the ideal becomes the angel. A perfect conception, a perfect idea leads man into another higher realm of expression or action.
Jhumur: Here you have the beginnings of the mind opening onto other planes of experience. Because mindhas no experience. This is the kingdom of the greater mind where it opens on to another phase of vision or experience or feeling. The heaven-bird is the feeling of poise that hasn’t taken off. It reminds me that in a certain place, the goal of the mental search is where ultimately the mind abdicates in light and one enters into what Shelley calls ‘thought wildernesses’. Before that concrete abdication there must be some sensation, some feeling of something other that is waiting for us, that has come from elsewhere. The mind has not quite yet abdicated but begins to pursue intuition, perception, feeling.”
Jupiter is usually thought to have originated as a sky god. His identifying implement is the thunderbolt, and his primary sacred animal is the eagle,[1] which held precedence over other birds in the taking of auspices[2] and became one of the most common symbols of the Roman army (see Aquila). The two emblems were often combined to represent the god in the form of an eagle holding in its claws a thunderbolt, frequently seen on Greek and Roman coins.[3] As the sky-god, he was a divine witness to oaths, the sacred trust on which justice and good government depend. Many of his functions were focused on the Capitoline (“Capitol Hill”), where the citadel was located. He was the chief deity of the early Capitoline Triad with Mars and Quirinus.[4] In the later Capitoline Triad, he was the central guardian of the state with Juno and Minerva. His sacred tree was the oak.
kindly ::: of a sympathetic, helpful, or benevolent nature..
LAMENTING AND COMPLAINING. ::: This is a icrapcra- ment which the gods will not help because they know that help is useless, for it will either not be received or will be spilled and wasted ; and all that is rdjasic and asiiric in the world despises and tramples upon this kind of nature.
::: "Law is nothing but a mode or rule of action; it is called in our philosophy not Law but Dharma, holding together, it is that by which the action of the universe, the action of its parts, the action of the individual is held together.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
“Law is nothing but a mode or rule of action; it is called in our philosophy not Law but Dharma, holding together, it is that by which the action of the universe, the action of its parts, the action of the individual is held together.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
Law of Light, and it is meant, not as an arbitrary caprice, how- ever miraculous often its intervention, but as a help in that growth and a Light that leads and eventually delivers.
ledge ::: a narrow, more or less flat shelf of rock protruding from a cliff or slope.
lyre ::: a musical instrument of ancient Greece consisting of a sound box made typically from a turtle shell, with two curved arms connected by a yoke from which strings are stretched to the body, used especially to accompany singing and recitation. lyres.
Madra ::: “Name of an ancient country and its people in northwestern India, mentioned in the Mahabaharata. The territory extended from the River Beas to the Chenab or perhaps as far as the Jhelum. Savitri’s father Asvapati was king of this country. (Dow). Glossary and Index of Proper Names in Sri Aurobindo’s Works Madra’s.
madra ::: "Name of an ancient country and its people in northwestern India, mentioned in the Mahabaharata. The territory extended from the River Beas to the Chenab or perhaps as far as the Jhelum. Savitri"s father Asvapati was king of this country. (Dow.)” Glossary and Index of Proper Names in Sri Aurobindo"s Works ::: **Madra"s.**
“Mind therefore is held by the Hindus to be a species of subtle matter in which ideas are waves or ripples, and it is not limited by the physical body which it uses as an instrument.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
miracle ::: an event that appears inexplicable by the laws of nature and so is held to be supernatural in origin or an act of God.
monarchy ::: supreme power and authority held by one person; autocracy.
MONEY. ::: Money is the visible sign of a universal force, and this force m its manifestation on earth woris an the vitaf and physical planes and Is indispensable to the fullness of the outer life. In its origin and true action it belongs lo the Divine. But like other powers of the Divine it is delegated here and in the ignorance of the lower Nature can be usurped for the uses of the ego or held by Asuric influences and perverted to their purpose.
Mother, four of her leading Powers and Personalities have stood in front in her guidance of this Universe and in her dealings with the terrestrial play. One is her personality of calm wideness and comprehending wisdom and tranquil benignity and inexhaustible compassion and sovereign and surpassing majesty and all-ruling greatness. Another embo&es her power of splendid strength and irresistible passion, her warrior mood, her overwhelming will, her impetuous swiftness and world-shaking force. A third is vivid and sweet and wonderful with her deep secret of beauty and harmony and fine rhythm, her intricate and subtle opulence, her compelling attraction and captivating grace. The fourth is equipped with her close and profound capacity of intimate knowledge and careful flawless work and quiet and exact per- fection in all things. Wisdom, Strength, Harmony, Perfection are their several attributes and it Is these powers that they bring with them into the world. To the four we give the four great names, Maheshvari, Mahakali, Mabalakshmi, Mahasarasvati.
mutual ::: 1. Directed and received by each toward the other; reciprocal. 2. Having the same relationship each to the other. 3. Of or pertaining to each of two or more held in common; shared.
n. 1. A structure serving as a dwelling for one or more persons, especially for a family. 2.* Fig. An abode; dwelling-place. houses, marvel-house. v. 3. To be a receptacle for or repository of. 4. To shelter, keep, or store in or as if in a house; to give shelter to. *housed, housing. ::: See also dwelling-house.
“Nevertheless, the fact of this intervention from above, the fact that behind all our original thinking or authentic perception of things there is a veiled, a half-veiled or a swift unveiled intuitive element is enough to establish a connection between mind and what is above it; it opens a passage of communication and of entry into the superior spirit-ranges. There is also the reaching out of mind to exceed the personal ego limitation, to see things in a certain impersonality and universality. Impersonality is the first character of cosmic self; universality, non-limitation by the single or limiting point of view, is the character of cosmic perception and knowledge: this tendency is therefore a widening, however rudimentary, of these restricted mind areas towards cosmicity, towards a quality which is the very character of the higher mental planes,—towards that superconscient cosmic Mind which, we have suggested, must in the nature of things be the original mind-action of which ours is only a derivative and inferior process.” The Life Divine
night ::: Sri Aurobindo: "The Night is the symbol of the Ignorance or Avidya in which men live just as Light is the symbol of Truth and Knowledge.” *Letters on Yoga
"In the way that one treads with the greater Light above, even every difficulty gives its help and has its value and Night itself carries in it the burden of the Light that has to be.” Letters on Yoga **Night, Night"s.
nook ::: any remote or sheltered spot; any small corner or recess.
Nothing can really help — only the Divine Grace.
not loosening; held tightly or firmly.
not worshipped or adored; not held in reverence or esteem.
nurtured ::: 1. Nourished; fed. 2. Helped to grow or developed; cultivated.
Occult and spiritual ::: The spiritual realisation is of primary importance and indispensable. I would consider it best to have the spiritual and psychic development first and have it with the same fullness before entering the occult regions. Those who enter the latter first may find their spiritual realisation much delayed ; others fall into the ma^ traps of the occult and do not come out in this life. Some no doubt can cany on both together, the occult and the spiritual, and make them help each other ; but the process I suggest is the safer.
Om i! rightly used (not mechanically) might very well help the opening upwards and outwards (cosmic consciousness) as well as the descent.
Once our minds are reasonably fixed in the central vision and our wills are on the whole converted to the single pursuit, Life becomes our helper. Intent, vi^lant, integrally conscious, iwe can take every detail of its forms and every incident of its move- ments as food for the sacrificial Fire within us. Victorious in the struggle, we can compel Earth herself to be an aid towards our perfection and can enrich our realisation with the booty torn from the powers that oppose us. ; , ,
opens to the direct touch of the Divine and helps to bring union and surrender.
oppressed ::: v. 1. Overwhelmed or crushed, esp. in battle. 2. To lie heavy on; burdened (the mind, imagination, etc.). oppresses, oppressed, oppressing.* *n. oppressed. 3. Those who are subjugated by cruelty, force, etc.; trampled down. adj. oppressed. 4.** Afflicted or tormented; burdened psychologically or mentally; caused to suffer.
oracle ::: 1. A person, such as a priestess, through whom a deity is held to respond when consulted. 2. The response given through such a medium, often in the form of an enigmatic statement or allegory. 3. A command or revelation from God. oracles.
“Our first decisive step out of our human intelligence, our normal mentality, is an ascent into a higher Mind, a mind no longer of mingled light and obscurity or half-light, but a large clarity of the Spirit. Its basic substance is a unitarian sense of being with a powerful multiple dynamisation capable of the formation of a multitude of aspects of knowledge, ways of action, forms and significances of becoming, of all of which there is a spontaneous inherent knowledge. It is therefore a power that has proceeded from the Overmind,—but with the Supermind as its ulterior origin,—as all these greater powers have proceeded: but its special character, its activity of consciousness are dominated by Thought; it is a luminous thought-mind, a mind of Spirit-born conceptual knowledge. An all-awareness emerging from the original identity, carrying the truths the identity held in itself, conceiving swiftly, victoriously, multitudinously, formulating and by self-power of the Idea effectually realising its conceptions, is the character of this greater mind of knowledge.” The Life Divine
overpowered ::: 1. Overcome or vanquished by superior force; subdued. 2. Affected so strongly as to make helpless or ineffective; overwhelmed. overpowers.
overwhelmed ::: overcome by superior force. overwhelming.
pamful, first, because it is obscure and docs not understand and, secondly, because there arc parts of it that want to be left to their crude notions and not to change. That is why the inter- vention of a psychic attitude is so heJpfuI. For the psychic has the happy confidence, the ready understanding and response, the spontaneous surrender ; it knows that the touch of the Guru is meant to help and not to hurt, or, like Radha in the poem, that whatever the Beloved does is meant to lead to the Divine
panic ::: a sudden overwhelming fear, with or without cause, that produces hysterical or irrational behaviour, and that often spreads quickly through a group of persons or animals.
paralysed ::: brought to a condition of helpless stoppage, inactivity, or inability to act.
pearl ::: 1. A smooth, lustrous, variously colored deposit, chiefly calcium carbonate, formed around a grain of sand or other foreign matter in the shells of certain molluscs and valued as a gem. 2. Something similar in form, luster, etc., as a dewdrop or a capsule of medicine. pearls, pearl-bright, pearl-hued, pearl-winged. pearl-bright, pearl-hued, pearl-winged.
pit ::: 1. A natural or artificial hole or cavity in the ground. 2. Hell; the domain of fallen souls. Pit, pits.
pity ::: “Pity may be reserved, so long as thy soul makes distinctions, for the suffering animals; but humanity deserves from thee something nobler; it asks for love, for understanding, for comradeship, for the help of the equal & brother.”
POSSIBILITIES. ::: Three main possibilities for the sadhaka . to wait on the Grace and rely on the Divine ; to do everything himself like the Advaitin and the Buddhist ; to take the middle path, go forward by aspiration and rejection etc , helped by the
PRAYER. ::: The life of man is a life of wants and needs and therefore of desires, not only in his physical and vital, but in his mental and spiritual being. When he becomes conscious of a greater Power governing the world, he approaches it through prayer for the fulfilment of his needs, for help in his rough journey, for protection and aid in his struggle. Whatever crudi- ties there may be in the ordinary religious approach to God by prayer, and there are many, especially that attitude which ima- gines the Divine as if capable of being propitiated, bribed, flat- tered into acquiescence or indulgence by praise, entreaty and gifts and has often little te^td to the spirit in which he is approached, still this way of turning to the Divine is an essen- tial movement of our religious being and reposes on a universal truth.
The efficacy of prayer is often doubted and prayer itself supposed to be a thing irrational and necessarily superfluous and ineffective. It is true that the universal will executes always its aim and cannot be deflected by egoistic propitiation and entreaty, it is true of the Transcendent who expresses himself in the universal order that, being omniscient, his larger knowledge must foresee the thing to be done and it does not need direction or stimulation by human thought and that the individual's desires are not and cannot be in any world-order the true determining factor. But neither is that order or the execution of the universal will altogether effected by mechanical Law, but by powers and forces of which for human life at least, human will, aspiration and faith are not among the least important. Prayer is only a particular form given to that will, aspiration and faith. Its forms are very often crude and not only childlike, which is in itself no defect, but childish; but still it has a real power and significance. Its power and sense is to put the will, aspiration and faith of man into touch with the divine Will as that of a conscious Being with whom we can enter into conscious and living relations. For our will and aspiration can act either by our own strength and endeavour, which can no doubt be made a thing great and effective whether for lower or higher purposes, -and there are plenty of disciplines which put it forward as the one force to be used, -- or it can act in dependence upon and with subordination to the divine or the universal Will. And this latter way, again, may either look upon that Will as responsive indeed to our aspiration, but almost mechanically, by a sort of law of energy, or at any rate quite impersonally, or else it may look upon it as responding consciously to the divine aspiration and faith of the human soul and consciously bringing to it the help, the guidance, the protection and fruition demanded, yogaksemam vahamyaham. ~ TSOY, SYN
Prayer helps to prepare this relation for us at first on the lower plane even while it is (here consistent with much that is mere egoism and self-delusion; but afterwards we can draw towards the spiritual truth which is behind it. It is not then the givinc of the thing asked for that matters, but the relation itself, the contact of man’s life with God, the conscious interchange.
In spiritual matters and in the seeking of spiritual gains, this conscious relation is a great power; it is a much greater power than our own entirely self-reliant struggle and effort and it brings a fuller spiritual growth and experience. Necessarily, in the end prayer either ceases in the greater thing for which it prepared us, -- in fact the form we call prayer is not itself essential so long as the faith, the will, the aspiration are there, -- or remains only for the joy of the relation. Also its objects, the artha or interest it seeks to realise, become higher and higher until we reach the highest motiveless devotion, which is that of divine love pure and simple without any other demand or longing.
Prayer for others ::: The fact of praying and the attitude it brings, especially unselfish prayer for others, itself opens you to the higher Power, even if there is no corresponding result in the person prayed for. 'Nothing can be positively said about that, for the result must necessarily depend on the persons, whe- ther they arc open or receptive or something in them can res- pond to any Force the prayer brings down.
Prayer must well up from the heart on a crest of emotion or aspiration.
Prayer {Ideal)'. Not prayer insisting on immediate fulfilment, but prayer that is itself a communion of the mind and heart with the Divine*and can have the joy and satisfaction of itself, trusting for fulfilment by the Divine in his own time.
prisoned ::: held captive in or as in a prison.
Psychic junction ::: To work on each plane so as to help each to awaken to the true truth and the Divine Reality.
Purity is more a condition than a substance. Peace helps to purity — since in peace disturbing influences cease and the essence of purity b to respond only to the Divine Influence and not to have affini^ with other movements.
purity ::: “It [purity] is more a condition than a substance. Peace helps to purity—since in peace disturbing influences cease and the essence of purity is to respond only to the Divine Influence and not to have an affinity with other movements.” Letters on Yoga
purity ::: Sri Aurobindo: "It [purity] is more a condition than a substance. Peace helps to purity — since in peace disturbing influences cease and the essence of purity is to respond only to the Divine Influence and not to have an affinity with other movements.” *Letters on Yoga
raised, elevated, held up. Also fig.
ravished ::: 1. Overwhelmed with emotion; enraptured. 2. Seized and carried away by force; violated; raped.
recourse ::: access or resort to a person or thing for help or protection.
refuge ::: 1. Protection or shelter, as from danger or hardship, trouble, etc. 2. A place providing protection or shelter; sanctuary; haven. ::: To take refuge: To find asylum, safety, protection in something.
repressed ::: held back; restrained, checked, suppressed.
reserve ::: n. 1. A resource not normally called upon but available if needed. 2 The keeping of one"s feelings, thoughts, actions or affairs to oneself. reserve"s. v. reserved. 3. Set aside for the use of a particular person or party. 4. Held in reserve; kept back or set aside.
RESISTANCE. ::: When the soul draws towards the Divine, there may be a resistance in the mind and the common form of that is denial and doubt — which may create mental and vital su/Tering. There may again be a resistance in the vital nature ivhose principal characer is desire and the attachment to the objects of desire, and if in this field there is conflict between the soul and the vital nature, between the Divine Attraction and the pull of the Ignorance, then obviously there may be much suffer- ing of the mind and vital parts. The pbj-sical consciousness also may offer a resistance which is usually that of a fundamental inertia, an obscurity in the very stuff of the physical, an incom- prehension, an inability to respond to the higher consciousness, a habit of helplessly responding to the lower mechanically, even when it docs not want to do so ; both lital and physical suffer- ing may be the consequence. There is, moreover, the resistance of the Universal Nature which does not want the being to escape from the Ignorance into the Light. This may take the form of a vehement insistence in the continuation of the old movements, waves of them thrown on the mind and vital and body so that old ideas, impulses, desires, feelings, responses continue even after they are thrown out and rejected, and can return like an invading army from outside, until the whole nature, given to (he
resting chamber ::: a shelter for repose or sleep.
restrained ::: held back; kept in check.
retreat ::: v. **1. To retire or withdraw, into seclusion, shelter or privacy, or into some place of safety. n. 2. A drawing back; withdrawal. 3. The forced or strategic withdrawal of an army or an armed force before an enemy. 4. A place of refuge, seclusion or privacy. retreats.**
SACRIFICE. ::: Does noi so mucb indicate giving up what is held dear as an offering of oneself, one's being, one’s mind, heart, will, body, life, actions to the Divine. It has the original sense of ‘ making sacred ' and is used as an equivalent of yajna.
sacrilegious ::: pertaining to or involving the violation or profanation of anything sacred or held sacred.
SANNYASA. ::: Outward renunciation. Sannyma does not take away attachment ; it amounts only to running away from the object of attachment which may help but cannot by itself alone be the radical cure.
shell ::: 1. An exterior or enclosing cover or case; an external part. Also fig. 2. Something without substance; hollow. Also fig. 3. The outer covering of crustaceans, molluscs, and other invertebrates, often with reference to the formation of pearls within the shells of molluscs. conch-shells.* See under *conch.
shelter ::: n. 1. Something that provides cover or protection, as from the weather, danger, etc. v. 2. To provide with refuge as by shelter, to harbour; to take under (one"s) protection. adj. **3. Protected from troubles, annoyances, sordidness, etc. 4. Protected or shielded from storms, cold, the sun, etc. by a wall, roof, barrier, or the like. sheltered, sheltering.**
screen ::: n. 1. A moveable or fixed device, usually consisting of a covered frame, that provides shelter, serves as a partition, etc. 2. Something interposed as a partition so as to conceal from view. 3. A window or door insertion or framed wire or plastic mesh used to keep out insects and permit air flow. 4. A specially prepared, light reflecting, flat vertical surface for the reception of images as from a slide or motion picture projector. screens. v. 5. To conceal from view with or as if with a screen. screens, screened.
scrip ::: a small bag, wallet, or satchel, esp. one carried by a pilgrim, a shepherd, or a beggar.
secret ::: n. 1. Something unknown or kept hidden from others or is beyond understanding or explanation; a mystery. 2. A reason or explanation not immediately or generally apparent. secrets. adj. **3. Kept from knowledge or observation; hidden, concealed. 4. Kept from the knowledge of any but the initiated and privileged. 5. Beyond ordinary human understanding; esoteric. 6.** Secluded, remote, sheltered, or withdrawn.
Self-existent transcendent Love spreading itself over all, turn- ing’ everywhere to contain, embrace, unite, help, upraise towards love and bliss and oneness, becomes cosmic divine Love.
self-knowledge ::: knowing of oneself, without help from another.
Sri Aurobindo: The possibility of a cosmic consciousness in humanity is coming slowly to be admitted in modern Psychology, like the possibility of more elastic instruments of knowledge, although still classified, even when its value and power are admitted, as a hallucination. In the psychology of the East it has always been recognised as a reality and the aim of our subjective progress. The essence of the passage over to this goal is the exceeding of the limits imposed on us by the ego-sense and at least a partaking, at most an identification with the self-knowledge which broods secret in all life and in all that seems to us inanimate. *The Life Divine
"Therefore the only final goal possible is the emergence of the infinite consciousness in the individual; it is his recovery of the truth of himself by self-knowledge and by self-realisation, the truth of the Infinite in being, the Infinite in consciousness, the Infinite in delight repossessed as his own Self and Reality of which the finite is only a mask and an instrument for various expression.” The Life Divine
"The Truth-Consciousness is everywhere present in the universe as an ordering self-knowledge by which the One manifests the harmonies of its infinite potential multiplicity.” The Life Divine
SEX. ::: The sex-impulse is certainly the greatest force in the vital plane ; if it can be sublimated and turned upwards, ojas is created which is a great help to the attainment of higher
shade ::: 1. The comparative darkness caused by the interception or screening of rays of light from an object, place, or area. 2. A place or an area of comparative darkness, as one sheltered from the sun. 3. A shadow. 4. A spectre; a shadow. 5. Something that provides a shield or protection from a direct source of light. 6. A colour that varies slightly from a standard colour due to a difference in hue, saturation, or luminosity. 7. Fig. Something resembling a ghost or a disembodied spirit; something insubstantial or fleeting. 8. shades. Darkness gathering at the close of day. Shade, shades.
shadow ::: n. 1. A dark figure or image cast on the ground or some surface by a body intercepting light. 2. Shade or comparative darkness, as in an area. 3. Darkness that is caused by the interception of light. 4. A phantom; a ghost. 5. An obscure indication; a symbol, type; a prefiguration, foreshadowing. 6. A hint or faint, indistinct image or idea; intimation. 7. A mere semblance. 8. A mirrored image or reflection. 9. Shelter; protection. 10. A dominant or pervasive threat, influence, or atmosphere, esp. one causing gloom, fear, doubt, or the like. Shadow, shadow"s, shadows. v. 11. To represent faintly, prophetically; to indicate obscurely or in slight outline; to symbolize, typify, prefigure. (Often followed by forth.) shadowed. (Sri Aurobindo also employs the word as an adj.) shadowlike, shadow-hung, shadow-self, shadow-soul, shadow-Sphinx.
shadow ::: n. 1. A dark figure or image cast on the ground or some surface by a body intercepting light. 2. Shade or comparative darkness, as in an area. 3. Darkness that is caused by the interception of light. 4. A phantom; a ghost. 5. An obscure indication; a symbol, type; a prefiguration, foreshadowing. 6. A hint or faint, indistinct image or idea; intimation. 7. A mere semblance. 8. A mirrored image or reflection. 9. Shelter; protection. 10. A dominant or pervasive threat, influence, or atmosphere, esp. one causing gloom, fear, doubt, or the like. Shadow, shadow’s, shadows. v. 11. To represent faintly, prophetically; to indicate obscurely or in slight outline; to symbolize, typify, prefigure. (Often followed by forth.) shadowed. (Sri Aurobindo also employs the word as an adj.) shadowlike, shadow-hung, shadow-self, shadow-soul, shadow-Sphinx.
siege ::: the act or process of surrounding and attacking a fortified place in such a way as to isolate it from help and supplies, for the purpose of lessening the resistance of the defenders and thereby making capture possible. Also fig.
Sri Aurobindo: "But when I speak of the Divine Will, I mean something different, — something that has descended here into an evolutionary world of Ignorance, standing at the back of things, pressing on the Darkness with its Light, leading things presently towards the best possible in the conditions of a world of Ignorance and leading it eventually towards a descent of a greater power of the Divine, which will be not an omnipotence held back and conditioned by the law of the world as it is, but in full action and therefore bringing the reign of light, peace, harmony, joy, love, beauty and Ananda, for these are the Divine Nature.” *Letters on Yoga
Sri Aurobindo: "By immortality we mean the absolute life of the soul as opposed to the transient and mutable life in the body which it assumes by birth and death and rebirth and superior also to its life as the mere mental being who dwells in the world subjected helplessly to this law of death and birth or seems at least by his ignorance to be subjected to this and to other laws of the lower Nature.” *The Upanishads
Sri Aurobindo: "Conviction — intellectual belief held on what seems to be good reasons.” Letters on Yoga
Sri Aurobindo: "Destiny in the rigid sense applies only to the outer being so long as it lives in the Ignorance. What we call destiny is only in fact the result of the present condition of the being and the nature and energies it has accumulated in the past acting on each other and determining the present attempts and their future results. But as soon as one enters the path of spiritual life, this old predetermined destiny begins to recede. There comes in a new factor, the Divine Grace, the help of a higher Divine Force other than the force of Karma, which can lift the sadhak beyond the present possibilities of his nature. One"s spiritual destiny is then the divine election which ensures the future.” *Letters on Yoga
*Sri Aurobindo: "Emotion itself is not a bad thing; it is a necessary part of the nature, and psychic emotion is one of the most powerful helps to the sadhana. Psychic emotion, bringing tears of love for the Divine or tears of Ananda, ought not to be suppressed: . . . .” Letters on Yoga
Sri Aurobindo: "Hell and heaven are often imaginary states of the soul or rather of the vital which it constructs about it after its passing. What is meant by hell is a painful passage through the vital or lingering there, as for instance, in many cases of suicide where one remains surrounded by the forces of suffering and turmoil created by this unnatural and violent exit. There are, of course, also worlds of mind and vital worlds which are penetrated with joyful or dark experiences. One may pass through these as the result of things formed in the nature which create the necessary affinities, but the idea of reward or retribution is a crude and vulgar conception which is a mere popular error.” Letters on Yoga
Sri Aurobindo: "His [the Titan"s] instincts call for a visible, tangible mastery and a sensational domination. How shall he feel sure of his empire unless he can feel something writhing helpless under his heel, — if in agony, so much the better? What is exploitation to him, unless it diminishes the exploited? To be able to coerce, exact, slay, overtly, irresistibly, — it is this that fills him with the sense of glory and dominion. For he is the son of division and the strong flowering of the Ego. To feel the comparative limitation of others is necessary to him that he may imagine himself immeasurable; for he has not the real, self-existent sense of infinity which no outward circumstance can abrogate. Contrast, division, negation of the wills and lives of others are essential to his self-development and self-assertion. The Titan would unify by devouring, not by harmonising; he must conquer and trample what is not himself either out of existence or into subservience so that his own image may stand out stamped upon all things and dominating all his environment.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
Sri Aurobindo: “His [the Titan’s] instincts call for a visible, tangible mastery and a sensational domination. How shall he feel sure of his empire unless he can feel something writhing helpless under his heel,—if in agony, so much the better? What is exploitation to him, unless it diminishes the exploited? To be able to coerce, exact, slay, overtly, irresistibly,—it is this that fills him with the sense of glory and dominion. For he is the son of division and the strong flowering of the Ego. To feel the comparative limitation of others is necessary to him that he may imagine himself immeasurable; for he has not the real, self-existent sense of infinity which no outward circumstance can abrogate. Contrast, division, negation of the wills and lives of others are essential to his self-development and self-assertion. The Titan would unify by devouring, not by harmonising; he must conquer and trample what is not himself either out of existence or into subservience so that his own image may stand out stamped upon all things and dominating all his environment.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
Sri Aurobindo: "Intelligence does not depend on the amount one has read, it is a quality of the mind. Study only gives it material for its work as life also does. There are people who do not know how to read and write who are more intelligent than many highly educated people and understand life and things better. On the other hand, a good intelligence can improve itself by reading because it gets more material to work on and grows by exercise and by having a wider range to move in. But book-knowledge by itself is not the real thing, it has to be used as a help to the intelligence but it is often only a help to stupidity or ignorance — ignorance because knowledge of facts is a poor thing if one cannot see their true significance.” Letters on Yoga
Sri Aurobindo: "It could be affirmed as a consequence that there is one all-pervading Life or dynamic energy — the material aspect being only its outermost movement — that creates all these forms of the physical universe, Life imperishable and eternal which, even if the whole figure of the universe were quite abolished, would itself still go on existing and be capable of producing a new universe in its place, must indeed, unless it be held back in a state of rest by some higher Power or hold itself back, inevitably go on creating. In that case Life is nothing else than the Force that builds and maintains and destroys forms in the world; it is Life that manifests itself in the form of the earth as much as in the plant that grows upon the earth and the animals that support their existence by devouring the life-force of the plant or of each other. All existence here is a universal Life that takes form of Matter. It might for that purpose hide life-process in physical process before it emerges as submental sensitivity and mentalised vitality, but still it would be throughout the same creative Life-principle.” *The Life Divine
"Sri Aurobindo: "It has been held that ecstasy is a lower and transient passage, the peace of the Supreme is the supreme realisation, the consummate abiding experience. This may be true on the spiritual-mind plane: there the first ecstasy felt is indeed a spiritual rapture, but it can be and is very usually mingled with a supreme happiness of the vital parts taken up by the Spirit; there is an exaltation, exultation, excitement, a highest intensity of the joy of the heart and the pure inner soul-sensation that can be a splendid passage or an uplifting force but is not the ultimate permanent foundation. But in the highest ascents of the spiritual bliss there is not this vehement exaltation and excitement; there is instead an illimitable intensity of participation in an eternal ecstasy which is founded on the eternal Existence and therefore on a beatific tranquillity of eternal peace. Peace and ecstasy cease to be different and become one. The Supermind, reconciling and fusing all differences as well as all contradictions, brings out this unity; a wide calm and a deep delight of all-existence are among its first steps of self-realisation, but this calm and this delight rise together, as one state, into an increasing intensity and culminate in the eternal ecstasy, the bliss that is the Infinite.” The Life Divine
*Sri Aurobindo: "Pity may be reserved, so long as thy soul makes distinctions, for the suffering animals; but humanity deserves from thee something nobler; it asks for love, for understanding, for comradeship, for the help of the equal & brother.” Essays Divine and Human
Sri Aurobindo: ". . . the feeling of sure expectation of another"s help and reliance on his word, character etc.” Letters on Yoga
Sri Aurobindo: “The legend of the Tower of Babel speaks of the diversity of tongues as a curse laid on the race; but whatever its disadvantages, and they tend more and more to be minimised by the growth of civilisation and increasing intercourse, it has been rather a blessing than a curse, a gift to mankind rather than a disability laid upon it. The purposeless exaggeration of anything is always an evil, and an excessive pullulation of varying tongues that serve no purpose in the expression of a real diversity of spirit and culture is certainly a stumbling-block rather than a help: but this excess, though it existed in the past, is hardly a possibility of the future. The tendency is rather in the opposite direction. In former times diversity of language helped to create a barrier to knowledge and sympathy, was often made the pretext even of an actual antipathy and tended to a too rigid division. The lack of sufficient interpenetration kept up both a passive want of understanding and a fruitful crop of active misunderstandings. But this was an inevitable evil of a particular stage of growth, an exaggeration of the necessity that then existed for the vigorous development of strongly individualised group-souls in the human race. These disadvantages have not yet been abolished, but with closer intercourse and the growing desire of men and nations for the knowledge of each other’s thought and spirit and personality, they have diminished and tend to diminish more and more and there is no reason why in the end they should not become inoperative.” The Human Cycle. Babel-builders’.
Sri Aurobindo: "What is meant by hell is a painful passage through the vital or lingering there, as for instance, in many cases of suicide where one remains surrounded by the forces of suffering and turmoil created by this unnatural and violent exit.” *Letters on Yoga
stayed ::: supported, sustained, held up (a person or thing).
storm ::: 1. An atmospheric disturbance manifested in strong winds accompanied by rain, snow, or other precipitation and often by thunder and lightning. Also fig. 2. A passionate manifestation of a particular feeling or quality. 3. takes by storm. Captures or overruns by a violent assault; overwhelms. storms, storm-charge, storm-haired, storm-licked, storm-sweeps, storm-troubled, storm-winged.
stricken ::: affected by something overwhelming, such as disease, trouble, or painful emotion.
stunned ::: filled with the emotional impact of overwhelming surprise or shock.
subconscient ::: Sri Aurobindo: "In our yoga we mean by the subconscient that quite submerged part of our being in which there is no wakingly conscious and coherent thought, will or feeling or organised reaction, but which yet receives obscurely the impressions of all things and stores them up in itself and from it too all sorts of stimuli, of persistent habitual movements, crudely repeated or disguised in strange forms can surge up into dream or into the waking nature. No, subliminal is a general term used for all parts of the being which are not on the waking surface. Subconscient is very often used in the same sense by European psychologists because they do not know the difference. But when I use the word, I mean always what is below the ordinary physical consciousness, not what is behind it. The inner mental, vital, physical, the psychic are not subconscious in this sense, but they can be spoken of as subliminal.” *The Synthesis of Yoga.
"The subconscient is a concealed and unexpressed inarticulate consciousness which works below all our conscious physical activities. Just as what we call the superconscient is really a higher consciousness above from which things descend into the being, so the subconscient is below the body-consciousness and things come up into the physical, the vital and the mind-nature from there.
Just as the higher consciousness is superconscient to us and supports all our spiritual possibilities and nature, so the subconscient is the basis of our material being and supports all that comes up in the physical nature.” Letters on Yoga
"That part of us which we can strictly call subconscient because it is below the level of mind and conscious life, inferior and obscure, covers the purely physical and vital elements of our constitution of bodily being, unmentalised, unobserved by the mind, uncontrolled by it in their action. It can be held to include the dumb occult consciousness, dynamic but not sensed by us, which operates in the cells and nerves and all the corporeal stuff and adjusts their life process and automatic responses. It covers also those lowest functionings of submerged sense-mind which are more operative in the animal and in plant life.” *The Life Divine
"The subconscient is a thing of habits and memories and repeats persistently or whenever it can old suppressed reactions, reflexes, mental, vital or physical responses. It must be trained by a still more persistent insistence of the higher parts of the being to give up its old responses and take on the new and true ones.” Letters on Yoga
"About the subconscient — it is the sub-mental base of the being and is made up of impressions, instincts, habitual movements that are stored there. Whatever movement is impressed in it, it keeps. If one impresses the right movement in it, it will keep and send up that. That is why it has to be cleared of old movements before there can be a permanent and total change in the nature. When the higher consciousness is once established in the waking parts, it goes down into the subconscient and changes that also, makes a bedrock of itself there also.” Letters on Yoga
"The sub-conscious is the evolutionary basis in us, it is not the whole of our hidden nature, nor is it the whole origin of what we are. But things can rise from the subconscient and take shape in the conscious parts and much of our smaller vital and physical instincts, movements, habits, character-forms has this source.” Letters on Yoga
"The subconscient is the support of habitual action — it can support good habits as well as bad.” Letters on Yoga
"For the subconscient is the Inconscient in the process of becoming conscious; it is a support and even a root of our inferior parts of being and their movements.” The Life Divine *subconscient"s.
subtle Matter ::: Sri Aurobindo: "Much more than half our thoughts and feelings are not our own in the sense that they take form out of ourselves; of hardly anything can it be said that it is truly original to our nature. A large part comes to us from others or from the environment, whether as raw material or as manufactured imports; but still more largely they come from universal Nature here or from other worlds and planes and their beings and powers and influences; for we are overtopped and environed by other planes of consciousness, mind planes, life planes, subtle matter planes, from which our life and action here are fed, or fed on, pressed, dominated, made use of for the manifestation of their forms and forces.” *The Synthesis of Yoga
"Mind therefore is held by the Hindus to be a species of subtle matter in which ideas are waves or ripples, and it is not limited by the physical body which it uses as an instrument.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
"All that manifested from the Eternal has already been arranged in worlds or planes of its own nature, planes of subtle Matter, planes of Life, planes of Mind, planes of Supermind, planes of the triune luminous Infinite. But these worlds or planes are not evolutionary but typal. A typal world is one in which some ruling principle manifests itself in its free and full capacity and energy and form are plastic and subservient to its purpose. Its expressions are therefore automatic and satisfying and do not need to evolve; they stand so long as need be and do not need to be born, develop, decline and disintegrate.” Essays Divine and Human*
SUCCESS. ::: There arc always two elements in spiritual success — one’s own steady will and endeavour and the Power that in one way or another helps and gives the result of endeavour.
succour ::: relief, help or assistance, esp. in time of difficulty.
*sun"s, suns, sun-beams, sun-beat, sun-blaze, sun-bright, sun-capped,, sun-clear, sun-dream, sun-eyed, sun-frank, sun-gaze, sun-gazing, sun-god"s, sun-gold, sun-held, sun-herds, sun-kissed, sun-laugh, sun-lift, sun-like, sun-march, sun-orb, sun-steppes, sun-stone, sun-thoughts, sun-vast, sun-veil, sun-white, sun-word, Sun-Word.
support and help towards the realisation ; they are in every way acceptable.
surcharged ::: overcharged; filled to excess; overwhelmed; overloaded. Also fig.
Tehmi: “The false light that comes from hell.”
tent ::: a portable shelter, as of canvas, stretched over a supporting framework of poles with ropes and pegs. Also fig. **tents, tent-posts.**
tenting ::: something resembling such a portable shelter in construction or outline. (Said of Savitri"s eyelids.)
“That part of us which we can strictly call subconscient because it is below the level of mind and conscious life, inferior and obscure, covers the purely physical and vital elements of our constitution of bodily being, unmentalised, unobserved by the mind, uncontrolled by it in their action. It can be held to include the dumb occult consciousness, dynamic but not sensed by us, which operates in the cells and nerves and all the corporeal stuff and adjusts their life process and automatic responses. It covers also those lowest functionings of submerged sense-mind which are more operative in the animal and in plant life.” The Life Divine
the help of the Teacher can intervene and bring about what is needed for the realisation or for the immediate step that is necessary.
"The Divine Grace is there ready to act at every moment, but it manifests as one grows out of the Law of Ignorance into the Law of Light, and it is meant, not as an arbitrary caprice, however miraculous often its intervention, but as a help in that growth and a Light that leads and eventually delivers.” Letters on Yoga
“The Divine Grace is there ready to act at every moment, but it manifests as one grows out of the Law of Ignorance into the Law of Light, and it is meant, not as an arbitrary caprice, however miraculous often its intervention, but as a help in that growth and a Light that leads and eventually delivers.” Letters on Yoga
"The gods are the powers of Light, the children of Infinity, forms and personalities of the one Godhead who by their help and by their growth and human workings in man raise him to the truth and the immortality.” The Secret of the Veda
“The gods are the powers of Light, the children of Infinity, forms and personalities of the one Godhead who by their help and by their growth and human workings in man raise him to the truth and the immortality.” The Secret of the Veda
— the Grace of the Divine Mother and on your side an inner state made up of faith, sincerity and surrender. Let your faith be pure, cancfid and perfect. An egoistic faith in the mental and vital being tainted by arabidoo, pride, vanity, mental arrogance, vital self-will, personal demand, desire for petty satisfaction of the lower nature is a low and smokc-obscurcd flame that cannot bum upwards to heaven. Regard your life as given you only for the divine work and to help in the dirine manifestation.
"The inner vision is an open door on higher planes of consciousness beyond the physical mind which gives room for a wider truth and experience to enter and act upon the mind. It is not the only or the most important door, but it is one which comes readiest to very many if not most and can be a very powerful help.” Letters on Yoga
“The inner vision is an open door on higher planes of consciousness beyond the physical mind which gives room for a wider truth and experience to enter and act upon the mind. It is not the only or the most important door, but it is one which comes readiest to very many if not most and can be a very powerful help.” Letters on Yoga
the ionner progress into the external nature and life and helps the integrality ol the sadhana.
Then there arc experiences that help or lead towards the realisation of things spiritual or divine or bring openings or progressions in the sadhana or arc supports on the way, — experiences of a symbolic character, visions, contacts of one kind or another with the Divine or with the workings of higher Truth, things like the waking of the Kundalini, the opening of the
theocracies ::: systems of government in which God or a deity is held to be the civil ruler; thearchy.
The psychic part oS us is something that comes direct from the Divine and is in touch with the Divine. In its origin Jt is the nucleus pregnant with divine possibilities that supports this lower triple ma^estation of mind, life and body. There is this divine element in all living beings, but it stands bidden behind the ordinary cemsdousness, is not at first developed and, even when developed, is not always or often in the front ; it expresses itself so far as the imperfection of the instruments anon’s, by their means and imdcr their limitations. It grows in the cons- ciousness by Godward experience, gaining strength every time there is a Wgher movement in us, and, finally, by the accumu- lation of these deeper and higher movements, there is developed a psychic individuality, — that which we call usually the psychic being, ft is afways tius p^-chic hem? ffcif £f c&e reaf, often the secret cause of man’s turning to the spiritual life and his greatest help in it.
There are those that are sound as weD as those that are unsound ; those that are helpful, in the true line, sometimes sign- posts, sometimes stages on the way to realisation, sometimes stuff and material of realisation.
There must be a Will and a Force that mate the consciousness effective. Somebody may have the full consciousness of what has to be changed, what has to go and what has to come in its place, but may be helpless to make the change. Another may have the will-force, but for want of a li^t awareness may be unable to apply it in the right way at the right place. The advantage of being in the true consciousness is that you have the right awareness and its will being in harmony with the
The sounds of bells arc signs of the opening of the inner consciousness which brings with it an opening also to sights and sounds of other planes than the physical. Some of these things like the sound* of bells, crickets etc. seem even to help the opening.
The theory of the Mantra is that it is a word of power bom out of the secret depths of our being where it has been brooded upon by a deeper consciousness than the mental, framed In the heart and not constructed by the intellect, held in the mind, again concentrated on by the waking mental consciousness and then thrown out silently or vocally — the silent word is perhaps held to be more potent than the spoken — precisely for the work of creation. The Mantra can not only Create new subjective states in ourselves, alter our p^chical being, reveal knowledge and faculties we did not before possess, can not only produce similar results in other minds than that of the user, but can pro- duce vibrations in the mental and vital atmosphere which result in effects, in actions and even in the production of material forms on the physical place. ’
"The theory of the Mantra is that it is a word of power born out of the secret depths of our being where it has been brooded upon by a deeper consciousness than the mental, framed in the heart and not constructed by the intellect, held in the mind, again concentrated on by the waking mental consciousness and then thrown out silently or vocally — the silent word is perhaps held to be more potent than the spoken — precisely for the work of creation. The Mantra can not only create new subjective states in ourselves, alter our psychical being, reveal knowledge and faculties we did not before possess, can not only produce similar results in other minds than that of the user, but can produce vibrations in the mental and vital atmosphere which result in effects, in actions and even in the production of material forms on the physical plane.” The Upanishads
“The theory of the Mantra is that it is a word of power born out of the secret depths of our being where it has been brooded upon by a deeper consciousness than the mental, framed in the heart and not constructed by the intellect, held in the mind, again concentrated on by the waking mental consciousness and then thrown out silently or vocally—the silent word is perhaps held to be more potent than the spoken—precisely for the work of creation. The Mantra can not only create new subjective states in ourselves, alter our psychical being, reveal knowledge and faculties we did not before possess, can not only produce similar results in other minds than that of the user, but can produce vibrations in the mental and vital atmosphere which result in effects, in actions and even in the production of material forms on the physical plane.” The Upanishads
“The theory of the Mantra is that it is a word of power born out of the secret depths of our being where it has been brooded upon by a deeper consciousness than the mental, framed in the heart and not constructed by the intellect, held in the mind, again concentrated on by the waking mental consciousness and then thrown out silently or vocally—the silent word is perhaps held to be more potent than the spoken—precisely for the work of creation. The Mantra can not only create new subjective states in ourselves, alter our psychical being, reveal knowledge and faculties we did not before possess, can not only produce similar results in other minds than that of the user, but can produce vibrations in the mentaland vital atmosphere which result ineffects, in actions and even in theproduction of material forms on the physical plane.” The Upanishads
The weakness of Hatha Yoga is that its laborious and difficult processes make so great a demand on the time and energy and impose so complete a severance from the ordinary life of men that the utilisation of its results for the life of the world becomes either impracticable or is extraordinarily restricted. The physical results, increased vitality, prolonged youth, health, longevity are of small avail if they must be held by us as misers of ourselves apart from the common life for their own sake, not utilised, not thrown into the common sura of the world’s activity. Hatha
This habit of fixed recurrence gives a great force for any illness to persist, as the body consciousness expects the recurrence and the expectation helps it to come.
' Th’o rvnj'J of doing the yoga ::: One by the action of a vigi- lant mind and s’ital seeing, observing, thinking and deciding wbat is or not to be done. The other way h that of the psychic being, the consciousness opening to the Divine, not only opening the psychic and bringing it forward, but opening the mind, the vital and the physical, receiving the light, perceiving what is to be done, feeling and seeing it done by the Divine Force itself and helping constantly by its own vigilant and conscious assent to and call for the Divine Worldng.
Those feeling do not really help, on the contrary, they are an immense obstacle and hamper the progress. They belong to the reli^ous, not to the yopc mentality. The yo^ should look on all the defects of the nature calmly, firmly and persistently with full confidence in the Divine Power — without weakness or dep- ression or negligence and without excitement, impatience or violence.
thought-Mind ::: Sri Aurobindo: "Our first decisive step out of our human intelligence, our normal mentality, is an ascent into a higher Mind, a mind no longer of mingled light and obscurity or half-light, but a large clarity of the Spirit. Its basic substance is a unitarian sense of being with a powerful multiple dynamisation capable of the formation of a multitude of aspects of knowledge, ways of action, forms and significances of becoming, of all of which there is a spontaneous inherent knowledge. It is therefore a power that has proceeded from the Overmind, — but with the Supermind as its ulterior origin, — as all these greater powers have proceeded: but its special character, its activity of consciousness are dominated by Thought; it is a luminous thought-mind, a mind of Spirit-born conceptual knowledge. An all-awareness emerging from the original identity, carrying the truths the identity held in itself, conceiving swiftly, victoriously, multitudinously, formulating and by self-power of the Idea effectually realising its conceptions, is the character of this greater mind of knowledge. " *The Life Divine
Titan ::: : “His [the Titan’s] instincts call for a visible, tangible mastery and a sensational domination. How shall he feel sure of his empire unless he can feel something writhing helpless under his heel,—if in agony, so much the better? What is exploitation to him, unless it diminishes the exploited? To be able to coerce, exact, slay, overtly, irresistibly,—it is this that fills him with the sense of glory and dominion. For he is the son of division and the strong flowering of the Ego. To feel the comparative limitation of others is necessary to him that he may imagine himself immeasurable; for he has not the real, self-existent sense of infinity which no outward circumstance can abrogate. Contrast, division, negation of the wills and lives of others are essential to his self-development and self-assertion. The Titan would unify by devouring, not by harmonising; he must conquer and trample what is not himself either out of existence or into subservience so that his own image may stand out stamped upon all things and dominating all his environment.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
To keep up work helps to keep up the balance between the internal experience and the external development; otherwise one-sidedness and want of measure and balance may develop. hforcover, it is necessary to keep the .sadhana of work for t e
To want unwaveringly the welfare of another both in the head and the heart, is the best help one can give.
TRUST. ::: The feeling of sure expectation of anoihcr's help and reliance on his word, character etc.
trust ::: “… the feeling of sure expectation of another’s help and reliance on his word, character etc.” Letters on Yoga
tumbled ::: that has fallen helplessly down, end over end; also, disturbed, rumpled, or tossed around.
unhelped :::
". . . universal love is not personal — it has to be held within as a condition of the consciousness which will have its effects according to the Divine Will or be used by that Will if necessary; . . . .” Letters on Yoga ::: *love"s, loves, loved, loving, love-chained, love-maddened, love-music, love-note, all-love, All-love, All-Love.
“… universal love is not personal—it has to be held within as a condition of the consciousness which will have its effects according to the Divine Will or be used by that Will if necessary; …” Letters on Yoga
Universal love is not personal ; it has to be held within as a condition of the consciousness which will have its elTccts accord- ing to the Divine Will or be used by that Will if necessary.
upheld :::
VAIRACYA. ::: A liberating distaste. The vaimgya of one who has tasted the world’s gifts or prizes but found them insufficient or tasteless and turns away towards a higher ideal or the vaiVngya of one who has done his part in life’s battles but seen that some- thing greater is demanded of the soul, is perfectly helpful and a good gate to the yoga.
Vital being — its four parts: There arc four parts of the vital being — first, the mental vital which gives a mental expres- sion by thought, speech or otherwise to the emotions, desires, passions, sensations and other movements of the vital being ; the emotional vital which is the scat of various feelings such as love, Joy, sorrow, hatred, and the rest ; the central vital which is the seat of the stronger rilal longings and reactions, e.g. ambi- tion, pride, fear, love of fame, attractions and repulsions, desires and passions of various kinds and the held of many vital ener- gies ; last, the lower vital which is occupied with small desires and feelings, such as make the greater part of daily life, e.g. food desire, sexual desire, small likings, dislikings, vanity, quarrels, love of praise, anger at blame, little wishes of all kinds — and a numberless host of other tlungs. Their respective seats are
Vital joy ::: Though it is a very helpful thing for the ordinary human life, vital joy is something excited, eager, mobile wnfhout a settled basis — that is why it soon gels tired and cannot con- tinue. Vital joy has to be replaced by a quiet settled psychic gladness with the mind and vital very clear and very peaceful.
What one fears has the tendency to come until one is able to look at it in the face and overcome one’s shrinking. One must learn to take one’s foundation on the Divine and overcome the fear, relying on the help to carry one through all things even unpleasant and adverse.
When there is something in the nature that has to be got over, it is always drawing on itself incidents that put it to the test till the sadhaka has overcome and is free. At least it is a thing that often happens especially if the person is making a sincere effort to overcome. One docs not always know whether it is the hostiles who are trying to break the resolution or putting it to the test (for they claim the right to do it) or whether it is, let us say, the gods who are doing it so as to press and hasten the progress or insisting on the surety and thoroughness of the change aspired after. Perhaps it helps most when' one can take it from the latter standpoint.
When the resistance in the body is too strong and persistent, it can help to take some aid of physical means as an instru- mentation for the Force to work more directly on the body itself ; for the body then feels itself supported against the resistance from both sides, by means physical as well as supra-
Work and meditation ::: Those who have an expansive creative vital or a vital made for action are usually at their best when the vital is not held back from its movement and they can deve- lop faster by it than by introspective meditation. All that is needed is that the action should be dedicated, so that they may grow by it more and more prepared to feel and follow the Divine
Yoga has always its difficulties, whatever yoga it be. More- over, it acts in a different way on different seekers. Some have to overcome the difficulties of their nature first before they get any experiences to speak of, others get a splendid beginning and all the difficulties afterwards, others go on for a long time having alternate risings to the top of the wave and then a descent into the gulfs and so on till the difficulty is worked out, others have a smooth path which does not mean that they have no diffi- culties — they have plenty, but they do not care a straw for them, because they feel that the Divine will help them to the goal or that he is with them even when they do not feel him
Yoga SaKli ::: There is a force which accompanies the growth of the new consciousness and at once grows with it and helps it to come about and to perfect itself. This force is the Yoga
KEYS (10k)
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*** WISDOM TROVE ***
*** NEWFULLDB 2.4M ***
1:Hel. What I can do can do no hurt to try, ~ William Shakespeare, #NFDB
2:Ra warbled, ‘Hel-lo-o-o-o-o!’ and stumbled to his feet. He began ~ Rick Riordan, #NFDB
3:I sworn thee fair, and thought thee bright
Who art cold as Hel, as dark as night ~ William Shakespeare,#NFDB
4:Humans were never meant to be vegetarian,” Hel bubbled, her face and fangs black with fluids. ~ Michael Scott, #NFDB
5:For every hero, a thousand cowards," said Hel. "For every brave death, a thousand senseless ones. ~ Rick Riordan, #NFDB
6:And there is the place named after its ruler: Hel, where the dead go who did not die bravely in battle ~ Neil Gaiman, #NFDB
7:I will call my bowl Hunger,” said Hel. She picked up a knife. “This is called Famine. And my bed is called Sickbed. ~ Neil Gaiman, #NFDB
8:Kärleken var död. Döden var död. En hel massa saker var döda. Vissa, däremot, var det inte, eller i alla fall inte än. ~ Ali Smith, #NFDB
9:Den musik man redan har räcker inte en hel livstid, inte om man lyssnar på musik varje dag och så fort man kommer åt. ~ Nick Hornby, #NFDB
10:Ni ger oss skärvor av liv istället för livet. Jag vill inte bara smaka på allt utan att någonsin få njuta av en hel måltid. ~ Ally Condie, #NFDB
11:Eriskigal, or as some say it, Erishkigal, is Morgan le Fay, Kali, Persephone, and Hel.'
'She's Hel all right,' Jarrah muttered. ~ Michael Grant,#NFDB
12:Do something!" Norwood told him.
"Do what?" Uncle Mort's face was furious. "Fly up there and get it? You bring your broomstick, Hel? ~ Gina Damico,#NFDB
13:Varje natt på Klara Norra tillbads han och offrades, hans kropp styckades och åts, och nästa morgon återföddes han hel och levde igen. ~ Jonas Gardell, #NFDB
14:Dem. Tempt not too much the hatred of my spirit, For I am sick when I do look on you.212 Hel. And I am sick when I look not on you. ~ William Shakespeare, #NFDB
15:Aww, Hel," I say, a smile finding my face. "This is where we met! When I was first Raised, long ago ... you were sweet ... I was screaming ... ~ Daryl Banner, #NFDB
16:Hoe kon je eigen leven je zo weinig waard zijn? Maar van lieverlee begreep ik het. Als je eigen bestaan de hel op aarde is geworden, dan moet de dood wel hemels zijn. ~ Jodi Picoult, #NFDB
17:Hana: What on Earth is a 'barbeque'? Hel: A primitive tribal ritual featuring paper plates, elbows, flying insects, encrusted meat, hush puppies, and beer. Hana: I daren't ask what a 'hush puppy' is. Hel: Don't. ~ Trevanian, #NFDB
18:Ik ga jullie aura's leegzuigen en jullie herinneringen opslorpen,' zei ze. 'Een waar festijn.'
'Ik ga mijn smerigste gedachten denken terwijl je me leegzuigt,' beloofde Hel. 'Ik ga je indigestie bezorgen. ~ Michael Scott,#NFDB
19:What about a warning system?" Heloise said.
"The entire encounter lasted less than five seconds, Hel. I doubt that even with your admirable ability to sprint in heels, you would have been able to get there in time. ~ Gina Damico,#NFDB
20:I am Hel,” she agreed. “Sometimes called Hela, though most mortals dare not speak my name at all. No jokes, Magnus Chase? Who the Hel are you? What the Hel do you want? You look Hela bad. I was expecting more bravado. ~ Rick Riordan, #NFDB
21:Maybe we can hold the windows and doors,” Mars said doubtfully. The ruined building was little more than a shell, with no roof and gaping empty rectangles for windows. “But if they charge us …” “They’re charging!” Hel shouted. ~ Michael Scott, #NFDB
22:Why don’t high school math teachers ever come up with cool problems like this? If a 150-pound Irish wolfhound launches himself at seventeen miles per hour at a 250-pound draugr, will that dead motherfucker go down? The answer is Hel yes. ~ Kevin Hearne, #NFDB
23:Hel-lo, Morgan.” Staring at her mouth, he licked his lips, slowly, deliberately. Slimily. Was that a word? “Who are you?” she asked. He leered. “Whoever you want me to be.” What. A. Sleeze. She tilted her head as if she wasn’t very bright and didn’t understand. ~ Melinda Leigh, #NFDB
24:Even the early droplets of selfish decisions suggest a direction. Then the little inflecting rivulets come, merging into small brooks and soon into larger streams; finally one is swept along by a vast river which flows into the “gulf of misery and endless wo” (Hel. 5:12). ~ Neal A Maxwell, #NFDB
25:You're somethin' else, Hel. Know that? Dodged the sea toad, got rescued off that damned comet, bisected ol' Bron Elgar like a bagel out there on Cravat ... How the hell you get away from those damn fish down in the Glory Hole? Man, you got more lives than a New York alleycat. ~ Julian May, #NFDB
26:tiden är ett hav, inte en flod [...]. Den flyter inte iväg och rinner ut. Den bara är ‒ evig och hel. Dödliga kanske rör sig i en riktning, men det säger inget om dess sanna natur, bara om våra begränsningar. Det förflutna och framtiden är något vi själva har konstruerat (s. 559). ~ Laini Taylor, #NFDB
27:I am the mother of Odin's stallion, Sleipnir. I am the father of Fenrir Sun-Eater, and of Hel Half-Rotted and of Jormungund the World-Serpent. I am Loki Scar-Lip, Loki Skywalker, Loki Giant's Child, Loki Lie-Smith. I am Loki, who is fire and wit and hate. I am Loki. And I will be under an obligation to no one. ~ Neil Gaiman, #NFDB
28:All right. But take my advice, Mr. Hel. Don’t let this chance get away. Opportunity doesn’t knock twice, you know.”
“Penetrating observation. Did you make up the epigram?”
“I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Very well. And ask the guard to knock on my cell door twice. I wouldn’t want to confuse him with opportunity. ~ Trevanian,#NFDB
29:So what's plan B, exactly?"
"You heard Saga." I glanced at Connor. "The bogs. Saga said there are some runaway Hel-Blar with collars living there. So I'll be bait. They'll chase me, thinking I'm weak. And then you'll grab one."
Quinn looked at Connor then groaned. "On my God, it's like talking to Lucy. ~ Alyxandra Harvey,#NFDB
30:De indivualiteit heeft de plaats ingenomen van het geloof, de rede die van de bijbel, de politiek die van de godsdienst en de kerk, de hemel is door de aarde, het gebed door de arbeid, de hel door de ellende en Christus door de mens vervangen.' De hel zal dan van deze wereld zijn en tegen die wereldse hel zal men moeten strijden. ~ Albert Camus, #NFDB
31:I’d heard so much about this new recruit being a monster that I half expected him to turn into a living corpse like the goddess Hel, or a miniature version of the sea serpent Jormungand. Instead, the animal grew into a regular human teen, long and lanky, with a swirl of dyed green hair, black at the roots, like a plug of weeds pulled out of a lawn. ~ Rick Riordan, #NFDB
32:I was overjoyed to spy Milo among them. He caught sight of me and came running to the doorway. “Glau--I mean, Hel--Atalanta, there you are! I--” He dropped his voice sharply so that no one else could hear him say, “I’ve missed you.”
“I’ve missed you, too,” I said as I led him off. The other men catcalled after us, but we ignored them. ~ Esther M Friesner,#NFDB
33:I leaped toward her, landing behind her to guard her back before the Hel-Blar reached us. She shot me a half-surprised, half-grateful glance. The moon glinted on her sword and the chain mail sewn into the leather of her tunic, over her heart.
“Stay close,” I told her.
She snorted. “I have a sword and you have a butter knife. Staying close is about your only option. ~ Alyxandra Harvey,#NFDB
34:De onzekerheid maakt me gek. Alles is onzeker. Er is geen houvast. En daardoor wordt ook het denken onzeker, mijn gedachten zijn een hel. Alleen de dood is zeker. Alleen de dood kan mijn gedachten stopzetten. Daarom wil ik dood. Op dat soort momenten.'
'Het is een illusie te denken dat de dood een oplossing is.'
'Die illusie is op dit soort momenten aangenamer dan het leven. ~ Arnon Grunberg,#NFDB
35:In niets onderscheidden ze zich van de heikneuters waar ze later hun voeten op zouden vegen. Het waren nullen in elke betekenis van het woord, nullen die de kern vormen van een fatsoenlijk en jammerlijk burgerdom. Ze sliepen best en klaagde nooit; ze waren niet vrolijk en niet ongelukkig. De onverschilligen die Dante naar het voorportaal van de Hel heeft verwezen. De lui van de bovenlaag. ~ Henry Miller, #NFDB
36:Morgon, I told you what I am; you could see what dark power I was waking in me—you knew its origins. You knew I am kin to those shape-changers who tried to kill you, you thought I was helping the man who had betrayed you—why in Hel’s name did you trust me?” His hands, circling the gold crown on the skull, closed on the worn metal with sudden strength. “I don’t know. Because I chose to. Then, and forever. ~ Patricia A McKillip, #NFDB
37:THE NINE WORLDS ASGARD—the home of the Aesir VANAHEIM—the home of the Vanir ALFHEIM—the home of the light elves MIDGARD—the home of humans JOTUNHEIM—the home of the giants NIDAVELLIR—the home of the dwarves NIFLHEIM—the world of ice, fog, and mist MUSPELLHEIM—the home of the fire giants and demons HELHEIM—the home of Hel and the dishonorable dead RUNES (IN ORDER OF MENTION) FEHU—the rune of Frey OTHALA—inheritance ~ Rick Riordan, #NFDB
38:Try not to look like a cop," I told Jenna. She shook her shoulders and tried again. "Or a bodyguard."
She winced sheepishly. "I can't help it."
"Try looking scared to death like Tyson instead," I suggested. Tyson just swallowed, his Adan's apple bobbing frantically. I patted his shoulder. "You'd rather come face to fang with a Hel-Blar, wouldn't you?"
"Hell, yeah. Way less scary than girls," he muttered. ~ Alyxandra Harvey,#NFDB
39:When Hel and I were Fivers, a Barbarian raiding party took us prisoner. I was trussed like a festival-day goat, but they tied Helene's hands in front of her with twine and propped her on the back of a pony, assuming she was harmless. That night, she used the twine to garrote three of our jailers and broke the necks of the other three with her bare hands.
“They always underestimate me,” she said afterward, sounding puzzled. ~ Sabaa Tahir,#NFDB
40:I’m surprised you know so much about using it.”
“Sure. I guess I’m a geek that way.”
I smiled. “You are definitely not a geek.”
He grinned. “Hel-lo,” he said, pointing at himself. “Student library aide.”
I laughed, half-tempted to point out that at least he was a hot library aide. And he definitely didn’t get those bulging muscles in his forearms by shelving books. “Could be worse. You could be a hall monitor. ~ Mindee Arnett,#NFDB
41:KUNGEN Nå, Hamlet, var är Polonius?
HAMLET På supé.
KUNGEN På supé? Var då?
HAMLET Inte där han spisar utan där han spisas. En hel konselj av intrigerande maskar håller på med honom. Masken är den som vinner till slut. Vi göder alla andra kreatur för att göda oss själva, och vi göder oss själva för maskarna. En fet kung och en mager tiggare är bara variationer på menyn - två rätter på samma bord. Det är slutet på visan. ~ William Shakespeare,#NFDB
42:We need to buy some time," Connor said, frowning at the Hel-Blar. "And we're running out of stakes."
"We could blow up the car," I suggested. Kieran didn't even look surprised, though it was his car.
"What is it with you and blowing up shit?" Quinn asked as Magda leaped off the hood, stabbing down with two daggers and catching two Hel-Blar at the same time. She was like a feral cat in a rainstorm, all claws and teeth.
"Hey, I didn't blow up that ghost town. That was all Hunter. ~ Alyxandra Harvey,#NFDB
43:She really talks to you, doesn't she?" She asked. "it's not just you talking to her. She talks BACK."
"hel, half the time she starts it." I said, half-defensively. "I know it's weird."
"Well, yes, it's weird. Technically, I think it's insane. But who am I to judge?" Maggie shrugged. "I live in a house most people view as the setting of a horror movie waiting to happen, with an army of security ninjas and a couple dozen epileptic dogs for company. I don't think I'm qualified to pass judgement on 'weird'. ~ Mira Grant,#NFDB
44:He was in love with his wife.
The knowledge came like a tidal wave that swept him up and knocked him over to then rise, coughing and bruised, shaking his head as he wondered what the hel had happened. He stood there in the middle of the room as she ignored him, and watched his life veer off the main highway to a road fil ed with rocks and brush and potholes.
Staggered with emotion, he took a step back as if to retreat from the whole mess.
Son of a bitch.
He was in love with his wife. ~ Jennifer Probst,#NFDB
45:What's going on, miscreant?" Logan stood in the doorway, wearing his favorite frock coat as usual, but there were rips in his jeans.
I lifted my eyebrows at his pants. "Holes?" He was impeccable about his fancy goth clothes.
"Isabeau," he admitted ruefully. "The Hounds are a great tribe, but they have no sense of fashion."
"So she tore your jeans?"
He grinned. "No, she tore at a Hel-Blar. I just happened to get in the way."
I grinned back at him. "Cool." Have I mentioned? Our girlfriends are fierce. ~ Alyxandra Harvey,#NFDB
46:Når nogen viser dig, hvor lidt du betyder for dem, og du bliver ved med at komme tilbage efter mere, begynder du, for du ved af det, at betyde mindre for dig selv. Du er ikke lavet af portioner! Du er en hel person! Hvad bliver sagt til dig, bliver sagt til hele dig, ditto hvad der bliver gjort. At blive behandlet som lort er ikke et spændende spil eller et grænseoverskridende, intellektuelt eksperiment. Det er noget, du accepterer, tolererer, og lærer at tro, du fortjener. Det er så enkelt. Men jeg provede så hårdt på at gore det kompliceret. ~ Lena Dunham, #NFDB
47:De hel van de levenden is niet iets wat zal zijn; als er een is, dan is het de hel die hier al is, de hel die wij dag in dag uit bewonen, die we vormen door onze samenleving. Er zijn twee manieren om er niet onder te lijden. De eerste valt velen makkelijk: de hel aanvaarden en er deel van gaan uitmaken tot je op het punt bent gekomen dat je hem niet meer ziet. De tweede is riskant en vereist ononderbroken aandacht en studie: zoeken en weten te herkennen wie en wat er, temidden van de hel, geen hel is, dat laten voortduren, en er ruimte aan geven. ~ Italo Calvino, #NFDB
48:Nicholas pulled back slightly but his gaze stayed scorchingly fastened on Lucy, even when he spoke. “Aggie, go beat someone up.”
“I already did.” She absolutely, positively would not blush. The front door slammed open. “Or Cal did. Hel-Blar. And something else beat up Fletcher. He’s in the living room.”
Nicholas pushed away from Lucy. “You know, most people collect stray dogs, not rabid homicidal teenagers.”
“But I don’t know anything about dogs,” she grinned, before slipping past him to get the first aid kit from the shelf by the door. ~ Alyxandra Harvey,#NFDB
49:Maar dan was ons s’n nie bloot seks nie. Dit sou teleurstellend wees. Ons s’n was seismologie. Eers ligte waarskuwings van tektoniese aktiwiteit, gevolg deur ontruimingsaksies in jou bloedvate. Dan iets wat deur die aardkors in jou bene intrek en tsoenami’s wat deur jou buik golf in faktore van tien. Die vonke was van die kaliber wat spat; daar waar die hemel en hel bots en goed en kwaad skouers skuur. Dan later, veel later, die Doppler-effek; ’n afplatting van sirenes soos dit terugtrek die stiltes in. Dan naskokke en katarsis; die skadebeheer van ’n lag of noodhulp in ’n fluistering. ~ Steve Hofmeyr, #NFDB
50:Shall I tell you what happened?’ I asked. ‘I died, and died without a sword in my hand, so I was sent to Hel and heard her dark cockerels crowing! They announced my coming, Leiknir, and the Corpse-Ripper came for me.’ I took a pace towards him and he stepped back. ‘The Corpse-Ripper, Leiknir, all rotted flesh peeling from his yellow bones and his eyes like fire and his teeth like horns and his claws like gelding knives. And there was a bone on the floor, a thigh bone, and I picked it up and I ripped it to a point with my own teeth and then I slew him.’ I hefted Serpent-Breath. ‘I am the dead, Leiknir, come to collect the living. Now kick your swords, spears, shields and helmets towards the door. ~ Bernard Cornwell, #NFDB
51:Wait!” I shouted, chasing after him. Leaves sawed at my face and arms as I crashed into the undergrowth. “I have questions! How do I know this is real? What if it’s just a dream with a lowercase d? What if I change my mind about Hel tomorrow?” I stopped. Ganesha was gone, but I still felt presences in the jungle. I turned right and circled around to where I thought they were lurking. I felt them leave as I ran madly through the vegetation, yelling, “Why doesn’t everyone use the metric system? What happened to all of the yeti? How come I’ve never seen my archdruid in Tír na nÓg? Could he be the Most Interesting Man in the World? Why aren’t people from Trinidad and Tobago called Tobaggans? Do you know any Vogon poetry?” I ~ Kevin Hearne, #NFDB
52:Are you coming with us?"
Black Hawk laughed. "Are you insane, or do you think I am? One immortal and three Elders,heading onto an island of monsters. I know who's not coming back from that trip."
Mars worked his head from side to side, easing the stiffness. "He's probably right-he'd slow us down."
"I'll be right here," Black Hawk said, "so that when you all come screaming back here,I'll be able to get you off the island."
Even Hel laughed. "We'll not come screaming to you."
"Have it your way.I'll be here,though. For a while,anyway," he added with a grin.
"I thought you would want to rescue your friend Billy," Mars said.
Black Hawk laughed again. "Trust me, Billy never needs rescuing. Usually people need to be rescued from him. ~ Michael Scott,#NFDB
53:All of them, giants and the dead and the burning sons of Muspell, will travel to the battle plain called Vigrid. Vigrid is huge: three hundred miles across. Fenris Wolf pads his way there also, and the Midgard serpent will navigate the flooded seas until it too is close to Vigrid, then it will writhe up on to the sand and force itself ashore—only its head and the first mile or so of its body. Most of it will remain in the sea. They will form themselves into battle order: Surtr and the sons of Muspell will be there in flames; the warriors of Hel and Loki will be there from beneath the earth; the frost giants will be there, Hrym’s troops, the mud freezing where they stand. Fenrir will be with them, and the Midgard serpent. The worst enemies that the mind can imagine will be there that day. ~ Neil Gaiman, #NFDB
54:Thorgil held out the hand she's been hiding. It was an odd, silvery color. "I can't move my fingers. I'm paralyzed." She laughed bitterly. "Once, Frith Half-Troll threatened to cut off my right hand so I could be a warrior no more. It seems she got her wish."
...
"Remember Tyr? The god who sacrificed his hand to bind the giant wolf? It was a noble deed, to be sung about through all time - and you've done the same!"
Thorgil looked up, and now the morning light reached the camp and shone onto her face. "So I have," she murmured.
"Yes! You'll be known as - what shall we call you? Thorgil Silver-Hand, who fought the Hound of Hel. I'll make a song about it."
"Oh, Jack," whispered the shield maiden. She blinked back tears, then shook her head angrily. "Curse this sunlight. It's making my eyes water... Thorgil Silver-Hand. I like that," she said. ~ Nancy Farmer,#NFDB
55:What the hel—”
“Finally! I can talk!” Janco said.
Ari turned. Janco held the Sandseed’s scimitar in his hand. The man lay on the ground, unconscious.
“Care to explain?” Ari asked.
“Didn’t you see my signals?”
“Yeah. But they didn’t make sense. Five into one and it’s an intrusion.”
“It’s an illusion! Five of them are an illusion.”
“That’s not the signal for illusion. This is.” Ari demonstrated the proper signal.
“That’s what I did.”
“No, you didn’t. You did a weird twisty thing with your pinky.”
“I had a scimitar at my throat. I’d like to see you try signaling under those conditions.”
Ari opened his mouth to retort, but thought better of it. They could argue for weeks and not resolve a thing. He changed tactics. “You did very well. You knocked him unconscious and stopped his magic.”
As expected, Janco preened. ~ Maria V Snyder,#NFDB
56:I slid out of the car. "I bring gross undead creatures of the night," I said, by way of explanation. "A lot of them."
"What the hell?" Quinn asked, even as he winked a hello at Hunter. I was pretty sure that Quinn could be dismembered and still manage to flirt. And for Hunter, he'd find a way to flirt even if he was full on dead and not just plain old undead.
"With Solange out of town, I'm the new undead Pied Piper," I replied, limping closer. Her vampire pheromones had been so strong back when she was possessed that humans had trailed after her, begging to be bitten. So much more hygienic than Hel-Blar. I missed her desperately, even now, facing down danger. Especially now. Facing down danger was something we did together.
"Why are you limping?" Nicholas demanded.
"I broke my ass," I replied. "Now focus." I pointed at Quinn sternly, knowing very well he was about to make some remark about my ass. "Shut it."
"What?" He asked innocently. ~ Alyxandra Harvey,#NFDB
57:Hel-lo, gorgeous.”
Phoebe looked around as she stepped out of Zane’s truck. Standing next to the passenger door was a tall teenager with bright, inquisitive eyes and a welcoming smile. He looked enough like Adam Levine to make it easy for her to guess his identity.
“You must be Chase,” she said.
“In the flesh. And you’re Phoebe.” He looked her over from head to toe, then sighed. “Maya said a lot of great things about you, but she never mentioned you were a goddess.”
The outrageous compliment made Phoebe laugh. “Hardly,” she protested, knowing that with her brown hair, brown eyes and unspectacular features she was little more than average.
“My heart is pounding a mile a minute,” Chase said, moving closer. “Want to feel?”
The driver’s side door slammed shut. “Don’t you have chores?” Zane growled.
Chase took a step back, and his smile cranked down about 50 percent.
“All done. Even the extra ones you gave me. I got started early so I could be finished to welcome Phoebe. ~ Susan Mallery,#NFDB
58:Dnia 1 października o godzinie drugiej po południu ustały działania wojenne według układu kapitulacji. Na pięć minut przed tym, o 13.55, artyleria polska zestrzeliła jeszcze jeden samolot. Odparła ostatni, bardzo gwałtowny nalot wykonany przez Niemców z przyczyn niedających się odgadnąć, zapewne z dzikiej żądzy zabijania Polaków. Był to pięćdziesiąty trzeci samolot zbity w obronie morza. Potem Hel umilkł. Antena na dachu Polski powiedziała światu wszystko. Komandor dostał się do niewoli. Rozminowując pola, według warunków umowy, rozmawiał często z Niemcami. Uważali oni półwysep za niezdobyty. Dowództwo planowało desant, do którego przygotowano sześćdziesiąt okrętów i dwieście bombowców. Przewidywano wysadzenie wojsk z dwu stron broniącej się pozycji. Hel nazywali wulkanem. Mój znajomy nie komentował faktów. Rozumieliśmy się bez tego. Wystarczyło nam spojrzeć dokoła, na wesołe i szczęśliwe morze Brazylii, i porównać je z losem naszych wód, ściśniętych w kostniejącej garści. Kazimierz Wierzyński, Pobojowisko, ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
59:De echtgenote gaat voor hem staan en draait een rondje. Op hoge hakken kunnen haar benen de vergelijking met lang geleden doorstaan. Hun eerste kennismaking, de eerste dagen, de eerste weken. De tijd dat je een onbeschreven blad bent voor de ander, de vrijheid die dat met zich meebrengt, het geluk. Ergens in haar benen zit de vrijheid die Hofmeester is kwijtgeraakt, en weer heeft teruggevonden op Schiphol. Maar toen smaakte die vrijheid hem niet meer, beter gezegd, daar proefde hij de ware smaak van de vrijheid: gal.
Ergens in haar benen zit de herinnering aan geluk. Mooi waren ze altijd al geweest, die benen, lang, slank en toch gespierd. Als ze indruk wilde maken deed ze een korte rok aan. Hij herinnert zich de blikken van de andere mannen, hij herinnert zich de eerste keer dat hij besefte dat hij kinderen had gekregen met een vrouw die eigenlijk te jong voor hem was, die niet bij zijn leeftijd noch zijn status paste. Haar stillevens stelde niet veel voor, maar als stilleven was ze zelf onovertroffen.
De hel waren niet de anderen. Hij was het zelf. De hel zat diep in hem. Verankerd, verborgen en onzichtbaar, maar wel levend en warm. Gloeiend heet. ~ Arnon Grunberg,#NFDB
60:De echtgenote gaat voor hem staan en draait een rondje. Op hoge hakken kunnen haar benen de vergelijking met lang geleden doorstaan. Hun eerste kennismaking, de eerste dagen, de eerste weken. De tijd dat je een onbeschreven blad bent voor de ander, de vrijheid die dat met zich meebrengt, het geluk. Ergens in haar benen zit de vrijheid die Hofmeester is kwijtgeraakt, en weer heeft teruggevonden op Schiphol. Maar toen smaakte die vrijheid hem niet meer, beter gezegd, daar proefde hij de ware smaak van de vrijheid: gal.
Ergens in haar benen zit de herinnering aan geluk. Mooi waren ze altijd al geweest, die benen, lang, slank en toch gespierd. Als ze indruk wilde maken deed ze een korte rok aan. Hij herinnert zich de blikken van de andere mannen, hij herinnert zich de eerste keer dat hij besefte dat hij kinderen had gekregen met een vrouw die eigenlijk te jong voor hem was, die niet bij zijn leeftijd noch zijn status paste. Haar stillevens stelde niet veel voor, maar als stilleven was ze zelf onovertroffen.
De hel waren niet de anderen. Hij was het zelf. De hel zat diep in hem. Verankerd, verborgen en onzichtbaar, maar wel levend en warm. Gloeiend heet. ~ Arnon Grunberg,#NFDB
61:De naam Balbec in een boek te zien staan was ook in de lente genoeg om het verlangen naar stormen en de Normandische gotiek in mij wakker te roepen; de naam Florence of de naam Venetië deed mij ook als het stormde verlangen naar zon, leliën, het Dogenpaleis en de Santa Maria del Fiore.
Maar dat het beeld dat ik van die steden had voorgoed met hun namen was versmolten hield in dat die het transformeerden, het onderwierpen, als ik het weer voor me zag, aan hun eigen wetten; het gevolg was dat ze het mooier, maar ook anders maakten dan de steden van Normandië en Toscane in werkelijkheid konden zijn, en dat ze door de arbitraire geneugten van mijn fantasie te verhogen, de toekomstige teleurstelling op mijn reizen vergrootten.
(...)
Woorden geven ons van de dingen in het klein een heldere en gangbare voorstelling zoals er op scholen aan de muur hangen om de kinderen een voorbeeld te laten zien van wat een werkbank is, een vogel, een mierenhoop, dingen opgevat als gelijk aan alle andere van hetzelfde soort. Maar namen geven van de mensen - en van de steden waardoor wij ze gaan zien als individueel, uniek zoals mensen - een vaag beeld dat aan die namen, aan hun klank, hel of donker, een tint ontleent waarin ze uniform zijn gekleurd. ~ Marcel Proust,#NFDB
62:The Rhyme Of The O'sullivan
Pro Bono Publico
Went out the streets to scan,
And marching to and fro
He met a seedy man,
Who did a tale unfold
In solemn tones and slow
And this is what he told
Pro Bono Publico.
"For many years I led
The people's onward march;
I was the 'Fountain Head',
The 'Democratic Arch'.
"In more than regal state
I used to sit and smile,
And bridges I'd donate,
And railways by the mile.
"I pawned the country off
For many million quid,
And spent it like a toff -So hel me, Bob, I did.
"But now those times are gone,
The wind blows cold and keen;
I sit and think upon
The thing that I have been.
"And if a country town
Its obligation shirks,
I press for money down
To pay for water works.
"A million pounds or two
Was naught at all to me -And now I have to sue
For paltry £ s d!
445
"Alas, that such a fate
Should come to such a man,
Who once was called the Great -The great O'Sullivan!"
With weary steps and slow,
With tears of sympathy
Pro Bono Publico
Went sadly home to tea.
Remarking, as he went,
With sad and mournful brow,
"The cash that party spent -I wish I had it now!"
~ Banjo Paterson,#NFDB
63:I just came from Bunker Hill,’ I told Sam. ‘Hel offered me a reunion with my mother.’
I managed to tell her the story.
Samirah reached out as if to touch my arm, then apparently changed her mind. ‘I’m so sorry, Magnus. But Hel lies. You can’t trust her. She’s just like my father, only colder. You made the right choice.’
‘Yeah … still. You ever do the right thing, and you know it’s the right thing, but it leaves you feeling horrible?’
‘You’ve just described most days of my life.’ Sam pulled up her hood. ‘When I became a Valkyrie … I’m still not sure why I fought that frost giant. The kids at Malcolm X were terrible to me. The usual garbage: they asked me if I was a terrorist. They yanked off my hijab. They slipped disgusting notes and pictures into my locker. When that giant attacked … I could’ve pretended to be just another mortal and got myself to safety. But I didn’t even think about running away. Why did I risk my life for those kids?’
I smiled.
‘What?’ she demanded.
‘Somebody once told me that a hero’s bravery has to be unplanned – a genuine response to a crisis. It has to come from the heart, without any thought of reward.’
Sam huffed. ‘That somebody sounds pretty smug.’
‘Maybe you didn’t need to come here,’ I decided. ‘Maybe I did. To understand why we’re a good team. ~ Rick Riordan,#NFDB
64:Ah, careful there!” The man thrust his arm behind my back and braced me. “If you fall over, you might hit your head. Then what will I tell your brothers?”
“My…brothers? How--” I took my first real look at him. My spine stiffened, moving me away from his steadying arm. When I spoke his name, it was a gasp: “Iolaus.”
“That’s me.” He smiled and ran his fingers through his hair. We were both on the floor, he on the bare, beaten earth, I on a woolen cloak thrown over a thin pile of barley straw. “I was worried that you’d forgotten me. Memory loss is a bad sign when you’ve been sunstruck. I don’t flatter myself to think I’m worthy of your royal notice, Lady Hel--”
I lurched forward without thinking and clapped my fingertips to his lips. “I’m Glaucus,” I whispered fiercely as the room spun. “Please.”
He was very gentle as he clasped my wrist, lowering my hand. “My mistake,” he murmured. “Your slave told me that, but it slipped my mind.”
“Milo’s not my slave,” I said sharply. I looked around the room, which had steadied. It was bare except for some baskets, a few clay pots, one plain wooden storage box, and a tiny hearth well away from the straw where I lay. Light and air came in through the smoke-hole in the roof. The reek of fish and the sea clung to everything. “Where is he? Is he all right?”
“He’s fine. You’re both safe and there’s no one near to overhear me call you by your true name. ~ Esther M Friesner,#NFDB
65:You are aware that my hellhound, Garm, will devour your father, Tyr, when Ragnarok is unleashed?”
I nodded.
“As Tyr’s spawn, you have his blood in your veins.”
I nodded again, wondering where this was going.
“Well. Garm has run off,” she told me. “You, son of Tyr, are the only one who can find him. Or rather”—she treated me to a ghastly smile—“he will find you.”
“I don’t follow.”
“Why, it’s very simple. My hellhound will smell the blood of Tyr and come running.”
I clutched my rifle more tightly. “So basically, you’re using me as bait.”
“More like a moving target,” Hel amended.
“Why me?” I dared to ask. “Why not just, I don’t know, poof Garm back to his cave yourself? Or send your demons to retrieve him?”
“Garm can be . . . elusive,” she said evasively. “He’s run off before, and past attempts to bring him home with magic and demons have failed.”
I was going to suggest she use a hellhound whistle, but I thought better of it. “If you don’t mind my asking, why not just let him stay lost?”
Hel’s expression darkened. “And risk word getting out that my dog is beyond my control? No. There is only one solution. You must lure him back to his cave.”
I scowled. “Let me guess. If I refuse, you torture my mother. If I tell anyone Garm didn’t come when you called, you torture my mother.”
“Oh yes. And Thomas . . . T.J. . . . if you think killing Garm will stop the hound from killing your father, think again. You cannot stop destiny. Now, away you go! ~ Rick Riordan,#NFDB
66:March 12
Dear Stargirl,
Hey, you're a big girl now. Stop being such a baby. You think you're the only one who's ever lost a boyfriend? Boyfriends are a dime a dozen. You want to talk loss, look at all the loss around you. How about the man in the red and yellow plaid scarf? He lost Grace. BELOVED WIFE. I'll bet they were married over 50 years. You barely had 50 days with Leo. And you have the gall to be sad in the same world as that man.
Betty Lou. She's lost the confidence to leave her house. Look at you. Have you ever stopped to appreciate the simple ability to open your front door and step outside?
And Alvina the floor sweeper-she hates herself, and it seems she's got plenty of company. All she's losing is her childhood, her future, a worldful of people who will never be her friends. How would you like to trade places with her?
Oh yes, lets not forget the footshuffling guy at the stone piles. Moss-green pom-pom. What did he say to you? "Are you looking for me?" It seems like he hasn't lost much, has he? Only...HIMSELF!
Now look at you, sniveling like a baby over some immature kid in Arizona who didn't know what a prize he had, who tried to remake you into somebody else, who turned his back to you and left you to the wolves, who hijacked your heart and didn't even ask you to the Ocotillo Ball. What don't you understand about the message? Hel-loooo? Anybody home in there? You have your whole life ahead of you, and all your doing is looking back. Grow up, girl. There are some things they don't teach you in homeschool.
Your Birth Certificate Self,
Susan Caraway ~ Jerry Spinelli,#NFDB
67:Mabalel
Vinnig langs die paadjie trippel Mabalêl;
vrolik klink die liedjie
wat die klingelinge van haar enkelringe vergesel.
Op die voetpad sy alleen,
met die skadu's om haar heen;
op haar kop die kruik gelig
in gedienstig' ewewig.
Golwend kleur die hemelboog,
stadig sterf die laaste lig,
en van verre deur die skermmure
winkend blink die eerste vure.
Wydgestrek in eensaam' vrede
lê Rakwen', die stille, brede;
glansend in die westerpraal,
met ‘n ceintuur in sy diepte van koraal.
En die witgepluimde riet
sing ‘n treurig' wiegelied,
en buigend vleg ‘n wilwersoom al om
die diepgespieëlde hemelkom.
Wag, wag, Mabelêl!
Is daar niks wat jou vertelis daar niks wat deur die duister
bang en dringend in jou ore fluister
van die vreeslike gesel
wat jou vrolik' lied beluister,
wat jou spoor hou, Mabalêl?
Word jy niks gewaar
van 'n dreigende gevaar?
Voel jy nog nie, kil en snood,
Om jou hart die skadu van die dood?
Ver benee die palmietstele
in die bloue duister wag Lalele,
kwintessens van alles boos,
die Wreedheid self, meedoënloos;
met lydsaamheid wat alles kan ontbeer,
wat tyd en toeval kan trotseer;
wat seker as die Noodlot van sy dag
stil-wakker in die diepte op sy ure wag.
Deur winterkou en somergloed,
deur blankend' droogte en swelgend' vloed,
deur al die kerende taf'rele,
in sy diepte wag Lalele.
As die straaltjie in die sand
deur 'n vlam-geskroeide land
tussen walle dor en vaal
skaars die rotse van Rakwena haal,
en die hulsels van die riet
'n rouband bind van swart verdriet
om die groenbedekte kuil
waar die laaste water skuil
en die sugtend' wind versmag
deur 'n woedend' son verkrag, roerloos by die skepplek hou Lalele wag!
En wanneer in donker nagte
rasend losbreek al die magte
van geweld en storm en vloed,
en Rakwen' omring van angsgeskreeu,
smagtend sig nog eens te wreek,
soos 'n swaar gekweste leeu
swart en brullend deur die bome breek; blinkend uit die donker kolk, vlieg 'n vlammend' dolk, wat deur stormbanke dig
'n wêreld van verwoeste loof verlig ongeroer deur al die groot krakele
in sy diepte wag Lalele!
Droom sy op die kantjie, Mabalêl,
tot haar hart verlangend swel;
in haar peinse ongedeer,
staar sy in die diepte neer,
staar sy in die spieëlgewelf
met die donker reeds omsoom tot sy, dromend, self
deel word van ‘n salig' droom;
uit die wêreld omgekeer
lokkend lag haar beeldjie weer.
Stadig deur die rietpensele
opwaarts uit die diepte rys Lalele.
Skud jou wakker, Mabalêl!
Sien jy nie die skadu opwaarts wel?
Naar die hoogwal, Mabalêl!
Hou jou mymering vir later nooit had vyg of wilg in water
so 'n gespieëlde metgesel!
Nooit 'n skrikbeeld uit die holte van die nag,
wat die dromer sug doen na die dag;
nooit onheilige gedaante uit die diepte van die hel
half so dreigend, half so fel
as dié skadu, Mabalêl,
as dié skadu, wat benee jou
uit die diepte opwaarts wel.
Voor jou voete, Mabalêl,
deur die westergloor verhel,
waar jy onbedagsaam staar,
sonder ooit gedagte van gevaar,
uit die stroomweg stadig
dryf 'n halfverdrinkte blaar.
Had jy spiere van 'n tier,
of die vlerke van 'n gier,
meidjie, niks sou dit jou baar,
want te lank het jy gewag - te laat!
Uit die spieëlvlak omhoog
bars 'n skuimend' waterboog;
Oor Rakwena, kalm en breed,
Galm 'n enkel angsvol' kreet;
en dan saggies weer
oor alles sak die stilte neer.
Winkend deur die skermmure
helder blink die voornagvure.
Uit die donker stilte, skel,
klink geroep na Mabalêl
en die rotse antwoord weer;
maar terugkom sal sy ... nimmermeer.
Stadig deur die rietpensele
naar die diepte sak Lalele.
~ Eugene Marais,#NFDB
68:The Shepheardes Calender: November
November: Ægloga vndecima. Thenot & Colin.
Thenot.
Colin my deare, when shall it please thee sing,
As thou were | wont songs of some iouisaunce?
Thy Muse to long slombreth in sorrowing,
Lulled a sleepe through loues misgouernaunce.
Now somewhat sing, whose endles souenaunce,
Emong the shepeheards swaines may aye remaine,
Whether thee list the loued lasse aduaunce,
Or honor Pan with hymnes of higher vaine.
Colin.
Thenot, now nis the time of merimake.
Nor Pan to herye, nor with loue to playe:
Sike myrth in May is meetest for to make,
Or summer shade vnder the cocked haye.
But nowe sadde Winter welked hath the day,
And Phoebus weary of his yerely tas-ke,
Ystabled hath his steedes in lowlye laye,
And taken vp his ynne in Fishes has-ke.
Thilke sollein season sadder plight doth aske:
And loatheth sike delightes, as thou doest prayse:
The mornefull Muse in myrth now list ne mas-ke,
As shee was wont in yougth and sommer dayes.
But if thou algate lust light virelayes,
And looser songs of loue to vnderfong
Who but thy selfe deserues sike Poetes prayse?
Relieue thy Oaten pypes, that sleepen long.
Thenot.
The Nightingale is souereigne of song,
Before him sits the Titmose silent bee:
And I vnfitte to thrust in [s]kilfull thronge,
Should Colin make iudge of my fooleree.
Nay, better learne of hem, that learned bee,
An han be watered at the Muses well:
The kindlye dewe drops from the higher tree,
And wets the little plants that lowly dwell.
393
But if sadde winters wrathe and season chill,
Accorde not with thy Muses meriment:
To sadder times thou mayst attune thy quill,
And sing of sorrowe and deathes dreeriment.
For deade is Dido, dead alas and drent,
Dido the greate shepehearde his daughter sheene:
The fayrest May she was that euer went,
Her like shee has not left behind I weene.
And if thou wilt bewayle my wofull tene:
I shall thee giue yond Cosset for thy payne:
And if thy rymes as rownd and rufull bene,
As those that did thy Rosalind complayne,
Much greater gyfts for guerdon thou shalt gayne,
Then Kidde of Cosset, which I thee bynempt:
Then vp I say, thou iolly shepeheard swayne,
Let not my small demaund be so contempt.
Colin.
Thenot to that I choose, thou doest me tempt,
But ah to well I wote my humble vaine,
And howe my rymes bene rugged and vnkempt:
Yet as I conne, my conning I will strayne.
Vp then Melpomene thou mounefulst Muse of nyne,
Such cause of mourning neuer hadst afore:
Vp grieslie ghostes and vp my rufull ryme,
Matter of myrth now shalt thou haue no more.
For dead she is, that myrth thee made of yore.
Didomy deare alas is dead,
Dead and lyeth wrapt in lead:
O heauie herse,
Let streaming teares be poured out in store:
O carefull verse.
Shepheards, that by your flocks on Kentish downes abyde,
Waile ye this wofull waste of natures warke:
Waile we the wight, whose presence was our pryde:
Waile we the wight, whose absence is our carke.
The sonne of all the world is dimme and darke:
The earth now lacks her wonted light,
And all we dwell in deadly night,
O heauie herse,
Breake we our pypes, that shrild as lowde as Larke,
394
O carefull verse.
Why do we longer liue, (ah why liue we so long)
Whose better dayes death hath shut vp in woe?
The fayrest floure our gyrlond all emong,
Is faded quite and into dust ygoe.
Sing now ye shepheards daughters, sing no moe
The songs that Colin made in her prayse,
But into weeping turne your wanton layes,
O heauie herse,
Now is time to dye. Nay time was long ygoe,
O carefull verse.
Whence is it, that the flouret of the field doth fade,
And lyeth buryed long in Winters bale:
Yet soone as spring his mantle hath displayd,
It floureth fresh, as it should neuer fayle?
But thing on earth that is of most auaile,
As vertues braunch and beauties budde,
Reliuen not for any good.
O heauie herse,
The braunch once dead, the budde eke needes must quaile,
O carefull verse.
She while she was, (that was, a woful word to sayne)
For beauties prayse and pleasaunce had no pere:
So well she couth the shepherds entertayne,
With cakes and cracknells and such country chere.
Ne would she scorne the simple shepheards swaine,
For she would call hem often heame
And giue hem curds and clouted Creame.
O heauie herse,
Als Colin cloute she would not once disdayne.
O carefull verse.
But nowe sike happy cheere is turnd to heauie chaunce,
Such pleasaunce now displast by dolors dint:
All Musick sleepes, where death doth leade the daunce,
And shepherds wonted solace is extinct.
The blew in black, the greene in gray is tinct,
The gaudie girlonds deck her graue,
The faded flowres her corse embraue.
395
O heauie herse,
Morne nowe my Muse, now morne with teares besprint.
O carefull verse.
O thou great shepheard Lobbin, how great is thy griefe,
Where bene the nosegayes that she dight for thee:
The coloured chaplets wrought with a chiefe,
The knotted rushrings, and gilte Rosemaree?
For shee deemed nothing too deere for thee.
Ah they bene all yclad in clay,
One bitter blast blew all away.
O heauie herse,
Thereof nought remaynes but the memoree.
O carefull verse.
Ay me that dreerie death should strike so mortall stroke,
That can vndoe Dame natures kindly course:
The faded lockes fall from the loftie oke,
The flouds do gaspe, for dryed is thyr sourse,
And flouds of teares flowe in theyr stead perforse.
The mantled medowes mourne,
Theyr sondry colours tourne.
O heauie herse,
The heauens doe melt in teares without remorse.
O carefull verse.
The feeble flocks in field refuse their former foode,
And hang theyr heads, as they would learne to weepe:
The beastes in forest wayle as they were woode,
Except the Wolues, that chase the wandring sheepe:
Now she is gon that safely did hem keepe.
The Turtle on the bared braunch,
Laments the wound, that death did launch.
O heauie herse,
And Philomele her song with teares doth steepe.
O carefull verse.
The water Nymphs, that wont with her to sing and daunce,
And for her girlond Oliue braunches beare,
Now balefull boughes of Cypres doen advaunce:
The Muses, that were wont greene bayes to weare,
Now bringen bitter Eldre braunches seare:
396
The fatall sisters eke repent,
Her vitall threde so soone was spent.
O heauie herse,
Mourne now my Muse, now mourne with heauie cheare.
O carefull verse.
O trustlesse state of earthly things, and slipper hope
Of mortal men, that swincke and sweate for nought,
And shooting wide, doe misse the marked scope:
Now haue I learnd (a lesson derely bought)
That nys on earth assuraunce to be sought:
For what might be in earthlie mould,
That did her buried body hould,
O heauie herse,
Yet saw I on the beare when it was brought,
O carefull verse.
But maugre death, and dreaded sisters deadly spight,
And gates of hel, and fyrie furies forse:
She hath the bonds broke of eternall night,
Her soule vnbodied of the burdenous corpse.
Why then weepes Lobbin so without remorse?
O Lobb, thy losse no longer lament,
Didonis dead, but into heauen hent.
O happye herse,
Cease now my Muse, now cease thy sorrowes sourse,
O ioyfull verse.
Why wayle we then? why weary we the Gods with playnts,
As if some euill were to her betight?
She raignes a goddesse now emong the saintes,
That whilome was the saynt of shepheards light:
And is enstalled nowe in heauens hight.
I see thee blessed soule, I see,
Walke in Elisian fieldes so free.
O happy herse,
Might I once come to thee (O that I might)
O ioyfull verse.
Vnwise and wretched men to weete whats good or ill,
We deeme of Death as doome of ill desert:
But knewe we fooles, what it vs bringes vntil,
397
Dye would we dayly, once it to expert.
No daunger there the shepheard can astert:
Fayre fieldes and pleasaunt layes there bene,
The fieldes ay fresh, the grasse ay greene:
O happy herse,
Make hast ye shepheards, thether to reuert,
O ioyfull verse.
Dido is gone afore (whose turne shall be the next?)
There liues shee with the blessed Gods in blisse,
There drincks she Nectar with Ambrosia mixt,
And ioyes enioyes, that mortall men do misse.
The honor now of highest gods she is,
That whilome was poore shepheards pryde,
While here on earth she did abyde.
O happy herse,
Ceasse now my song, my woe now wasted is.
O ioyfull verse.
Thenot.
Ay francke shepheard, how bene thy verses meint
With doolful pleasaunce, so as I ne wote,
Whether reioyce or weepe for great constrainte?
Thyne be the cossette, well hast thow it gotte.
Vp Colin vp, ynough thou mourned hast,
Noy gynnes to mizzle, hye we homeward fast.
Colins Embleme.
La mort ny mord.
~ Edmund Spenser,#NFDB
1339 Integral Yoga
648 Poetry
214 Occultism
153 Fiction
135 Philosophy
112 Christianity
108 Yoga
69 Psychology
67 Islam
63 Mysticism
19 Education
18 Hinduism
17 Mythology
14 Science
14 Philsophy
12 Buddhism
11 Theosophy
10 Integral Theory
9 Sufism
6 Baha i Faith
5 Zen
5 Cybernetics
1 Thelema
1 Alchemy
761 The Mother
673 Sri Aurobindo
492 Satprem
250 Nolini Kanta Gupta
95 H P Lovecraft
84 Aleister Crowley
82 William Wordsworth
72 Carl Jung
67 Muhammad
66 Percy Bysshe Shelley
62 James George Frazer
59 Walt Whitman
56 Sri Ramakrishna
50 Robert Browning
41 John Keats
40 William Butler Yeats
33 Saint Augustine of Hippo
33 Friedrich Nietzsche
31 Friedrich Schiller
30 Plotinus
28 Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
27 Saint Teresa of Avila
27 A B Purani
26 Swami Vivekananda
23 Anonymous
22 Jorge Luis Borges
20 Lucretius
20 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
19 Swami Krishnananda
19 Saint John of Climacus
19 Rabindranath Tagore
19 Franz Bardon
16 Aldous Huxley
14 Ralph Waldo Emerson
13 Rudolf Steiner
13 Ovid
13 Nirodbaran
13 Jalaluddin Rumi
13 Edgar Allan Poe
12 Plato
10 George Van Vrekhem
9 Swami Sivananda Saraswati
8 Sri Ramana Maharshi
7 Vyasa
7 Rainer Maria Rilke
7 Baha u llah
6 Kabir
6 Jordan Peterson
6 Bokar Rinpoche
5 Thubten Chodron
5 Peter J Carroll
5 Norbert Wiener
5 Li Bai
4 Patanjali
4 Lewis Carroll
4 Joseph Campbell
4 Hsuan Chueh of Yung Chia
4 Alice Bailey
4 Al-Ghazali
3 William Blake
3 R Buckminster Fuller
3 Paul Richard
3 Omar Khayyam
3 Ken Wilber
3 Henry David Thoreau
3 Bulleh Shah
2 Taigu Ryokan
2 Saint John of the Cross
2 Saint Hildegard von Bingen
2 Ramprasad
2 Mechthild of Magdeburg
2 Mahendranath Gupta
2 Jorge Luis Borges
2 Jetsun Milarepa
2 Italo Calvino
2 Ibn Arabi
2 Hakim Sanai
2 Hafiz
2 Genpo Roshi
2 Farid ud-Din Attar
2 Bodhidharma
110 The Synthesis Of Yoga
105 Record of Yoga
95 Lovecraft - Poems
82 Wordsworth - Poems
67 Quran
66 Shelley - Poems
66 Agenda Vol 01
62 The Golden Bough
55 The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna
54 Whitman - Poems
52 Magick Without Tears
50 Browning - Poems
49 The Life Divine
47 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03
46 On Thoughts And Aphorisms
46 Letters On Yoga IV
45 Savitri
44 Essays In Philosophy And Yoga
44 Agenda Vol 03
42 Questions And Answers 1957-1958
42 Agenda Vol 13
41 Keats - Poems
40 Yeats - Poems
39 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 07
39 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01
39 Agenda Vol 10
38 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 04
38 Agenda Vol 02
37 Letters On Yoga II
37 Agenda Vol 04
35 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02
35 Agenda Vol 09
32 Agenda Vol 06
31 Schiller - Poems
31 Questions And Answers 1950-1951
31 Agenda Vol 12
29 Questions And Answers 1956
29 Agenda Vol 11
28 The Divine Comedy
28 Agenda Vol 08
27 Evening Talks With Sri Aurobindo
26 Mysterium Coniunctionis
25 Thus Spoke Zarathustra
25 Questions And Answers 1954
25 Prayers And Meditations
25 Essays On The Gita
25 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 05
24 Collected Poems
23 Agenda Vol 05
22 The Human Cycle
22 Questions And Answers 1953
22 City of God
21 Words Of Long Ago
21 The Practice of Psycho therapy
21 The Bible
21 Liber ABA
20 Questions And Answers 1929-1931
20 Of The Nature Of Things
19 Words Of The Mother II
19 The Study and Practice of Yoga
19 The Ladder of Divine Ascent
19 Tagore - Poems
19 Questions And Answers 1955
19 On Education
18 Labyrinths
18 Agenda Vol 07
17 The Way of Perfection
16 The Perennial Philosophy
16 Sri Aurobindo or the Adventure of Consciousness
16 Letters On Yoga III
16 Letters On Yoga I
16 Essays Divine And Human
16 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 08
14 On the Way to Supermanhood
14 Faust
14 Emerson - Poems
13 Twelve Years With Sri Aurobindo
13 Metamorphoses
13 Aion
12 The Confessions of Saint Augustine
12 The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious
12 Talks
12 Some Answers From The Mother
12 Poe - Poems
12 Crowley - Poems
11 The Secret Of The Veda
11 The Practice of Magical Evocation
11 The Mother With Letters On The Mother
11 Raja-Yoga
11 Letters On Poetry And Art
10 Preparing for the Miraculous
10 Plotinus - Complete Works Vol 04
10 Bhakti-Yoga
9 Vedic and Philological Studies
9 Plotinus - Complete Works Vol 01
9 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 06
9 Anonymous - Poems
9 5.1.01 - Ilion
8 Twilight of the Idols
8 The Phenomenon of Man
8 The Interior Castle or The Mansions
8 The Future of Man
8 Initiation Into Hermetics
8 Amrita Gita
8 A Garden of Pomegranates - An Outline of the Qabalah
7 Vishnu Purana
7 The Problems of Philosophy
7 Theosophy
7 The Blue Cliff Records
7 Rilke - Poems
7 Hymns to the Mystic Fire
6 The Secret Doctrine
6 Tara - The Feminine Divine
6 Plotinus - Complete Works Vol 02
6 Maps of Meaning
6 Let Me Explain
6 Hymn of the Universe
6 Goethe - Poems
5 The Red Book Liber Novus
5 Song of Myself
5 Plotinus - Complete Works Vol 03
5 Liber Null
5 Li Bai - Poems
5 Kena and Other Upanishads
5 How to Free Your Mind - Tara the Liberator
5 Cybernetics
4 Words Of The Mother III
4 The Hero with a Thousand Faces
4 The Alchemy of Happiness
4 The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
4 Songs of Kabir
4 Patanjali Yoga Sutras
4 Knowledge of the Higher Worlds
4 Isha Upanishad
4 Borges - Poems
4 Beating the Cloth Drum Letters of Zen Master Hakuin
4 A Treatise on Cosmic Fire
4 Alice in Wonderland
3 Walden
3 The Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma
3 The Tibetan Yogas of Dream and Sleep
3 The Integral Yoga
3 The Book of Certitude
3 Synergetics - Explorations in the Geometry of Thinking
3 Sex Ecology Spirituality
3 Rumi - Poems
3 Dark Night of the Soul
2 Words Of The Mother I
2 The Lotus Sutra
2 The Essentials of Education
2 The Castle of Crossed Destinies
2 Symposium
2 Selected Fictions
2 Ryokan - Poems
2 Milarepa - Poems
2 Hafiz - Poems
2 Bodhidharma - Poems
2 Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 2E
0 0.01 - Introduction, #Agenda Vol 1, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
We landed there, one day in February 1954, having emerged from our Guianese forest and a certain number of dead-end peripluses; we had knocked upon all the doors of the old world before reaching that point of absolute impossibility where it was truly necessary to embark into something else or once and for all put a bullet through the brain of this slightly superior ape. The first thing that struck us was this exotic Notre Dame with its burning incense sticks, its effigies and its prostrations in immaculate white: a Church. We nearly jumped into the first train out that very evening, bound straight for the Himalayas, or the devil. But we remained near Mother for nineteen years. What was it, then, that could have held us there? We had not left Guiana to become a little saint in white or to enter some new religion. 'I did not come upon earth to found an ashram; that would have been a poor aim indeed,' She wrote in 1934. What did all this mean, then, this 'Ashram' that was already registered as the owner of a great spiritual business, and this fragile, little silhouette at the center of all these zealous worshippers? In truth, there is no better way to smother someone than to worship him: he chokes beneath the weight of worship, which moreover gives the worshipper claim to ownership. 'Why do you want to worship?' She exclaimed. 'You have but to become! It is the laziness to become that makes one worship.' She wanted so much to make them
become this 'something else,' but it was far easier to worship and quiescently remain what one was.
--
'spiritual life': it was all so comfortable, for we had a supreme 'symbol' of it right there. She let us do as we pleased, She even opened up all kinds of little heavens in us, along with a few hells, since they go together. She even opened the door in us to a certain 'liberation,' which in the end was as soporific as eternity - but there was nowhere to get out: it WAS eternity. We were trapped on all sides. There was nothing left but these 4m2 of skin, the last refuge, that which we wanted to flee by way of above or below, by way of Guiana or the Himalayas. She was waiting for us just there, at the end of our spiritual or not so spiritual pirouettes. Matter was her concern. It took us seven years to understand that She was beginning there, 'where the other yogas leave off,' as Sri Aurobindo had already said twenty-five years earlier. It was necessary to have covered all the paths of the Spirit and all those of Matter, or in any case a large number geographically, before discovering, or even simply understanding, that 'something else' was really Something Else. It was not an improved
Spirit nor even an improved Matter, but ... it could be called 'nothing,' so contrary was it to all we know. For the caterpillar, a butterfly is nothing, it is not even visible and has nothing in common with caterpillar heavens nor even caterpillar matter. So there we were, trapped in an impossible adventure. One does not return from there: one must cross the bridge to the other side. Then one day in that seventh year, while we still believed in liberations and the collected Upanishads, highlighted with a few glorious visions to relieve the commonplace (which remained appallingly commonplace), while we were still considering 'the Mother of the Ashram' rather like some spiritual super-director (endowed, albeit, with a disarming yet ever so provocative smile, as though
00.01 - The Approach to Mysticism, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
A scientist once thought that he had clinched the issue and cut the Gordian knot when he declared triumphantly with reference to spirit sances: "Very significant is the fact that spirits appear only in closed chambers, in half obscurity, to somnolent minds; they are nowhere in the open air, in broad daylight to the wide awake and vigilant intellect!" Well, if the fact is as it is stated, what does it prove? Night alone reveals the stars, during the day they vanish, but that is no proof that stars are not existent. Rather the true scientific spirit should seek to know why (or how) it is so, if it is so, and such a fact would exactly serve as a pointer, a significant starting ground. The attitude of the jesting Pilate is not helpful even to scientific inquiry. This matter of the Spirits we have taken only as an illustration and it must not be understood that this is a domain of high mysticism; rather the contrary. The spiritualists' approach to Mysticism is not the right one and is fraught with not only errors but dangers. For the spiritualists approach their subject with the entire scientific apparatus the only difference being that the scientist does not believe while the spiritualist believes.
Mystic realities cannot be reached by the scientific consciousness, because they are far more subtle than the subtlest object that science can contemplate. The neutrons and positrons are for science today the finest and profoundest object-forces; they belong, it is said, almost to a borderl and where physics ends. Nor for that reason is a mystic reality something like a mathematical abstraction, -n for example. The mystic reality is subtler than the subtlest of physical things and yet, paradoxical to say, more concrete than the most concrete thing that the senses apprehend.
00.01 - The Mother on Savitri, #Sweet Mother - Harmonies of Light, #unset, #Zen
Savitri alone is sufficient to make you climb to the highest peaks. If truly one knows how to meditate on Savitri, one will receive all the help one needs. For him who wishes to follow this path, it is a concrete help as though the Lord himself were taking you by the hand and leading you to the destined goal. And then, every question, however personal it may be, has its answer here, every difficulty finds its solution herein; indeed there is everything that is necessary for doing the Yoga.
*He has crammed the whole universe in a single book.* It is a marvellous work, magnificent and of an incomparable perfection.
You know, before writing Savitri Sri Aurobindo said to me, *I am impelled to launch on a new adventure; I was hesitant in the beginning, but now I am decided. Still, I do not know how far I shall succeed. I pray for help.* And you know what it was? It was - before beginning, I warn you in advance - it was His way of speaking, so full of divine humility and modesty. He never... *asserted Himself*. And the day He actually began it, He told me: *I have launched myself in a rudderless boat upon the vastness of the Infinite.* And once having started, He wrote page after page without intermission, as though it were a thing already complete up there and He had only to transcribe it in ink down here on these pages.
In truth, the entire form of Savitri has descended "en masse" from the highest region and Sri Aurobindo with His genius only arranged the lines - in a superb and magnificent style. Sometimes entire lines were revealed and He has left them intact; He worked hard, untiringly, so that the inspiration could come from the highest possible summit. And what a work He has created! Yes, it is a true creation in itself. It is an unequalled work. Everything is there, and it is put in such a simple, such a clear form; verses perfectly harmonious, limpid and eternally true. My child, I have read so many things, but I have never come across anything which could be compared with Savitri. I have studied the best works in Greek, Latin, English and of course French literature, also in German and all the great creations of the West and the East, including the great epics; but I repeat it, I have not found anywhere anything comparable with Savitri. All these literary works seems to me empty, flat, hollow, without any deep reality - apart from a few rare exceptions, and these too represent only a small fraction of what Savitri is. What grandeur, what amplitude, what reality: it is something immortal and eternal He has created. I tell you once again there is nothing like in it the whole world. Even if one puts aside the vision of the reality, that is, the essential substance which is the heart of the inspiration, and considers only the lines in themselves, one will find them unique, of the highest classical kind. What He has created is something man cannot imagine. For, everything is there, everything.
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My child, every day you are going to read Savitri; read properly, with the right attitude, concentrating a little before opening the pages and trying to keep the mind as empty as possible, absolutely without a thought. The direct road is through the heart. I tell you, if you try to really concentrate with this aspiration you can light the flame, the psychic flame, the flame of purification in a very short time, perhaps in a few days. What you cannot do normally, you can do with the help of Savitri. Try and you will see how very different it is, how new, if you read with this attitude, with this something at the back of your consciousness; as though it were an offering to Sri Aurobindo. You know it is charged, fully charged with consciousness; as if Savitri were a being, a real guide. I tell you, whoever, wanting to practice Yoga, tries sincerely and feels the necessity for it, will be able to climb with the help of Savitri to the highest rung of the ladder of Yoga, will be able to find the secret that Savitri represents. And this without the help of a Guru. And he will be able to practice it anywhere. For him Savitri alone will be the guide, for all that he needs he will find Savitri. If he remains very quiet when before a difficulty, or when he does not know where to turn to go forward and how to overcome obstacles, for all these hesitations and incertitudes which overw helm us at every moment, he will have the necessary indications, and the necessary concrete help. If he remains very calm, open, if he aspires sincerely, always he will be as if lead by the hand. If he has faith, the will to give himself and essential sincerity he will reach the final goal.
Indeed, Savitri is something concrete, living, it is all replete, packed with consciousness, it is the supreme knowledge above all human philosophies and religions. It is the spiritual path, it is Yoga, Tapasya, Sadhana, everything, in its single body. Savitri has an extraordinary power, it gives out vibrations for him who can receive them, the true vibrations of each stage of consciousness. It is incomparable, it is truth in its plenitude, the Truth Sri Aurobindo brought down on the earth. My child, one must try to find the secret that Savitri represents, the prophetic message Sri Aurobindo reveals there for us. This is the work before you, it is hard but it is worth the trouble. - 5 November 1967
00.03 - Upanishadic Symbolism, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
Now, before any explanation is attempted it is important to bear in mind that the Upanishads speak of things experiencednot merely thought, reasoned or argued and that these experiences belong to a world and consciousness other than that of the mind and the senses. One should naturally expect here a different language and mode of expression than that which is appropriate to mental and physical things. For example, the world of dreams was once supposed to be a sheer chaos, a mass of meaningless confusion; but now it is held to be quite otherwise. Psychological scientists have discovered a methodeven a very well-defined and strict methodin the madness of that domain. It is an ordered, organised, significant world; but its terminology has to be understood, its code deciphered. It is not a jargon, but a foreign language that must be learnt and mastered.
In the same way, the world of spiritual experiences is also something methodical, well-organized, significant. It may not be and is not the rational world of the mind and the sense; but it need not, for that reason, be devoid of meaning, mere fancifulness or a child's imagination running riot. Here also the right key has to be found, the grammar and vocabulary of that language mastered. And as the best way to have complete mastery of a language is to live among the people who speak it, so, in the matter of spiritual language, the best and the only way to learn it is to go and live in its native country.
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Ritualistically these four terms are the formulae for oblation to four Deities, Powers or Presences, whom the sacrificer wishes to please and propitiate in order to have their help and blessing and in order thereby to discharge his dharma or duty of life. Svh is the offering especially dedicated to Agni, the foremost of the Gods, for he is the divine messenger who carries men's offering to the Gods and brings their blessing to men. Vaatkr is the offering to the Gods generally. Hantakr is the offering to mankind, to our kin, an especial form of it being the worship of the guests,sarvadevamayo' tithi. Svadh is the offering to the departed Fathers (Pitris).
The duty of life consists, it is said, in the repaying of three debts which every man contracts as soon as he takes birth upon earth the debt to the Gods, to Men and to the Ancestors. This threefold debt or duty has, in other terms, reference to the three fields or domains wherein an embodied being lives and moves and to which he must adjust and react rightly -if he is to secure for his life an integral fulfilment. These are the family, society and the world and beyond-world. The Gods are the Powers that rule the world and beyond, they are the forms and forces of the One Spirit underlying the universe, the varied expressions of divine Truth and Reality: To worship the Gods, to do one's duty by them, means to come into contact and to be unitedin being, consciousness and activitywith the universal and spiritual existence, which is the supreme end and purpose of human life. The seconda more circumscribed fieldis the society to which one belongs, the particular group of humanity in which he functions as a limb. The service to society or good citizenship entails the worship of humanity, of Man as a god. Lastly, man belongs to the family, which is the unit of society; and the backbone of the family is the continuous line of ancestors, who are its presiding deity and represent the norm of a living dharma, the ethic of an ideal life.
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Finally, once the Truth is reached, it is to be held fast, firmly established, embodied and fixed in its inherent nature here in life and the waking consciousness. This is Svadh.
The Gods feed upon Svdh and Vaa, as these represent the ascending movement of human consciousness: it is man's self-giving and aspiration and the upward urge of his heart and soul that reach to the Gods, and it is that which the immortals take into themselves and are, as it were, nourished by, since it is something that appertains to their own nature.
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The Gods are the formations or particularisations of the Truth-consciousness, the multiple individualisations of the One spirit. The Pitris are the Divine Fathers, that is to say, souls that once laboured and realised here below, and now have passed beyond. They dwell in another world, not too far removed from the earth, and from there, with the force of their Realisation, lend a more concrete help and guidance to the destiny that is being worked out upon earth. They are forces and formations of consciousness in an intermediate region between Here and There (antarika), and serve to bring men and gods nearer to each other, inasmuch as they belong to both the categories, being a divinised humanity or a humanised divinity. Each fixation of the Truth-consciousness in an earthly mould is a thing of joy to the Pitris; it is the Svadh or food by which they live and grow, for it is the consolidation and also the resultant of their own realisation. The achievements of the sons are more easily and securely reared and grounded upon those of the forefa thers, whose formative powers we have to invoke, so that we may pass on to the realisation, the firm embodiment of higher and greater destinies.
III. The Path of the Fathers and the Path of the Gods
00.05 - A Vedic Conception of the Poet, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
The Mind and the Body are held together by means of the Life, the mid-world. The Divine Mind by raising the body-consciousness into itself gathers up too, by that act, the delight of life and releases the fountain of immortal Bliss. That is the work and achievement of the gods as poets.
Where then is the birth of the Poets? Ask it of the Masters. The Poets have seized and mastered the Mind, they have the perfect working and they fashion the Heaven.
0.00a - Introduction, #A Garden of Pomegranates - An Outline of the Qabalah, #Israel Regardie, #Occultism
Some of the passages in the book force me today to emphasize that so far as the Qabalah is concerned, it could and should be employed without binding to it the partisan qualities of any one particular religious faith. This goes as much for Judaism as it does for Christianity. Neither has much intrinsic usefulness where this scientific scheme is concerned. If some students feel hurt by this statement, that cannot be helped. The day of most contemporary faiths is over; they have been more of a curse than a boon to mankind. Nothing that I say here, however, should reflect on the peoples concerned, those who accept these religions. They are merely unfortunate. The religion itself is worn out and indeed is dying.
The Qabalah has nothing to do with any of them. Attempts on the part of cultish-partisans to impart higher mystical meanings, through the Qabalah, etc., to their now sterile faiths is futile, and will be seen as such by the younger generation. They, the flower and love children, will have none of this nonsense.
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The tragedy of civilized man is that he is cut off from awareness of his own instincts. The Qabalah can help him achieve the necessary understanding to effect a reunion with them, so that rather than being driven by forces he does not understand, he can harness for his conscious use the same power that guides the homing pigeon, teaches the beaver to build a dam and keeps the planets revolving in their appointed orbits about the sun.
I began the study of the Qabalah at an early age. Two books I read then have played unconsciously a prominent part in the writing of my own book. One of these was "Q.B.L. or the Bride's Reception" by Frater Achad (Charles Stansfeld Jones), which I must have first read around 1926. The other was "An Introduction to the Tarot" by Paul Foster Case, published in the early 1920's. It is now out of print, superseded by later versions of the same topic. But as I now glance through this slender book, I perceive how profoundly even the format of his book had influenced me, though in these two instances there was not a trace of plagiarism. It had not consciously occurred to me until recently that I owed so much to them. Since Paul Case passed away about a decade or so ago, this gives me the opportunity to thank him, overtly, wherever he may now be.
000 - Humans in Universe, #Synergetics - Explorations in the Geometry of Thinking, #R Buckminster Fuller, #Science
Universe sandwiched between heaven above and hell below and seemingly
stretching away to infinity in all lateral directions. Yet the total land area of this flat
0.00 - INTRODUCTION, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
Gadadhar was seven years old when his father died. This incident profoundly affected him. For the first time the boy realized that life on earth was impermanent. Unobserved by others, he began to slip into the mango orchard or into one of the cremation grounds, and he spent hours absorbed in his own thoughts. He also became more helpful to his mother in the discharge of her household duties. He gave more attention to reading and hearing the religious stories recorded in the Puranas. And he became interested in the wandering monks and pious pilgrims who would stop at Kamarpukur on their way to Puri. These holy men, the custodians of India's spiritual heritage and the living witnesses of the ideal of renunciation of the world and all-absorbing love of God, entertained the little boy with stories from the Hindu epics, stories of saints and prophets, and also stories of their own adventures. He, on his part, fetched their water and fuel and
served them in various ways. Meanwhile, he was observing their meditation and worship.
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The anguish of the inner soul of India found expression through these passionate words of the young Gadadhar. For what did his unsophisticated eyes see around him in Calcutta, at that time the metropolis of India and the centre of modem culture and learning? Greed and lust held sway in the higher levels of society, and the occasional religious practices were merely outer forms from which the soul had long ago departed. Gadadhar had never seen anything like this at Kamarpukur among the simple and pious villagers. The sadhus and wandering monks whom he had served in his boyhood had revealed to him an altogether different India. He had been impressed by their devotion and purity, their self-control and renunciation. He had learnt from them and from his own intuition that the ideal of life as taught by the ancient sages of India was the realization of God.
When Ramkumar reprimanded Gadadhar for neglecting a "bread-winning education", the inner voice of the boy reminded him that the legacy of his ancestors — the legacy of Rama, Krishna, Buddha, Sankara, Ramanuja, Chaitanya — was not worldly security but the Knowledge of God. And these noble sages were the true representatives of Hindu society. Each of them was seated, as it were, on the crest of the wave that followed each successive trough in the tumultuous course of Indian national life. All demonstrated that the life current of India is spirituality. This truth was revealed to Gadadhar through that inner vision which scans past and future in one sweep, unobstructed by the barriers of time and space. But he was unaware of the history of the profound change that had taken place in the land of his birth during the previous one hundred years.
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Sri Ramakrishna — henceforth we shall call Gadadhar by this familiar name —1 came to the temple garden with his elder brother Ramkumar, who was appointed priest of the Kali temple. Sri Ramakrishna did not at first approve of Ramkumar's working for the sudra Rasmani. The example of their orthodox father was still fresh in Sri Ramakrishna's mind. He objected also to the eating of the cooked offerings of the temple, since, according to orthodox Hindu custom, such food can be offered to the Deity only in the house of a brahmin. But the holy atmosphere of the temple grounds, the solitude of the surrounding wood, the loving care of his brother, the respect shown him by Rani Rasmani and Mathur Babu, the living presence of the Goddess Kali in the temple, and; above all, the proximity of the sacred Ganges, which Sri Ramakrishna always held in the highest respect, gradually overcame his disapproval, and he began to feel at home.
Within a very short time Sri Ramakrishna attracted the notice of Mathur Babu, who was impressed by the young man's religious fervour and wanted him to participate in the worship in the Kali temple. But Sri Ramakrishna loved his freedom and was indifferent to any worldly career. The profession of the priesthood in a temple founded by a rich woman did not appeal to his mind. Further, he hesitated to take upon himself the responsibility for the ornaments and jewelry of the temple. Mathur had to wait for a suitable occasion.
At this time there came to Dakshineswar a youth of sixteen, destined to play an important role in Sri Ramakrishna's life. Hriday, a distant nephew2 of Sri Ramakrishna, hailed from Sihore, a village not far from Kamarpukur, and had been his boyhood friend. Clever, exceptionally energetic, and endowed with great presence of mind, he moved, as will be seen later, like a shadow about his uncle and was always ready to help him, even at the sacrifice of his personal comfort. He was destined to be a mute witness of many of the spiritual experiences of Sri Ramakrishna and the caretaker of his body during the stormy days of his spiritual practice. Hriday came to Dakshineswar in search of a job, and Sri Ramakrishna was glad to see him.
Unable to resist the persuasion of Mathur Babu, Sri Ramakrishna at last entered the temple service, on condition that Hriday should be asked to assist him. His first duty was to dress and decorate the image of Kali.
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Born in an orthodox brahmin family, Sri Ramakrishna knew the formalities of worship, its rites and rituals. The innumerable gods and goddesses of the Hindu religion are the human aspects of the indescribable and incomprehensible Spirit, as conceived by the finite human mind. They understand and appreciate human love and emotion, help men to realize their secular and spiritual ideals, and ultimately enable men to attain liberation from the miseries of phenomenal life. The Source of light, intelligence, wisdom, and strength is the One alone from whom comes the fulfilment of desire. Yet, as long as a man is bound by his human limitations, he cannot but worship God through human forms. He must use human symbols. Therefore Hinduism asks the devotees to look on God as the ideal father, the ideal mother, the ideal husband, the ideal son, or the ideal friend. But the name ultimately leads to the Nameless, the form to the Formless, the word to the Silence, the emotion to the serene realization of Peace in Existence-Knowledge-Bliss Absolute. The gods gradually merge in the one God. But until that realization is achieved, the devotee cannot dissociate human factors from his worship. Therefore the Deity is bathed and clothed and decked with ornaments. He is fed and put to sleep. He is propitiated with hymns, songs, and prayers. And there are appropriate rites connected with all these functions. For instance, to secure for himself external purity, the priest bathes himself in holy water and puts on a holy cloth. He purifies the mind and the sense-organs by appropriate meditations. He fortifies the place of worship against evil forces by drawing around it circles of fire and water. He awakens the different spiritual centres of the body and invokes the Supreme Spirit in his heart. Then he transfers the Supreme Spirit to the image before him and worships the image, regarding it no longer as clay or stone, but as the embodiment of Spirit, throbbing with Life and Consciousness. After the worship the Supreme Spirit is recalled from the image to Its true sanctuary, the heart of the priest. The real devotee knows the absurdity of worshipping the Transcendental Reality with material articles — clothing That which pervades the whole universe and the beyond, putting on a pedestal That which cannot be limited by space, feeding That which is disembodied and incorporeal, singing before That whose glory the music of the spheres tries vainly to proclaim. But through these rites the devotee aspires to go ultimately beyond rites and rituals, forms and names, words and praise, and to realize God as the All-pervading Consciousness.
Hindu priests are thoroughly acquainted with the rites of worship, but few of them are aware of their underlying significance. They move their hands and limbs mechanically, in obedience to the letter of the scriptures, and repeat the holy mantras like parrots. But from the very beginning the inner meaning of these rites was revealed to Sri Ramakrishna. As he sat facing the image, a strange transformation came over his mind. While going through the prescribed ceremonies, he would actually find himself encircled by a wall of fire protecting him and the place of worship from unspiritual vibrations, or he would feel the rising of the mystic Kundalini through the different centres of the body. The glow on his face, his deep absorption, and the intense atmosphere of the temple impressed everyone who saw him worship the Deity.
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Naturally the temple officials took him for an insane person. His worldly well-wishers brought him to skilled physicians; but no-medicine could cure his malady. Many a time he doubted his sanity himself. For he had been sailing across an uncharted sea, with no earthly guide to direct him. His only haven of security was the Divine Mother Herself. To Her he would pray: "I do not know what these things are. I am ignorant of mantras and the scriptures. Teach me, Mother, how to realize Thee. Who else can help me? Art Thou not my only refuge and guide?" And the sustaining presence of the Mother never failed him in his distress or doubt. Even those who criticized his conduct were greatly impressed with his purity, guilelessness, truthfulness, integrity, and holiness. They felt an uplifting influence in his presence.
It is said that samadhi, or trance, no more than opens the portal of the spiritual realm. Sri Ramakrishna felt an unquenchable desire to enjoy God in various ways. For his meditation he built a place in the northern wooded section of the temple garden. With Hriday's help he planted there five sacred trees. The spot, known as the Panchavati, became the scene of many of his visions.
As his spiritual mood deepened he more and more felt himself to be a child of the Divine Mother. He learnt to surrender himself completely to Her will and let Her direct him.
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When Sri Ramakrishna told Mathur what the Brahmani had said about him, Mathur shook his head in doubt. He was reluctant to accept him as an Incarnation of God, an Avatar comparable to Rama, Krishna, Buddha, and Chaitanya, though he admitted Sri Ramakrishna's extraordinary spirituality. Whereupon the Brahmani asked Mathur to arrange a conference of scholars who should discuss the matter with her. He agreed to the proposal and the meeting was arranged. It was to be held in the natmandir in front of the Kali temple.
Two famous pundits of the time were invited: Vaishnavcharan, the leader of the Vaishnava society, and Gauri. The first to arrive was Vaishnavcharan, with a distinguished company of scholars and devotees. The Brahmani, like a proud mother, proclaimed her view before him and supported it with quotations from the scriptures. As the pundits discussed the deep theological question, Sri Ramakrishna, perfectly indifferent to everything happening around him, sat in their midst like a child, immersed in his own thoughts, sometimes smiling, sometimes chewing a pinch of spices from a pouch, or again saying to Vaishnavcharan with a nudge: "Look here. Sometimes I feel like this, too." Presently Vaishnavcharan arose to declare himself in total agreement with the view of the Brahmani. He declared that Sri Ramakrishna had undoubtedly experienced mahabhava and that this was the certain sign of the rare manifestation of God in a man. The people assembled
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When, a few days later, Pundit Gauri arrived, another meeting was held, and he agreed with the view of the Brahmani and Vaishnavcharan. To Sri Ramakrishna's remark that Vaishnavcharan had declared him to be an Avatar, Gauri replied: "Is that all he has to say about you? Then he has said very little. I am fully convinced that you are that Mine of Spiritual Power, only a small fraction of which descends on earth, from time to time, in the form of an Incarnation."
"Ah!" said Sri Ramakrishna with a smile, "you seem to have quite outbid Vaishnavcharan in this matter. What have you found in me that makes you entertain such an idea?"
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The disciplines of Tantra are graded to suit aspirants of all degrees. Exercises are prescribed for people with "animal", "heroic", and "divine" outlooks. Certain of the rites require the presence of members of the opposite sex. Here the aspirant learns to look on woman as the embodiment of the Goddess Kali, the Mother of the Universe. The very basis of Tantra is the Motherhood of God and the glorification of woman. Every part of a woman's body is to be regarded as incarnate Divinity. But the rites are extremely dangerous. The help of a qualified guru is absolutely necessary. An unwary devotee may lose his foothold and fall into a pit of depravity.
According to the Tantra, Sakti is the active creative force in the universe. Siva, the Absolute, is a more or less passive principle. Further, Sakti is as inseparable from Siva as fire's power to burn is from fire itself. Sakti, the Creative Power, contains in Its womb the universe, and therefore is the Divine Mother. All women are Her symbols. Kali is one of Her several forms. The meditation on Kali, the Creative Power, is the central discipline of the Tantra. While meditating, the aspirant at first regards himself as one with the Absolute and then thinks that out of that Impersonal Consciousness emerge two entities, namely, his own self and the living form of the Goddess. He then projects the Goddess into the tangible image before him and worships it as the Divine Mother.
Sri Ramakrishna set himself to the task of practising the disciplines of Tantra; and at the bidding of the Divine Mother Herself he accepted the Brahmani as his guru. He performed profound and delicate ceremonies in the Panchavati and under the bel-tree at the northern extremity of the temple compound. He practised all the disciplines of the sixty-four principal Tantra books, and it took him never more than three days to achieve the result promised in any one of them. After the observance of a few preliminary rites, he would be overw helmed with a strange divine fervour and would go into samadhi, where his mind would dwell in exaltation. Evil ceased to exist for him. The word "carnal" lost its meaning. The whole world and everything in it appeared as the lila, the sport, of Siva and Sakti. He be held held everywhere manifest the power and beauty of the Mother; the whole world, animate and inanimate, appeared to him as pervaded with Chit, Consciousness, and with Ananda, Bliss.
He saw in a vision the Ultimate Cause of the universe as a huge luminous triangle giving birth every moment to an infinite number of worlds. He heard the Anahata Sabda, the great sound Om, of which the innumerable sounds of the universe are only so many echoes. He acquired the eight supernatural powers of yoga, which make a man almost omnipotent, and these he spurned as of no value whatsoever to the Spirit. He had a vision of the divine Maya, the inscrutable Power of God, by which the universe is created and sustained, and into which it is finally absorbed. In this vision he saw a woman of exquisite beauty, about to become a mother, emerging from the Ganges and slowly approaching the Panchavati. Presently she gave birth to a child and began to nurse it tenderly. A moment later she assumed a terrible aspect, seized the child with her grim jaws, and crushed it. Swallowing it, she re-entered the waters of the Ganges.
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Totapuri was the bearer of a philosophy new to Sri Ramakrishna, the non-dualistic Vedanta philosophy, whose conclusions Totapuri had experienced in his own life. This ancient Hindu system designates the Ultimate Reality as Brahman, also described as Satchidananda, Existence-Knowledge-Bliss Absolute. Brahman is the only Real Existence. In It there is no time, no space, no causality, no multiplicity. But through maya, Its inscrutable Power, time, space, and causality are created and the One appears to break into the many. The eternal Spirit appears as a manifold of individuals endowed with form and subject to the conditions of time. The Immortal becomes a victim of birth and death. The Changeless undergoes change. The sinless Pure Soul, hypnotized by Its own maya, experiences the joys of heaven and the pains of hell. But these experiences based on the duality of the subject-object relationship are unreal. Even the vision of a Personal God
is, ultimately speaking, as illusory as the experience of any other object. Man attains his liberation, therefore, by piercing the veil of maya and rediscovering his total identity with Brahman. Knowing himself to be one with the Universal Spirit, he realizes ineffable Peace. Only then does he go beyond the fiction of birth and death; only then does he become immortal. 'And this is the ultimate goal of all religions — to dehypnotize the soul now hypnotized by its own ignorance.
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Sri Ramakrishna remained completely absorbed in samadhi for three days. "Is it really true?" Totapuri cried out in astonishment. "Is it possible that he has attained in a single day what it took me forty years of strenuous practice to achieve? Great God! It is nothing short of a miracle!" With the help of Totapuri, Sri Ramakrishna's mind finally came down to the relative plane.
Totapuri, a monk of the most orthodox type, never stayed at a place more than three days. But he remained at Dakshineswar eleven months. He too had something to learn.
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Thus, after nirvikalpa samadhi, Sri Ramakrishna realized maya in an altogether new role. The binding aspect of Kali vanished from before his vision. She no longer obscured his understanding. The world became the glorious manifestation of the Divine Mother. Maya became Brahman. The Transcendental Itself broke through the Immanent. Sri Ramakrishna discovered that maya operates in the relative world in two ways, and he termed these "avidyamaya" and "vidyamaya". Avidyamaya represents the dark forces of creation: sensuous desires, evil passions, greed, lust, cruelty, and so on. It sustains the world system on the lower planes. It is responsible for the round of man's birth and death. It must be fought and vanquished. But vidyamaya is the higher force of creation: the spiritual virtues, the enlightening qualities, kindness, purity, love, devotion. Vidyamaya elevates man to the higher planes of consciousness. With the help of vidyamaya the devotee rids himself of avidyamaya; he then becomes mayatita, free of maya. The two aspects of maya are the two forces of creation, the two powers of Kali; and She stands beyond them both. She is like the effulgent sun, bringing into existence and shining through and standing behind the clouds of different colours and shapes, conjuring up wonderful forms in the blue autumn heaven.
The Divine Mother asked Sri Ramakrishna not to be lost in the featureless Absolute but to remain, in bhavamukha, on the threshold of relative consciousness, the border line between the Absolute and the Relative. He was to keep himself at the "sixth centre" of Tantra, from which he could see not only the glory of the seventh, but also the divine manifestations of the Kundalini in the lower centres. He gently oscillated back and forth across the dividing line. Ecstatic devotion to the Divine Mother alternated with serene absorption in the Ocean of Absolute Unity. He thus bridged the gulf between the Personal and the Impersonal, the immanent and the transcendent aspects of Reality. This is a unique experience in the recorded spiritual history of the world.
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On January 27, 1868, Mathur Babu with a party of some one hundred and twenty-five persons set out on a pilgrimage to the sacred places of northern India. At Vaidyanath in Behar, when the Master saw the inhabitants of a village reduced by poverty and starvation to mere skeletons, he requested his rich patron to feed the people and give each a piece of cloth. Mathur demurred at the added expense. The Master declared bitterly that he would not go on to Benares, but would live with the poor and share their miseries. He actually left Mathur and sat down with the villagers. Whereupon Mathur had to yield. On another occasion, two years later, Sri Ramakrishna showed a similar sentiment for the poor and needy. He accompanied Mathur on a tour to one of the latter's estates at the time of the collection of rents. For two years the harvests had failed and the tenants were in a state of extreme poverty. The Master asked Mathur to remit their rents, distribute help to them, and in addition give the hungry people a sumptuous feast. When Mathur grumbled, the Master said: "You are only the steward of the Divine Mother. They are the Mother's tenants. You must spend the Mother's money. When they are suffering, how can you refuse to help them? You must help them." Again Mathur had to give in. Sri Ramakrishna's sympathy for the poor sprang from his perception of God in all created beings. His sentiment was not that of the humanist or philanthropist. To him the service of man was the same as the worship of God.
The party entered holy Benares by boat along the Ganges. When Sri Ramakrishna's eyes fell on this city of Siva, where had accumulated for ages the devotion and piety of countless worshippers, he saw it to be made of gold, as the scriptures declare. He was visibly moved. During his stay in the city he treated every particle of its earth with utmost respect. At the Manikarnika Ghat, the great cremation ground of the city, he actually saw Siva, with ash-covered body and tawny matted hair, serenely approaching each funeral pyre and breathing into the ears of the corpses the mantra of liberation; and then the Divine Mother removing from the dead their bonds. Thus he realized the significance of the scriptural statement that anyone dying in Benares attains salvation through the grace of Siva. He paid a visit to Trailanga Swami, the celebrated monk, whom he later declared to be a real paramahamsa, a veritable image of Siva.
--
Keshab Chandra Sen and Sri Ramakrishna met for the first time in the garden house of Jaygopal Sen at Belgharia, a few miles from Dakshineswar, where the great Brahmo leader was staying with some of his disciples. In many respects the two were poles apart, though an irresistible inner attraction was to make them intimate friends. The Master had realized God as Pure Spirit and Consciousness, but he believed in the various forms of God as well. Keshab, on the other hand, regarded image worship as idolatry and gave allegorical explanations of the Hindu deities. Keshab was an orator and a writer of books and magazine articles; Sri Ramakrishna had a horror of lecturing and hardly knew how to write his own name, Keshab's fame spread far and wide, even reaching the distant shores of England; the Master still led a secluded life in the village of Dakshineswar. Keshab emphasized social reforms for India's regeneration; to Sri Ramakrishna God-realization was the only goal of life. Keshab considered himself a disciple of Christ and accepted in a diluted form the Christian sacraments and Trinity; Sri Ramakrishna was the simple child of Kali, the Divine Mother, though he too, in a different way, acknowledged Christ's divinity. Keshab was a householder holder and took a real interest in the welfare of his children, whereas Sri Ramakrishna was a paramahamsa and completely indifferent to the life of the world. Yet, as their acquaintance ripened into friendship, Sri Ramakrishna and Keshab held each other in great love and respect. Years later, at the news of Keshab's death, the Master felt as if half his body had become paralyzed. Keshab's concepts of the harmony of religions and the Motherhood of God were deepened and enriched by his contact with Sri Ramakrishna.
Sri Ramakrishna, dressed in a red-bordered dhoti, one end of which was carelessly thrown over his left shoulder, came to Jaygopal's garden house accompanied by Hriday. No one took notice of the unostentatious visitor. Finally the Master said to Keshab, "People tell me you have seen God; so I have come to hear from you about God." A magnificent conversation followed. The Master sang a thrilling song about Kali and forthwith went into samadhi. When Hriday uttered the sacred "Om" in his ears, he gradually came back to consciousness of the world, his face still radiating a divine brilliance. Keshab and his followers were amazed. The contrast between Sri Ramakrishna and the Brahmo devotees was very interesting. There sat this small man, thin and extremely delicate. His eyes were illumined with an inner light. Good humour gleamed in his eyes and lurked in the corners of his mouth. His speech was Bengali of a homely kind with a slight, delightful stammer, and his words held men enthralled by their wealth of spiritual experience, their inexhaustible store of simile and metaphor, their power of observation, their bright and subtle humour, their wonderful catholicity, their ceaseless flow of wisdom. And around him now were the sophisticated men of Bengal, the best products of Western education, with Keshab, the idol of young Bengal, as their leader.
Keshab's sincerity was enough for Sri Ramakrishna. Henceforth the two saw each other frequently, either at Dakshineswar or at the temple of the Brahmo Samaj. Whenever the Master was in the temple at the time of divine service, Keshab would request him to speak to the congregation. And Keshab would visit the saint, in his turn, with offerings of flowers and fruits.
--
Shivanath vehemently criticized the Master for his other-worldly attitude toward his wife. He writes: "Ramakrishna was practically separated from his wife, who lived in her village home. One day when I was complaining to some friends about the virtual widowhood of his wife, he drew me to one side and whispered in my ear: 'Why do you complain? It is no longer possible; it is all dead and gone.' Another day as I was inveighing against this part of his teaching, and also declaring that our program of work in the Brahmo Samaj includes women, that ours is a social and domestic religion, and that we want to give education and social liberty to women, the saint became very much excited, as was his way when anything against his settled conviction was asserted — a trait we so much liked in him — and exclaimed, 'Go, thou fool, go and perish in the pit that your women will dig for you.' Then he glared at me and said: 'What does a gardener do with a young plant? Does he not surround it with a fence, to protect it from goats and cattle? And when the young plant has grown up into a tree and it can no longer be injured by cattle, does he not remove the fence and let the tree grow freely?' I replied, 'Yes, that is the custom with gardeners.' Then he remarked, 'Do the same in your spiritual life; become strong, be full-grown; then you may seek them.' To which I replied, 'I don't agree with you in thinking that women's work is like that of cattle, destructive; they are our associates and helpers in our spiritual struggles and social progress' — a view with which he could not agree, and he marked his dissent by shaking his head. Then referring to the lateness of the hour he jocularly remarked, 'It is time for you to depart; take care, do not be late; otherwise your woman will not admit you into her room.' This evoked hearty laughter."
Pratap Chandra Mazumdar, the right-hand man of Keshab and an accomplished Brahmo preacher in Europe and America, bitterly criticized Sri Ramakrishna's use of uncultured language and also his austere attitude toward his wife. But he could not escape the spell of the Master's personality. In the course of an article about Sri Ramakrishna, Pratap wrote in the "Theistic Quarterly Review": "What is there in common between him and me? I, a Europeanized, civilized, self-centred, semi-sceptical, so-called educated reasoner, and he, a poor, illiterate, unpolished, half-idolatrous, friendless Hindu devotee? Why should I sit long hours to attend to him, I, who have listened to Disraeli and Fawcett, Stanley and Max Muller, and a whole host of European scholars and divines? . . . And it is not I only, but dozens like me, who do the same. . . . He worships Siva, he worships Kali, he worships Rama, he worships Krishna, and is a confirmed advocate of Vedantic doctrines. . . . He is an idolater, yet is a faithful and most devoted meditator on the perfections of the One Formless, Absolute, Infinite Deity. . . . His religion is ecstasy, his worship means transcendental insight, his whole nature burns day and night with a permanent fire and fever of a strange faith and feeling. . . . So long as he is spared to us, gladly shall we sit at his feet to learn from him the sublime precepts of purity, unworldliness, spirituality, and inebriation in the love of God. . . . He, by his childlike bhakti, by his strong conceptions of an ever-ready Motherhood, helped to unfold it [God as our Mother] in our minds wonderfully. . . . By associating with him we learnt to realize better the divine attributes as scattered over the three hundred and thirty millions of deities of mythological India, the gods of the Puranas."
The Brahmo leaders received much inspiration from their contact with Sri Ramakrishna. It broadened their religious views and kindled in their hearts the yearning for God-realization; it made them understand and appreciate the rituals and symbols of Hindu religion, convinced them of the manifestation of God in diverse forms, and deepened their thoughts about the harmony of religions. The Master, too, was impressed by the sincerity of many of the Brahmo devotees. He told them about his own realizations and explained to them the essence of his teachings, such as the necessity of renunciation, sincerity in the pursuit of one's own course of discipline, faith in God, the performance of one's duties without thought of results, and discrimination between the Real and the unreal.
--
Suresh Mitra, a beloved disciple whom the Master often addressed as Surendra, had received an English education and held an important post in an English firm. Like many other educated young men of the time, he prided himself on his atheism and led a Bohemian life. He was addicted to drinking. He cherished an exaggerated notion about man's free will. A victim of mental depression, he was brought to Sri Ramakrishna by Ramchandra chandra Dutta. When he heard the Master asking a disciple to practise the virtue of self-surrender to God, he was impressed. But though he tried thenceforth to do so, he was unable to give up his old associates and his drinking. One day the Master said in his presence, "Well, when a man goes to an undesirable place, why doesn't he take the Divine Mother with him?" And to Surendra himself Sri Ramakrishna said: "Why should you drink wine as wine? Offer it to Kali, and then take it as Her prasad, as consecrated drink
. But see that you don't become intoxicated; you must not reel and your thoughts must not wander. At first you will feel ordinary excitement, but soon you will experience spiritual exaltation." Gradually Surendra's entire life was changed. The Master designated him as one of those commissioned by the Divine Mother to defray a great part of his expenses. Surendra's purse was always open for the Master's comfort.
--
Girish Chandra Ghosh was a born rebel against God, a sceptic, a Bohemian, a drunkard. He was the greatest Bengali dramatist of his time, the father of the modem Bengali stage. Like other young men he had imbibed all the vices of the West. He had plunged into a life of dissipation and had become convinced that religion was only a fraud. Materialistic philosophy he justified as enabling one to get at least a little fun out of life. But a series of reverses shocked him and he became eager to solve the riddle of life. He had heard people say that in spiritual life the help of a guru was imperative and that the guru was to be regarded as God Himself. But Girish was too well acquainted with human nature to see perfection in a man. His first meeting with Sri Ramakrishna did not impress him at all. He returned home feeling as if he had seen a freak at a circus; for the Master, in a semi-conscious mood, had inquired whether it was evening, though the lamps were burning in the room. But their paths often crossed, and Girish could not avoid further encounters. The Master attended a performance in Girish's Star Theatre. On this occasion, too, Girish found nothing impressive about him. One day, however, Girish happened to see the Master dancing and singing with the devotees. He felt the contagion and wanted to join them, but restrained himself for fear of ridicule. Another day Sri Ramakrishna was about to give him spiritual instruction, when Girish said: "I don't want to listen to instructions. I have myself written many instructions. They are of no use to me. Please help me in a more tangible way If you can." This pleased the Master and he asked Girish to cultivate faith.
As time passed, Girish began to learn that the guru is the one who silently unfolds the disciple's inner life. He became a steadfast devotee of the Master. He often loaded the Master with insults, drank in his presence, and took liberties which astounded the other devotees. But the Master knew that at heart Girish was tender, faithful, and sincere. He would not allow Girish to give up the theatre. And when a devotee asked him to tell Girish to give up drinking, he sternly replied: "That is none of your business. He who has taken charge of him will look after him. Girish is a devotee of heroic type. I tell you, drinking will not affect him." The Master knew that mere words could not induce a man to break deep-rooted habits, but that the silent influence of love worked miracles. Therefore he never asked him to give up alcohol, with the result that Girish himself eventually broke the habit. Sri Ramakrishna had strengthened Girish's resolution by allowing him to feel that he was absolutely free.
--
The Europeanized Kristodas Pal did not approve of the Master's emphasis on renunciation and said; "Sir, this cant of renunciation has almost ruined the country. It is for this reason that the Indians are a subject nation today. Doing good to others, bringing education to the door of the ignorant, and above all, improving the material conditions of the country — these should be our duty now. The cry of religion and renunciation would, on the contrary, only weaken us. You should advise the young men of Bengal to resort only to such acts as will uplift the country." Sri Ramakrishna gave him a searching look and found no divine light within, "You man of poor understanding!" Sri Ramakrishna said sharply. "You dare to slight in these terms renunciation and piety, which our scriptures describe as the greatest of all virtues! After reading two pages of English you think you have come to know the world! You appear to think you are omniscient. Well, have you seen those tiny crabs that are born in the Ganges just when the rains set in? In this big universe you are even less significant than one of those small creatures. How dare you talk of helping the world? The Lord will look to that. You haven't the power in you to do it." After a pause the Master continued: "Can you explain to me how you can work for others? I know what you mean by helping them. To feed a number of persons, to treat them when they are sick, to construct a road or dig a well — isn't that all? These, are good deeds, no doubt, but how trifling in comparison with the vastness of the universe! How far can a man advance in this line? How many people can you save from famine? Malaria has ruined a whole province; what could you do to stop its onslaught? God alone looks after the world. Let a man first realize Him. Let a man get the authority from God and be endowed with His power; then, and then alone, may he think of doing good to others. A man should first be purged of all egotism. Then alone will the Blissful Mother ask him to work for the world." Sri Ramakrishna mistrusted philanthropy that presumed to pose as charity. He warned people against it. He saw in most acts of philanthropy nothing but egotism, vanity, a desire for glory, a barren excitement to kill the boredom of life, or an attempt to soothe a guilty conscience. True charity, he taught, is the result of love of God — service to man in a spirit of worship.
--- MONASTIC DISCIPLES
--
As he read in college the rationalistic Western philosophers of the nineteenth century, his boyhood faith in God and religion was unsettled. He would not accept religion on mere faith; he wanted demonstration of God. But very soon his passionate nature discovered that mere Universal Reason was cold and bloodless. His emotional nature, dissatisfied with a mere abstraction, required a concrete support to help him in the hours of temptation. He wanted an external power, a guru, who by embodying perfection in the flesh would still the commotion of his soul. Attracted by the magnetic personality of Keshab, he joined the Brahmo Samaj and became a singer in its choir. But in the Samaj he did not find the guru who could say that he had seen God.
In a state of mental conflict and torture of soul, Narendra came to Sri Ramakrishna at Dakshineswar. He was then eighteen years of age and had been in college two years. He entered the Master's room accompanied by some light-hearted friends. At Sri Ramakrishna's request he sang a few songs, pouring his whole soul into them, and the Master went into samadhi. A few minutes later Sri Ramakrishna suddenly left his seat, took Narendra by the hand, and led him to the screened verandah north of his room. They were alone. Addressing Narendra most tenderly, as if he were a friend of long acquaintance, the Master said: "Ah! You have come very late. Why have you been so unkind as to make me wait all these days? My ears are tired of hearing the futile words of worldly men. Oh, how I have longed to pour my spirit into the heart of someone fitted to receive my message!" He talked thus, sobbing all the time. Then, standing before Narendra with folded hands, he addressed him as Narayana, born on earth to remove the misery of humanity. Grasping Narendra's hand, he asked him to come again, alone, and very soon. Narendra was startled. "What is this I have come to see?" he said to himself. "He must be stark mad. Why, I am the son of Viswanath Dutta. How dare he speak this way to me?"
--
Narendra began to talk of his doubt of the very existence of God. His friends thought he had become an atheist, and piously circulated gossip adducing unmentionable motives for his unbelief. His moral character was maligned. Even some of the Master's disciples partly believed the gossip, and Narendra told these to their faces that only a coward believed in God through fear of suffering or hell. But he was distressed to think that Sri Ramakrishna, too, might believe these false reports. His pride revolted. He said to himself: "What does it matter? If a man's good name rests on such slender foundations, I don't care." But later on he was amazed to learn that the Master had never lost faith in him. To a disciple who complained about Narendra's degradation, Sri Ramakrishna replied: "Hush, you fool! The Mother has told me it can never be so. I won't look at you if you speak that way again."
The moment came when Narendra's distress reached its climax. He had gone the whole day without food. As he was returning home in the evening he could hardly lift his tired limbs. He sat down in front of a house in sheer exhaustion, too weak even to think. His mind began to wander. Then, suddenly, a divine power lifted the veil over his soul. He found the solution of the problem of the coexistence of divine justice and misery, the presence of suffering in the creation of a blissful Providence. He felt bodily refreshed, his soul was bathed in peace, and he slept serenely.
--
Jogindranath, on the other hand, was gentle to a fault. One day, under circumstances very like those that had evoked Niranjan's anger, he curbed his temper and held his peace instead of threatening Sri Ramakrishna's abusers. The Master, learning of his conduct, scolded him roundly. Thus to each the fault of the other was recommended as a virtue. The guru was striving to develop, in the first instance, composure, and in the second, mettle. The secret of his training was to build up, by a tactful recognition of the requirements of each given case, the character of the devotee.
Jogindranath came of an aristocratic brahmin family of Dakshineswar. His father and relatives shared the popular mistrust of Sri Ramakrishna's sanity. At a very early age the boy developed religious tendencies, spending two or three hours daily in meditation, and his meeting with Sri Ramakrishna deepened his desire for the realization of God. He had a perfect horror of marriage. But at the earnest request of his mother he had had to yield, and he now believed that his spiritual future was doomed. So he kept himself away from the Master.
--
The Master knew Hari's passion for Vedanta. But he did not wish any of his disciples to become a dry ascetic or a mere bookworm. So he asked Hari to practise Vedanta in life by giving up the unreal and following the Real. "But it is not so easy", Sri Ramakrishna said, "to realize the illusoriness of the world. Study alone does not help one very much. The grace of God is required. Mere personal effort is futile. A man is a tiny creature after all, with very limited powers. But he can achieve the impossible if he prays to God for His grace." Whereupon the Master sang a song in praise of grace. Hari was profoundly moved and shed tears. Later in life Hari achieved a wonderful synthesis of the ideals of the Personal God and the Impersonal Truth.
--- GANGADHAR
--
But his large heart never turned anyone away. He said, "Let me be condemned to be born over and over again, even in the form of a dog, if I can be of help to a single soul." And he bore the pain, singing cheerfully, "Let the body be preoccupied with illness, but, O mind, dwell for ever in God's Bliss!"
One night he had a hemorrhage of the throat. The doctor now diagnosed the illness as cancer. Narendra was the first to break this heart-rending news to the disciples. Within three days the Master was removed to Calcutta for better treatment. At Balaram's house he remained a week until a suitable place could be found at Syampukur, in the northern section of Calcutta. During this week he dedicated himself practically without respite to the instruction of those beloved devotees who had been unable to visit him oftener at Dakshineswar. Discourses incessantly flowed from his tongue, and he often went into samadhi. Dr. Mahendra Sarkar, the celebrated homeopath of Calcutta, was invited to undertake his treatment.
--
It was noticed at this time that some of the devotees were making an unbridled display of their emotions. A number of them, particularly among the householders, began to cultivate, though at first unconsciously, the art of shedding tears, shaking the body, contorting the face, and going into trances, attempting thereby to imitate the Master. They began openly to declare Sri Ramakrishna a Divine Incarnation and to regard themselves as his chosen people, who could neglect religious disciplines with impunity. Narendra's penetrating eye soon sized up the situation. He found out that some of these external manifestations were being carefully practised at home, while some were the outcome of malnutrition, mental weakness, or nervous debility. He mercilessly exposed the devotees who were pretending to have visions, and asked all to develop a healthy religious spirit. Narendra sang inspiring songs for the younger devotees, read with them the Imitation of Christ and the Gita, and held before them the positive ideals of spirituality.
--- LAST DAYS AT COSSIPORE
--
Sunday, August 15, 1886. The Master's pulse became irregular. The devotees stood by the bedside. Toward dusk Sri Ramakrishna had difficulty in breathing. A short time afterwards he complained of hunger. A little liquid food was put into his mouth; some of it he swallowed, and the rest ran over his chin. Two attendants began to fan him. All at once he went into samadhi of a rather unusual type. The body became stiff. Sashi burst into tears. But after midnight the Master revived. He was now very hungry and helped himself to a bowl of porridge. He said he was strong again. He sat up against five or six pillows, which were supported by the body of Sashi, who was fanning him. Narendra took his feet on his lap and began to rub them. Again and again the Master repeated to him, "Take care of these boys." Then he asked to lie down. Three times in ringing tone's he cried the name of Kali, his life's Beloved, and lay back. At two minutes past one there was a low sound in his throat and he fell a little to one side. A thrill passed over his body. His hair stood on end. His eyes became fixed on the tip of his nose. His face was lighted with a smile. The final ecstasy began. It was mahasamadhi, total absorption, from which his mind never returned. Narendra, unable to bear it, ran downstairs.
Dr. Sarkar arrived the following noon and pronounced that life had departed not more than half an hour before. At five o'clock the Masters body was brought downstairs, laid on a cot, dressed in ochre clothes, and decorated with sandal-paste and flowers. A procession was formed. The passers-by wept as the body was taken to the cremation ground at the Baranagore Ghat on the Ganges.
0.00 - The Book of Lies Text, #The Book of Lies, #Aleister Crowley, #Philosophy
mind. I understood that I held in my hands the key
to the future progress of humanity...."
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helpful for the light it throws on many of its passages.
The Editors
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yea, a sharp sword is held therein.
This Eagle is burnt up in the Great Fire; yet not a
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Swear to hele all.
This is the mystery.
--
The Chinese cannot help thinking that the octave has
5 notes.
--
And I held my peace.
O generation of gossipers! who shall deliver you
--
There is no help-but hotch pot!-in the skies
When Astacus sees Crab and Lobster rise.
--
Is there is a Government? then I'm agin it! To hell
with the bloody English!
0.00 - THE GOSPEL PREFACE, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
In the preparation of this manuscript I have received ungrudging help from several friends. Miss Margaret Woodrow Wilson and Mr.Joseph Campbell have worked hard in editing my translation. Mrs.Elizabeth Davidson has typed, more than once, the entire manuscript and rendered other valuable help. Mr.Aldous Huxley has laid me under a debt of gratitude by writing the Foreword. I sincerely thank them all.
In the spiritual firmament Sri Ramakrishna is a waxing crescent. Within one hundred years of his birth and fifty years of his death his message has spread across land and sea. Romain Rolland has described him as the fulfilment of the spiritual aspirations of the three hundred millions of Hindus for the last two thousand years. Mahatma Gandhi has written: "His life enables us to see God face to face. . . . Ramakrishna was a living embodiment of godliness." He is being recognized as a compeer of Krishna, Buddha, and Christ.
--
May this translation of the first book of its kind in the religious history of the world, being the record of the direct words of a prophet, help stricken humanity to come nearer to the Eternal Verity of life and remove dissension and quarrel from among the different faiths!
May it enable seekers of Truth to grasp the subtle laws of the supersensuous realm, and unfold before man's restricted vision the spiritual foundation of the universe, the unity of existence, and the divinity of the soul!
--
As time went on and the number of devotees increased, the staircase room and terrace of the 3rd floor of the Morton Institution became a veritable Naimisaranya of modern times, resounding during all hours of the day, and sometimes of night, too, with the word of God coming from the Rishi-like face of M. addressed to the eager God-seekers sitting around. To the devotees who helped him in preparing the text of the Gospel, he would dictate the conversations of the Master in a meditative mood, referring now and then to his diary. At times in the stillness of midnight he would awaken a nearby devotee and tell him: "Let us listen to the words of the Master in the depths of the night as he explains the truth of the Pranava." ( Vednta Kesari XIX P. 142.) Swami Raghavananda, an intimate devotee of M., writes as follows about these devotional sittings: "In the sweet and warm months of April and May, sitting under the canopy of heaven on the roof-garden of 50 Amherst Street, surrounded by shrubs and plants, himself sitting in their midst like a Rishi of old, the stars and planets in their courses beckoning us to things infinite and sublime, he would speak to us of the mysteries of God and His love and of the yearning that would rise in the human heart to solve the Eternal Riddle, as exemplified in the life of his Master. The mind, melting under the influence of his soft sweet words of light, would almost transcend the frontiers of limited existence and dare to peep into the infinite. He himself would take the influence of the setting and say,'What a blessed privilege it is to sit in such a setting (pointing to the starry heavens), in the company of the devotees discoursing on God and His love!' These unforgettable scenes will long remain imprinted on the minds of his hearers." (Prabuddha Bharata Vol XXXVII P 497.)
About twenty-seven years of his life he spent in this way in the heart of the great city of Calcutta, radiating the Master's thoughts and ideals to countless devotees who flocked to him, and to still larger numbers who read his Kathmrita (English Edition : The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna), the last part of which he had completed before June 1932 and given to the press. And miraculously, as it were, his end also came immediately after he had completed his life's mission. About three months earlier he had come to stay at his home at 13/2 Gurdasprasad Chaudhuary Lane at Thakur Bari, where the Holy Mother had herself installed the Master and where His regular worship was being conducted for the previous 40 years. The night of 3rd June being the Phalahrini Kli Pooja day, M.
0.00 - The Wellspring of Reality, #Synergetics - Explorations in the Geometry of Thinking, #R Buckminster Fuller, #Science
Mind is the weightless and uniquely human faculty that surveys the ever larger inventory of special-case experiences stored in the brain bank and, seeking to identify their intercomplementary significance, from time to time discovers one of the rare scientifically generalizable principles running consistently through all the relevant experience set. The thoughts that discover these principles are weightless and tentative and may also be eternal. They suggest eternity but do not prove it, even though there have been no experiences thus far that imply exceptions to their persistence. It seems also to follow that the more experiences we have, the more chances there are that the mind may discover, on the one hand, additional generalized principles or, on the other hand, exceptions that disqualify one or another of the already catalogued principles that, having heretofore held "true" without contradiction for a long time, had been tentatively conceded to be demonstrating eternal persistence of behavior. Mind's relentless reviewing of the comprehensive brain bank's storage of all our special-case experiences tends both to progressive enlargement and definitive refinement of the catalogue of generalized principles that interaccommodatively govern all transactions of Universe.
It follows that the more specialized society becomes, the less attention does it pay to the discoveries of the mind, which are intuitively beamed toward the brain, there to be received only if the switches are "on." Specialization tends to shut off the wide-band tuning searches and thus to preclude further discovery of the all-powerful generalized principles. Again we see how society's perverse fixation on specialization leads to its extinction. We are so specialized that one man discovers empirically how to release the energy of the atom, while another, unbeknownst to him, is ordered by his political factotum to make an atomic bomb by use of the secretly and anonymously published data. That gives much expedient employment, which solves the politician's momentary problem, but requires that the politicians keep on preparing for further warring with other political states to keep their respective peoples employed. It is also mistakenly assumed that employment is the only means by which humans can earn the right to live, for politicians have yet to discover how much wealth is available for distribution. All this is rationalized on the now scientifically discredited premise that there can never be enough life support for all. Thus humanity's specialization leads only toward warring and such devastating tools, both, visible and invisible, as ultimately to destroy all Earthians.
--
Furthermore, today's hyperspecialization in socioeconomic functioning has come to preclude important popular philosophic considerations of the synergetic significance of, for instance, such historically important events as the discovery within the general region of experimental inquiry known as virology that the as-yet popularly assumed validity of the concepts of animate and inanimate phenomena have been experimentally invalidated. Atoms and crystal complexes of atoms were held to be obviously inanimate; the protoplasmic cells of biological phenomena were held to be obviously animate. It was deemed to be common sense that warm- blooded, moist, and soft-skinned humans were clearly not to be confused with hard, cold granite or steel objects. A clear-cut threshold between animate and inanimate was therefore assumed to exist as a fundamental dichotomy of all physical phenomena. This seemingly placed life exclusively within the bounds of the physical.
The supposed location of the threshold between animate and inanimate was methodically narrowed down by experimental science until it was confined specifically within the domain of virology. Virologists have been too busy, for instance, with their DNA-RNA genetic code isolatings, to find time to see the synergetic significance to society of the fact that they have found that no physical threshold does in fact exist between animate and inanimate. The possibility of its existence vanished because the supposedly unique physical qualities of both animate and inanimate have persisted right across yesterday's supposed threshold in both directions to permeate one another's-previously perceived to be exclusive- domains. Subsequently, what was animate has become foggier and foggier, and what is inanimate clearer and clearer. All organisms consist physically and in entirety of inherently inanimate atoms. The inanimate alone is not only omnipresent but is alone experimentally demonstrable. Belated news of the elimination of this threshold must be interpreted to mean that whatever life may be, it has not been isolated and thereby identified as residual in the biological cell, as had been supposed by the false assumption that there was a separate physical phenomenoncalled animate within which life existed. No life per se has been isolated. The threshold between animate and inanimate has vanished. Those chemists who are preoccupied in synthesizing the particular atomically structured molecules identified as the prime constituents of humanly employed organisms will, even if they are chemically successful, be as remote from creating life as are automobile manufacturers from creating the human drivers of their automobiles. Only the physical connections and development complexes of distinctly "nonlife" atoms into molecules, into cells, into animals, has been and will be discovered. The genetic coding of the design controls of organic systems offers no more explanation of life than did the specifications of the designs of the telephone system's apparatus and operation explain the nature of the life that communicates weightlessly to life over the only physically ponderable telephone system. Whatever else life may be, we know it is weightless. At the moment of death, no weight is lost. All the chemicals, including the chemist's life ingredients, are present, but life has vanished. The physical is inherently entropic, giving off energy in ever more disorderly ways. The metaphysical is antientropic, methodically marshalling energy. Life is antientropic.
0.01f - FOREWARD, #The Phenomenon of Man, #Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, #Christianity
From the dawn of his existence, man has been held up as a
spectacle to himself. Indeed for tens of centuries he has looked at
0.01 - I - Sri Aurobindos personality, his outer retirement - outside contacts after 1910 - spiritual personalities- Vibhutis and Avatars - transformtion of human personality, #Evening Talks With Sri Aurobindo, #unset, #Zen
Over and above Sadhana, writing work and rendering spiritual help to the world during his apparent retirement there were plenty of other activities of which the outside world has no knowledge. Many prominent as well as less known persons sought and obtained interviews with him during these years. Thus, among well-known persons may be mentioned C.R. Das, Lala Lajpat Rai, Sarala Devi, Dr. Munje, Khasirao Jadhav, Tagore, Sylvain Levy. The great national poet of Tamil Nadu, S. Subramanya Bharati, was in contact with Sri Aurobindo for some years during his stay at Pondicherry; so was V.V.S. Aiyar. The famous V. Ramaswamy Aiyangar Va Ra of Tamil literature[3] stayed with Sri Aurobindo for nearly three years and was influenced by him. Some of these facts have been already mentioned in The Life of Sri Aurobindo.
Jung has admitted that there is an element of mystery, something that baffles the reason, in human personality. One finds that the greater the personality the greater is the complexity. And this is especially so with regard to spiritual personalities whom the Gita calls Vibhutis and Avatars.
0.02 - Letters to a Sadhak, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
What should I do, Sweet Mother? I call for Your help.
You must be calm and concentrated, never utter an unnecessary
sentence and have faith in the divine help.
12 December 1933
--
with Your help I am sure to succeed.
I had dreamed that X and I would discuss both the
0.02 - The Three Steps of Nature, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
to this conclusion that mental life, far from being a recent appearance in man, is the swift repetition in him of a previous achievement from which the Energy in the race had undergone one of her deplorable recoils. The savage is perhaps not so much the first forefa ther of civilised man as the degenerate descendant of a previous civilisation. For if the actuality of intellectual achievement is unevenly distributed, the capacity is spread everywhere. It has been seen that in individual cases even the racial type considered by us the lowest, the negro fresh from the perennial barbarism of Central Africa, is capable, without admixture of blood, without waiting for future generations, of the intellectual culture, if not yet of the intellectual accomplishment of the dominant European. Even in the mass men seem to need, in favourable circumstances, only a few generations to cover ground that ought apparently to be measured in the terms of millenniums. Either, then, man by his privilege as a mental being is exempt from the full burden of the tardy laws of evolution or else he already represents and with helpful conditions and in the right stimulating atmosphere can always display a high level of material capacity for the activities of the intellectual life.
It is not mental incapacity, but the long rejection or seclusion from opportunity and withdrawal of the awakening impulse that creates the savage. Barbarism is an intermediate sleep, not an original darkness.
0.03 - III - The Evening Sittings, #Evening Talks With Sri Aurobindo, #unset, #Zen
These sittings, in fact, furnished Sri Aurobindo with an occasion to admit and feel the outer atmosphere and that of the group living with him. It brought to him the much-needed direct contact of the mental and vital make-up of the disciples, enabling him to act on the atmosphere in general and on the individual in particular. He could thus help to remould their mental make-up by removing the limitations of their minds and opinions, and correct temperamental tendencies and formations. Thus, these sittings contributed at least partly to the creation of an atmosphere amenable to the working of the Higher Consciousness. Far more important than the actual talk and its content was the personal contact, the influence of the Master, and the divine atmosphere he emanated; for through his outer personality it was the Divine Consciousness that he allowed to act. All along behind the outer manifestation that appeared human, there was the influence and presence of the Divine.
What was talked in the small group informally was not intended by Sri Aurobindo to be the independent expression of his views on the subjects, events or the persons discussed. Very often what he said was in answer to the spiritual need of the individual or of the collective atmosphere. It was like a spiritual remedy meant to produce certain spiritual results, not a philosophical or metaphysical pronouncement on questions, events or movements. The net result of some talks very often was to point out to the disciple the inherent incapacity of the human intellect and its secondary place in the search for the ultimate Reality.
--
From 1922 to 1926, No. 9, Rue de la Marine, where he and the Mother had shifted, was the place where the sittings were held. There, also upstairs, was a less broad verandah than at the Guest House, a little bigger table in front of the central door out of three, and a broad Japanese chair, the table covered with a better cloth than the one in the Guest House, a small flower vase, an ash-tray, a block calendar indicating the date and an ordinary time-piece, and a number of chairs in front in a line. The evening sittings used to be after meditation at 4 or 4.30 p.m. After 24 November 1926, the sittings began to get later and later, till the limit of 1 o'clock at night was reached. Then the curtain fell. Sri Aurobindo retired completely after December 1926, and the evening sittings came to a close.
On 8 February 1927, Sri Aurobindo and the Mother moved to No. 28, Rue Franois Martin, a house on the north-east of the same block as No. 9, Rue de la Marine.
0.03 - Letters to My little smile, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
- and least of all about their difficulties; it is uncharitable because it does not help them to overcome the difficulties. As
for doctors, the rule is that they should not talk about their
--
am still not regular, so how can I hope for Your help?
I don't understand what you mean. My help is always with
you, as complete as it can be; it is up to you to open yourself
--
I would have Your help and become regular in my work,
but in vain.
--
because Your help is always with me. But I do not know
when I will open myself to You. I am as hard as a stone.
--
with regard to Your help: "It is up to you to open yourself
and receive it. And it is certainly not by being rebellious
--
But last night after my walk at 9:30, I helped X to
sew with the sewing machine until 10:15. Then I worked
--
You must not worry - it does not help towards the realisation
of the promises; and also you must be patient. In this physical
--
will to help you out of your difficulties.
24 January 1934
--
The Mother's name for the Tiger-claw plant, heliconia metallica.
I have seen this blouse, I find that the bird-of-paradise
--
yourself, and that is why I cannot help you as much as I would
like to.
--
It goes without saying that our help is always with you to
bring you peace and silence, and it is absolutely certain that
--
reappear. My love is always with you to help you go through
this bad moment.
--
To [my little smile] whose precious help prevents my feet from
being hurt by the stones on the way.
0.03 - The Threefold Life, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
This mixing with life may, however, be pursued for the sake of the individual mind and with an entire indifference to the forms of the material existence or the uplifting of the race. This indifference is seen at its highest in the Epicurean discipline and is not entirely absent from the Stoic; and even altruism does the works of compassion more often for its own sake than for the sake of the world it helps. But this too is a limited fulfilment. The progressive mind is seen at its noblest when it strives to elevate the whole race to its own level whether by sowing broadcast the image of its own thought and fulfilment or by changing the material life of the race into fresh forms, religious, intellectual, social or political, intended to represent more nearly that ideal of truth, beauty, justice, righteousness with which the man's own soul is illumined. Failure in such a field matters little; for the mere attempt is dynamic and creative. The struggle of Mind to elevate life is the promise and condition of the conquest of life by that which is higher even than Mind.
That highest thing, the spiritual existence, is concerned with what is eternal but not therefore entirely aloof from the transient. For the spiritual man the mind's dream of perfect beauty is realised in an eternal love, beauty and delight that has no dependence and is equal behind all objective appearances; its dream of perfect Truth in the supreme, self-existent, self-apparent and eternal Verity which never varies, but explains and is the secret of all variations and the goal of all progress; its dream of perfect action in the omnipotent and self-guiding Law that is inherent for ever in all things and translates itself here in the rhythm of the worlds. What is fugitive vision or constant effort of creation in the brilliant Self is an eternally existing Reality in the Self that knows2 and is the Lord.
0.04 - The Systems of Yoga, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
The results of Hathayoga are thus striking to the eye and impose easily on the vulgar or physical mind. And yet at the end we may ask what we have gained at the end of all this stupendous labour. The object of physical Nature, the preservation of the mere physical life, its highest perfection, even in a certain sense the capacity of a greater enjoyment of physical living have been carried out on an abnormal scale. But the weakness of Hathayoga is that its laborious and difficult processes make so great a demand on the time and energy and impose so complete a severance from the ordinary life of men that the utilisation of its results for the life of the world becomes either impracticable or is extraordinarily restricted. If in return for this loss we gain another life in another world within, the mental, the dynamic, these results could have been acquired through other systems, through Rajayoga, through Tantra, by much less laborious methods and held on much less exacting terms. On the other hand the physical results, increased vitality, prolonged youth, health, longevity are of small avail if they must be held by us as misers of ourselves, apart from the common life, for their own sake, not utilised, not thrown into the common sum of the world's activities. Hathayoga attains large results, but at an exorbitant price and to very little purpose.
Rajayoga takes a higher flight. It aims at the liberation and perfection not of the bodily, but of the mental being, the control of the emotional and sensational life, the mastery of the whole apparatus of thought and consciousness. It fixes its eyes on the citta, that stuff of mental consciousness in which all these activities arise, and it seeks, even as Hathayoga with its physical material, first to purify and to tranquillise. The normal state of man is a condition of trouble and disorder, a kingdom either at war with itself or badly governed; for the lord, the Purusha, is subjected to his ministers, the faculties, subjected even to his subjects, the instruments of sensation, emotion, action, enjoyment. Swarajya, self-rule, must be substituted for this subjection.
First, therefore, the powers of order must be helped to overcome
The Conditions of the Synthesis
0.05 - Letters to a Child, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
rule. You will see that it will help you to protect yourself from
many mistakes.
--
allow it to envelop you and help you.
16 August 1934
--
How will you feel my help and take advantage of it if you
do not even trust in me? Yet my love is always with you.
--
I am always with you to help and support you.
Love from your mother.
--
follows, success always comes to those who are strong, courageous, enduring. And you know that here our force and our help
are always available to you; you have only to learn to make use
--
since our help and protection are always there. Indeed, you must
open yourself to this help and protection and learn to use them
to conquer the adversary who is trying to draw you towards the
--
you? Whatever happens, you can always rely on my help; do
not hesitate to ask for it.
--
our help and our blessings are always with you?
Keep your interest in the work - this too will help you to
pass through the difficult moments.
--
You are right to tell me, my dear child; it helps you to open
yourself. I know that it is troublesome to feel this resistance
--
the inner help, not on an outer and superficial help.
I am telling you all this so that you may not be disappointed
--
My love, my help and my blessings will always be with you.
Your mother.
--
Yes, my dear little child, I am always with you to help you, to
support you, to guide you. By doing your work with conscientiousness, honesty and perseverance, you will feel my presence
--
that I am close to you to console you and help you, and then the
hardest part will be over.
--
Your going away will not help in the least. Exterior means are
useless; it is the "inside" that must change. Keep your resolution
and my help will work.
With my love and blessings.
--
sure that I shall do my best to help you in that. I am quite sure
that perseverance in study and the acceptance of a discipline of
work and order in life will be a powerful help to you in renewing
yourself.
All my love is with you to help you and guide you.
My dear child,
--
energy to reject depression. I am always near you to help you
with all my love.
--
revolt, it would help you very much to get rid of it, because it is
Series Five - To a Child
--
Love from your mother who is always there ready to help
you.
--
I am always with you to help you and protect you.
Do not allow yourself to be dominated by vain imaginations.
--
want me to be able to help you.
Mother,
0.05 - The Synthesis of the Systems, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
There are three outstanding features of this action of the higher when it works integrally on the lower nature. In the first place it does not act according to a fixed system and succession as in the specialised methods of Yoga, but with a sort of free, scattered and yet gradually intensive and purposeful working determined by the temperament of the individual in whom it operates, the helpful materials which his nature offers and the obstacles which it presents to purification and perfection. In a sense, therefore, each man in this path has his own method of
Yoga. Yet are there certain broad lines of working common to all which enable us to construct not indeed a routine system, but
0.06 - INTRODUCTION, #Dark Night of the Soul, #Saint John of the Cross, #Christianity
already taught us how we are to deny and purify ourselves with the ordinary help of
grace, in order to prepare our senses and faculties for union with God through love.
0.06 - Letters to a Young Sadhak, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Mother, what is it that will help me always remember
that I am living a spiritual life?
--
How do you expect me to help you if you have no trust in me!
I shall never be able to realise fully this relationship
which exists eternally, if You don't help me to do it.
My help is there completely; you have only to open yourself to
it with confidence and you will receive it.
Yes, my help is with you to master all the movements which are
opposed to the Divine.
--
if it does not help him to correct it.
This morning I was thinking I would get another blow
--
If you persevere you are sure to succeed; as for my help you may
rest assured it is always with you, and one never calls in vain.
--
seek help and support, it is in Him alone that one must put all
one's hope.
All my power is with you to help you; open yourself with a
calm confidence, have faith in the Divine Grace, and you will
--
calling me to your help.
Mother, last night I had a nightmare and was almost
--
to remember me and call me to your help if there is some danger.
You will see that the nightmares will vanish.
--
a concrete and tangible help, than all alone, without anyone to
shed light on the path and guide the uncertain footsteps?
--
One cannot help others to overcome their sorrows and sufferings
unless one has overcome all this in oneself and is master of one's
--
dissolve, and the mind helps it; how will You be able to
stop the natural propensity of my body to disintegration?
--
a help, for, in general, a refined and educated mind finds its
satisfaction in itself and rarely seeks to silence itself so as to be
0.07 - Letters to a Sadhak, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Yes, I like to receive the book from you. It helps to keep the
contact materially.
--
Grace to help and to protect.
6 November 1938
--
please me immensely and help you very much on the way.
My love and blessings to you, dear child.
--
sure of my love, you can be sure of my help, and our blessings
19 August 1939
--
Inside, outside and everywhere is the help of the Mother...
with her love and blessings.
--
Whenever you require spiritual help I am always there to
give you that help under whatever form it can take.
With my love and blessings.
0.08 - Letters to a Young Captain, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
they help us in our sadhana?
Each region of the being and each activity has its energies. We
--
simplest language, almost the spoken language. To get help from
them, it is enough to read with attention and concentration and
0.09 - Letters to a Young Teacher, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
receive all the help needed to be able to change in themselves
what needs to be changed. You can be sure that my force will
--
is always there to help you and guide you; but it is natural that
you should approach Him with the reverence due to the Master
--
in them either the force or the knowledge that will help him to
make progress.
--
to meet you in order to help you.
12 November 1960
01.01 - Sri Aurobindo - The Age of Sri Aurobindo, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
The highest ideal, the very highest which God and Nature and Man have in view, is not and cannot be kept in cold storage: it is being worked out even here and now, and it has to be worked out here and now. The ideal of the Life Divine embodies a central truth of existence, and however difficult or chimerical it may appear to be to the normal mind, it is the preoccupation of the inner being of manall other ways or attempts of curing human ills are faint echoes, masks, diversions of this secret urge at the source and heart of things. That ideal is a norm and a force that is ever dynamic and has become doubly so since it has entered the earth atmosphere and the waking human consciousness and is labouring there. It is always safer and wiser to recognise that fact, to help in the realisation of that truth and be profited by it.
***
01.01 - The One Thing Needful, #The Integral Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
To find the Divine is indeed the first reason for seeking the spiritual Truth and the spiritual life; it is the one thing indispensable and all the resit is nothing without it. The Divine once found, to manifest Him, - that is, first of all to transform one's own limited consciousness into the Divine Consciousness, to live in the infinite Peace, Light, Love, Strength, Bliss, to become that in one's essential nature and, as a consequence, to be its vessel, channel, instrument in one's active nature. To bring into activity the principle of oneness on the material plane or to work for humanity is a mental mistranslation of the Truth - these things cannot be the first true object of spiritual seeking. We must find the Self, the Divine, then only can we know what is the work the Self or the Divine demands from us. Until then our life and action can only be a help or a means towards finding the Divine and it ought not to have any other purpose. As we grow in inner consciousness, or as the spiritual Truth of the Divine grows in us, our life and action must indeed more and more flow from that, be one with that. But to decide beforeh and by our limited mental conceptions what they must be is to hamper the growth of the spiritual Truth within. As that grows we shall feel the Divine Light and Truth, the Divine Power and Force, the Divine Purity and Peace working within us, dealing with our actions as well as our consciousness, making use of them to reshape us into the Divine Image, removing the dross, substituting the pure Gold of the Spirit. Only when the Divine Presence is there in us always and the consciousness transformed, can we have the right to say that we are ready to manifest the Divine on the material plane. To hold up a mental ideal or principle and impose that on the inner working brings the danger of limiting ourselves to a mental realisation or of impeding or even falsifying by a halfway formation the truth growth into the full communion and union with the Divine and the free and intimate outflowing of His will in our life. This is a mistake of orientation to which the mind of today is especially prone. It is far better to approach the Divine for the Peace or Light or Bliss that the realisation of Him gives than to bring in these minor things which can divert us from the one thing needful. The divinisation of the material life also as well as the inner life is part of what we see as the Divine Plan, but it can only be fulfilled by an ourflowing of the inner realisation, something that grows from within outwards, not by the working out of a mental principle.
The realisation of the Divine is the one thing needful and the rest is desirable only in so far as it helps or leads towards that or when it is realised, extends and manifests the realisation. Manifestation and organisation of the whole life for the divine work, - first, the sadhana personal and collective necessary for the realisation and a common life of God-realised men, secondly, for help to the world to move towards that, and to live in the Light - is the whole meaning and purpose of my Yoga. But the realisation is the first need and it is that round which all the rest moves, for apart from it all the rest would have no meaning.
Yoga is directed towards God, not towards man. If a divine supramental consciousness and power can be brought down and established in the material world, that obviously would mean an immense change for the earth including humanity and its life. But the effect on humanity would only be one result of the change; it cannot be the object of the sadhana. The object of the sadhana can only be to live in the divine consciousness and to manifest it in life.
01.01 - The Symbol Dawn, #Savitri, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Too perfect to be held by death-bound hearts,
The prescience of a marvellous birth to come.
--
Too unlike the world she came to help and save,
Her greatness weighed upon its ignorant breast
--
Only a vague earth-nature held the frame.
2.32
01.02 - Natures Own Yoga, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
The Supermind is not merely synthetic. The Supermind is synthetic only on the lowest spaces of itself, where it has to prepare the principles of Overmind,synthesis is necessary only where analysis has taken place, one has dissected everything, put in pieces (analysis), so one has to piece together. But Supermind is unitarian, has never divided up, so it does not need to add and piece together the parts and fragments. It has always held the conscious Many together in the conscious One.
***
01.02 - Sri Aurobindo - Ahana and Other Poems, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
And here, let me point out, the capital difference between the European or rather the hellenic spirit and the Indian spirit. It is the Indian spirit to take stand upon divinity and thence to embrace and mould what is earthly and human. The Greek spirit took its stand pre-eminently on earth and what belongs to earth. In Europe Dante's was a soul spiritualised more than perhaps any other and yet his is not a Hindu soul. The utmost that he could say after all the experience of the tragedy of mortality was:
Io no piangeva, sidentro impietrai13
--
The Greek sings of the humanity of man, the Indian the divinity of man. It is the hellenic spirit that has very largely moulded our taste and we have forgotten that an equally poetic world exists in the domain of spiritual life, even in its very severity, as in that of earthly life and its sweetness. And as we are passionate about the earthly life, even so Sri Aurobindo has made a passion of the spiritual life. Poetry after all has a mission; the phrase "Art for Art's sake" may be made to mean anything. Poetry is not merely what is pleasing, not even what is merely touching and moving but what is at the same time, inspiring, invigorating, elevating. Truth is indeed beauty but it is not always the beauty that captivates the eye or the mere aesthetic sense.
And because our Vedic poets always looked beyond humanity, beyond earth, therefore could they make divine poetry of humanity and what is of earth. Therefore it was that they were pervadingly so grandiose and sublime and puissant. The heroic, the epic was their natural element and they could not but express themselves in the grand manner Sri Aurobindo has the same outlook and it is why we find in him the ring of the old-world manner.
01.02 - The Creative Soul, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
Now the centre of this energy, the matrix of creativity is the soul itself, one's own soul. If you want to createlive, grow and be real-find yourself, be yourself. The simple old wisdom still remains the eternal wisdom. It is because we fall off from our soul that we wander into side-paths, paths that do not belong to our real nature and hence that lead to imitation and repetition, decay and death. This is what happens to what we call common souls. The force of circumstances, the pressure of environment or simply the momentum of custom or habit compel them to choose the easiest and the readiest way that may lie before them. They do not consult the demand of the inner being but the requirement of the moment. Our bodily needs, our vital hungers and our mental prejudices obsess and obscure the impulsions that thrill the hidden spirit. We hasten to gratify the immediate and forget the eternal, we clutch at the shadow and let go the substance. We are carried away in the flux and tumult of life. It is a mixed and collective whirla Weltgeist that moves and governs us. We are helpless straws drifting in the current. But manhood demands that we stop and pause, pull ourselves out of the Maelstrom and be what we are. We must shape things as we want and not allow things to shape us as they want.
Let each take cognisance of the godhead that is within him for self is Godand in the strength of the soul-divinity create his universe. It does not matter what sort of universe he- creates, so long as he creates it. The world created by a Buddha is not the same as that created by a Napoleon, nor should they be the same. It does not prove anything that I cannot become a Kalidasa; for that matter Kalidasa cannot become what I am. If you have not the genius of a Shankara it does not mean that you have no genius at all. Be and become yourselfma gridhah kasyachit dhanam, says the Upanishad. The fountain-head of creative genius lies there, in the free choice and the particular delight the self-determination of the spirit within you and not in the desire for your neighbours riches. The world has become dull and uniform and mechanical, since everybody endeavours to become not himself, but always somebody else. Imitation is servitude and servitude brings in grief.
01.02 - The Issue, #Savitri, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
In a last turn where heaven raced with hell.
3.5
--
In the world's death-cave uphold life's helpless claim
And vindicate her right to be and love.
--
No helper had she save the Strength within;
There was no witness of terrestrial eyes;
--
Her inward help unbarred a gate in heaven;
Love in her was wider than the universe,
--
Baring her helpless heart to destiny's stroke.
4.27
01.03 - Mystic Poetry, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
The waves break helplessly at the sides!
His face looks familiar... 1
--
I held my breath and from a world of din
Solitarily I sat apart
01.03 - Rationalism, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
The fact is that Reason is a lower manifestation of knowledge, it is an attempt to express on the mental level a power that exceeds it. It is the section of a vast and unitarian Consciousness-Power; the section may be necessary under certain conditions and circumstances, but unless it is viewed in its relation to the ensemble, unless it gives up its exclusive absolutism, it will be perforce arbitrary and misleading. It would still remain helpful and useful, but its help and use would be always limited in scope and temporary in effectivity.
***
01.03 - The Yoga of the King - The Yoga of the Souls Release, #Savitri, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
His birth held up a symbol and a sign;
His human self like a translucent cloak
--
To help the heart to yield to rapture's call,
And sweet temptations stole from beauty's realms
--
In his present he held his future and his past,
Felt in the seconds the uncounted years
--
His spirit's stillness helped the toiling world.
Inspired by silence and the closed eyes' sight
--
Or streaked along the roads of Heaven and hell
Pursuing all knowledge like a questing hound.
--
As if a torch held by a power of God,
The radiant world of the everlasting Truth
01.03 - Yoga and the Ordinary Life, #The Integral Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
It is not helpful to abandon the ordinary life before the being is ready for the full spiritual life. To do so means to precipitate a struggle between the different elements and exasperate it to a point of intensity which the nature is not ready to bear. The vital elements in you have partly to be met by the discipline and experience of life, while keeping the spiritual aim in view and trying to govern life by it progressively in the spirit of Karmayoga.
The best way to prepare oneself for the spiritual life when one has to live in the ordinary occupations and surroundings is to cultivate an entire equality and detachment and the samata of the Gita with the faith that the Divine is there and the Divine Will at work in all things even though at present under the conditions of a world of Ignorance. Beyond this are the Light and Ananda towards which life is working, but the best way for their advent and foundation in the individual being and nature is to grow in this spiritual equality. That would also solve your difficulty about things unpleasant and disagreeable. All unpleasantness should be faced with this spirit of samata.
01.04 - Sri Aurobindos Gita, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
The supreme secret of the Gita, rahasyam uttamam, has presented itself to diverse minds in diverse forms. All these however fall, roughly speaking, into two broad groups of which one may be termed the orthodox school and the other the modem school. The orthodox school as represented, for example, by Shankara or Sridhara, viewed the Gita in the light of the spiritual discipline more or less current in those ages, when the purpose of life was held out to be emancipation from life, whether through desireless work or knowledge or devotion or even a combination of the three. The Modern School, on the other hand, represented by Bankim in Bengal and more thoroughly developed and systematised in recent times by Tilak, is inspired by its own Time-Spirit and finds in the Gita a gospel of life-fulfilment. The older interpretation laid stress upon a spiritual and religious, which meant therefore in the end an other-worldly discipline; the newer interpretation seeks to dynamise the more or less quietistic spirituality which held the ground in India of later ages, to set a premium upon action, upon duty that is to be done in our workaday life, though with a spiritual intent and motive.
This neo-spirituality which might claim its sanction and authority from the real old-world Indian disciplinesay, of Janaka and Yajnavalkyalabours, however, in reality, under the influence of European activism and ethicism. It was this which served as the immediate incentive to our spiritual revival and revaluation and its impress has not been thoroughly obliterated even in the best of our modern exponents. The bias of the vital urge and of the moral imperative is apparent enough in the modernist conception of a dynamic spirituality. Fundamentally the dynamism is made to reside in the lan of the ethical man,the spiritual element, as a consciousness of supreme unity in the Absolute (Brahman) or of love and delight in God, serving only as an atmosphere for the mortal activity.
01.04 - The Intuition of the Age, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
The worship of man as something essentially and exclusively human necessitates as a corollary, the other doctrine, viz the deification of Reason; and vice versa. Humanism and Scientism go together and the whole spirit and mentality of the age that is passing may be summed up in those two words. So Nietzsche says, "All our modern world is captured in the net of the Alexandrine culture and has, for its ideal, the theoretical man, armed with the most powerful instruments of knowledge, toiling in the service of science and whose prototype and original ancestor is Socrates." Indeed, it may be generally asserted that the nation whose prophet and sage claimed to have brought down Philosophia from heaven to dwell upon earth among men was precisely the nation, endowed with a clear and logical intellect, that was the very embodiment of rationality and reasonableness. As a matter of fact, it would not be far, wrong to say that it is the hellenic culture which has been moulding humanity for ages; at least, it is this which has been the predominating factor, the vital and dynamic element in man's nature. Greece when it died was reborn in Rome; Rome, in its return, found new life in France; and France means Europe. What Europe has been and still is for the world and humanity one knows only too much. And yet, the hellenic genius has not been the sole motive power and constituent element; there has been another leaven which worked constantly within, if intermittently without. If Europe represented mind and man and this side of existence, Asia always reflected that which transcends the mind the spirit, the Gods and the Beyonds.
However, we are concerned more with the immediate past, the mentality that laid its supreme stress upon the human rationality. What that epoch did not understand was that Reason could be overstepped, that there was something higher, something greater than Reason; Reason being the sovereign faculty, it was thought there could be nothing beyond, unless it were draison. The human attribute par excellence is Reason. Exactly so. But the fact is that man is not bound by his humanity and that reason can be transformed and sublimated into other more powerful faculties.
01.04 - The Poetry in the Making, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
But the Yogi is a wholly conscious being; a perfect Yogi is he who possesses a conscious and willed control over his instruments, he silences them, as and when he likes, and makes them convey and express with as little deviation as possible truths and realities from the Beyond. Now the question is, is it possible for the poet also to do something like that, to consciously create and not to be a mere unconscious or helpless channel? Conscious artistry, as we have said, means to be conscious on two levels of consciousness at the same time, to be at home in both equally and simultaneously. The general experience, however, is that of "one at a time": if the artist dwells more in the one, the other retires into the background to the same measure. If he is in the over-consciousness, he is only half-conscious in his brain consciousness, or even not conscious at allhe does not know how he has created, the sources or process of his creative activity, he is quite oblivious of them" gone through them all as if per saltum. Such seems to have been the case with the primitives, as they are called, the elemental poetsShakespeare and Homer and Valmiki. In some others, who come very near to them in poetic genius, yet not quite on a par, the instrumental intelligence is strong and active, it helps in its own way but in helping circumscribes and limits the original impulsion. The art here becomes consciously artistic, but loses something of the initial freshness and spontaneity: it gains in correctness, polish and elegance and has now a style in lieu of Nature's own naturalness. I am thinking of Virgil and Milton and Kalidasa. Dante's place is perhaps somewhere in between. Lower in the rung where the mental medium occupies a still more preponderant place we have intellectual poetry, poetry of the later classical age whose representatives are Pope and Dryden. We can go farther down and land in the domain of versificationalthough here, too, there can be a good amount of beauty in shape of ingenuity, cleverness and conceit: Voltaire and Delille are of this order in French poetry.
The three or four major orders I speak of in reference to conscious artistry are exampled characteristically in the history of the evolution of Greek poetry. It must be remembered, however, at the very outset that the Greeks as a race were nothing if not rational and intellectual. It was an element of strong self-consciousness that they brought into human culture that was their special gift. Leaving out of account Homer who was, as I said, a primitive, their classical age began with Aeschylus who was the first and the most spontaneous and intuitive of the Great Three. Sophocles, who comes next, is more balanced and self-controlled and pregnant with a reasoned thought-content clothed in polished phrasing. We feel here that the artist knew what he was about and was exercising a conscious control over his instruments and materials, unlike his predecessor who seemed to be completely carried away by the onrush of the poetic enthousiasmos. Sophocles, in spite of his artistic perfection or perhaps because of it, appears to be just a little, one remove, away from the purity of the central inspiration there is a veil, although a thin transparent veil, yet a veil between which intervenes. With the third of the Brotherhood, Euripides, we slide lower downwe arrive at a predominantly mental transcription of an experience or inner conception; but something of the major breath continues, an aura, a rhythm that maintains the inner contact and thus saves the poetry. In a subsequent age, in Theocritus, for example, poetry became truly very much 'sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought', so much of virtuosity and precocity entered into it; in other words, the poet then was an excessively self-conscious artist. That seems to be the general trend of all literature.
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Not only so, the future development of the poetic consciousness seems inevitably to lead to such a consummation in which the creative and the critical faculties will not be separate but form part of one and indivisible movement. Historically, human consciousness has grown from unconsciousness to consciousness and from consciousness to self-consciousness; man's creative and artistic genius too has moved pari passu in the same direction. The earliest and primitive poets were mostly unconscious, that is to say, they wrote or said things as they came to them spontaneously, without effort, without reflection, they do not seem to know the whence and wherefore and whither of it all, they know only that the wind bloweth as it listeth. That was when man had not yet eaten the fruit of knowledge, was still in the innocence of childhood. But as he grew up and progressed, he became more and more conscious, capable of exerting and exercising a deliberate will and initiating a purposive action, not only in the external practical field but also in the psychological domain. If the earlier group is called "primitives", the later one, that of conscious artists, usually goes by the name of "classicists." Modern creators have gone one step farther in the direction of self-consciousness, a return upon oneself, an inlook of full awareness and a free and alert activity of the critical faculties. An unconscious artist in the sense of the "primitives" is almost an impossible phenomenon in the modern world. All are scientists: an artist cannot but be consciously critical, deliberate, purposive in what he creates and how he creates. Evidently, this has cost something of the old-world spontaneity and supremacy of utterance; but it cannot be helped, we cannot comm and the tide to roll back, Canute-like. The feature has to be accepted and a remedy and new orientation discovered.
The modern critical self-consciousness in the artist originated with the Romantics. The very essence of Romanticism is curiosity the scientist's pleasure in analysing, observing, experimenting, changing the conditions of our reactions, mental or sentimental or even nervous and physical by way of discovery of new and unforeseen or unexpected modes of "psychoses" or psychological states. Goethe, Wordsworth, Stendhal represented a mentality and initiated a movement which led logically to the age of Hardy, Housman and Bridges and in the end to that of Lawrence and Joyce, Ezra Pound and Eliot and Auden. On the Continent we can consider Flaubert as the last of the classicists married to the very quintessence of Romanticism. A hard, self-regarding, self-critical mentality, a cold scalpel-like gaze that penetrates and upturns the reverse side of things is intimately associated with the poetic genius of Mallarm and constitutes almost the whole of Valry's. The impassioned lines of a very modern poet like Aragon are also characterised by a consummate virtuosity in chiselled artistry, conscious and deliberate and willed at every step and turn.
01.04 - The Secret Knowledge, #Savitri, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Our helpless hearts to enshrine the Omnipotent's force.
Acquiescing in the wisdom that made hell
And the harsh utility of death and tears,
01.05 - Rabindranath Tagore: A Great Poet, a Great Man, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
In an age when Reason was considered as the highest light given to man, Tagore pointed to the Vision of the mystics as always the still greater light; when man was elated with undreamt-of worldly success, puffed up with incomparable material possessions and powers, Tagore's voice rang clear and emphatic in tune with the cry of the ancients: "What shall I do with all this mass of things, if I am not made immortal by that?" When men, in their individual as well as collective egoism, were scrambling for earthly gains and hoards, he held before them vaster and cleaner horizons, higher and deeper ways of being and living, maintained the sacred sense of human solidarity, the living consciousness of the Divine, one and indivisible. When the Gospel of Power had all but hypnotised men's minds, and Superman or God-man came to be equated with the Titan, Tagore saw through the falsehood and placed in front and above all the old-world eternal verities of love and self-giving, harmony and mutuality, sweetness and light. When pessimism, cynicism, agnosticism struck the major chord of human temperament, and grief and frustration and death and decay were taken as a matter of course to be the inevitable order of earthlylifebhasmantam idam shariramhe continued to sing the song of the Rishis that Ananda and Immortality are the breath of things, the birth right of human beings. When Modernism declared with a certitude never tobe contested that Matter is Brahman, Tagore said with the voice of one who knows that Spirit is Brahman.
Tagore is in direct line with those bards who have sung of the Spirit, who always soared high above the falsehoods and uglinesses of a merely mundane life and lived in the undecaying delights and beauties of a diviner consciousness. Spiritual reality was the central theme of his poetic creation: only and naturally he viewed it in a special way and endowed it with a special grace. We know of another God-intoxicated man, the Jewish philosopher Spinoza, who saw things sub specie aeternitatis, under the figure or mode of eternity. Well, Tagore can be said to see things, in their essential spiritual reality, under the figure or mode of beauty. Keats indeed spoke of truth being beauty and beauty truth. But there is a great difference in the outlook and inner experience. A worshipper of beauty, unless he rises to the Upanishadic norm, is prone to become sensuous and pagan. Keats was that, Kalidasa was that, even S helley was not far different. The spiritual vein in all these poets remains secondary. In the old Indian master, it is part of his intellectual equipment, no doubt, but nothing much more than that. In the other two it comes in as strange flashes from an unknown country, as a sort of irruption or on the peak of the poetic afflatus or enthousiasmos.
01.05 - The Nietzschean Antichrist, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
This is the Nietzsche we all know. But there is another aspect of his which the world has yet been slow to recognise. For, at bottom, Nietzsche is not all storm and fury. If his Superman is a Destroying Angel, he is none the less an angel. If he is endowed with a supreme sense of strength and power, there is also secreted in the core of his heart a sense of the beautiful that illumines his somewhat sombre aspect. For although Nietzsche is by birth a Slavo-Teuton, by culture and education he is pre-eminently hellenic. His earliest works are on the subject of Greek tragedy and form what he describes as an "Apollonian dream." And to this dream, to this Greek aesthetic sense more than to any thing else he sacrifices justice and pity and charity. To him the weak and the miserable, the sick and the maimed are a sort of blot, a kind of ulcer on the beautiful face of humanity. The herd that wallow in suffering and relish suffering disfigure the aspect of the world and should therefore be relentlessly mowed out of existence. By being pitiful to them we give our tacit assent to their persistence. And it is precisely because of this that Nietzsche has a horror of Christianity. For compassion gives indulgence to all the ugliness of the world and thus renders that ugliness a necessary and indispensable element of existence. To protect the weak, to sympathise with the lowly brings about more of weakness and more of lowliness. Nietzsche has an aristocratic taste par excellencewhat he aims at is health and vigour and beauty. But above all it is an aristocracy of the spirit, an aristocracy endowed with all the richness and beauty of the soul that Nietzsche wants to establish. The beggar of the street is the symbol of ugliness, of the poverty of the spirit. And the so-called aristocrat, die millionaire of today is as poor and ugly as any helpless leper. The soul of either of them is made of the same dirty, sickly stuff. The tattered rags, the crouching heart, the effeminate nerve, the unenlightened soul are the standing ugliness of the world and they have no place in the ideal, the perfect humanity. Humanity, according to Nietzsche, is made in order to be beautiful, to conceive the beautiful, to create the beautiful. Nietzsche's Superman has its perfect image in a Grecian statue of Zeus cut out in white marble-Olympian grandeur shedding in every lineament Apollonian beauty and Dionysian vigour.
The real secret of Nietzsche's philosophy is not an adoration of brute force, of blind irrational joy in fighting and killing. Far from it, Nietzsche has no kinship with Treitschke or Bernhard. What Nietzsche wanted was a world purged of littleness and ugliness, a humanity, not of saints, perhaps, but of heroes, lofty in their ideal, great in their achievement, majestic in their empirea race of titanic gods breathing the glory of heaven itself.
01.05 - The Yoga of the King - The Yoga of the Spirits Freedom and Greatness, #Savitri, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
A greater Force than the earthly held his limbs,
Huge workings bared his undiscovered sheaths,
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Till heaven and hell become purveyors to earth
And the universe the slave of mortal will.
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She turned against the evil she had helped
Her engined wrath, her invisible means to slay;
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The meaning it had held but could not voice;
The perfect rhythm now only sometimes dreamed
01.06 - Vivekananda, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
"First, let us be Gods, and then help others to be Gods.
'Be and make', let this be our motto."
01.07 - Blaise Pascal (1623-1662), #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
"The zeal for the Lord hath eaten me up." Such has indeed been the case with Pascal, almost literally. The fire that burned in him was too ardent and vehement for the vehicle, the material instrument, which was very soon used up and reduced to ashes. At twenty-four he was already a broken man, being struck with paralysis and neuras thenia; he died at the comparatively early age of 39, emulating, as it were, the life career of his Lord the Christ who died at 33. The Fire martyrised the body, but kindled and brought forth experiences and realisations that save and truths that abide. It was the Divine Fire whose vision and experience he had on the famous night of 23 November 1654 which brought about his final and definitive conversion. It was the same fire that had blazed up in his brain, while yet a boy, and made him a precocious genius, a marvel of intellectual power in the exact sciences. At 12 this prodigy discovered by himself the 32nd proposition of Euclid, Book I. At sixteen he wrote a treatise on conic sections. At nineteen he invented a calculating machine which, without the help of any mathematical rule or process, gave absolutely accurate results. At twenty-three he published his experiments with vacuum. At twenty-five he conducted the well-known experiment from the tower of St. Jacques, proving the existence of atmospheric pressure. His studies in infinitesimal calculus were remarkably creative and original. And it might be said he was a pioneer in quite a new branch of mathematics, viz., the mathematical theory of probability. We shall see presently how his preoccupation with the mathematics of chance and probability coloured and reinforced his metaphysics and theology.
But the pressure upon his dynamic and heated brain the fiery zeal in his mindwas already proving too much and he was advised medically to take complete rest. Thereupon followed what was known as Pascal's mundane lifea period of distraction and dissipation; but this did not last long nor was it of a serious nature. The inner fire could brook no delay, it was eager and impatient to englobe other fields and domains. Indeed, it turned to its own field the heart. Pascal became initiated into the mystery of Faith and Grace. Still he had to pass through a terrible period of dejection and despair: the life of the world had given him no rest or relaxation, it served only to fill his cup of misery to the brim. But the hour of final relief was not long postponed: the Grace came to him, even as it came to Moses or St. Paul as a sudden flare of fire which burnt up the Dark Night and opened out the portals of Morning Glory.
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And the reason is his metaphysics. It is the Jansenist conception of God and human nature that inspired and coloured all his experience and consciousness. According to it, as according to the Calvinist conception, man is a corrupt being, corroded to the core, original sin has branded his very soul. Only Grace saves him and releases him. The order of sin and the order of Grace are distinct and disparate worlds and yet they complement each other and need each other. Greatness and misery are intertwined, united, unified with each other in him. Here is an echo of the Manichean position which also involves an abyss. But even then God's grace is not a free agent, as Jesuits declare; there is a predestination that guides and controls it. This was one of the main subjects he treated in his famous open letters (Les Provinciales) that brought him renown almost overnight. Eternal hell is a possible prospect that faces the Jansenist. That was why a Night always over-shadowed the Day in Pascal's soul.
Man then, according to Pascal, is by nature a sinful thing. He can lay no claim to noble virtue as his own: all in him is vile, he is a lump of dirt and filth. Even the greatest has his full share of this taint. The greatest, the saintliest, and the meanest, the most sinful, all meet, all are equal on this common platform; all have the same feet of clay. Man is as miserable a creature as a beast, as much a part and product of Nature as a plant. Only there is this difference that an animal or a tree is unconscious, while man knows that he is miserable. This knowledge or perception makes him more miserable, but that is his real and only greatness there is no other. His thought, his self-consciousness, and his sorrow and repentance and contrition for what he is that is the only good partMary's part that has been given to him. Here are Pascal's own words on the subject:
01.08 - A Theory of Yoga, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
The method of unconscious or subconscious nature is fundamentally that of repression. Apart from Defence Reaction which is a thing of pure coercion, even in Substitution and Sublimation there always remains in the background a large amount of repressed complexes in all their primitive strength. The system is never entirely purified but remains secretly pregnant with those urges; a part only is deflected and camouflaged, the surface only assumes a transformed appearance. And there is always the danger of the superstructure coming down helplessly by a sudden upheaval of the nether forces. The whole system feels, although not in a conscious manner, the tension of the repression and suffers from something that is unhealthy and ill-balanced. Dante's spiritualised passion is a supreme instance of control by Sublimation, but the Divina Comedia hardly bears the impress of a serene and tranquil soul, sovereignly above the turmoils of the tragedy of life and absolutely at peace with itself.
In conscious control, the mind is for the first time aware of the presence of the repressed impulses, it seeks to release them from the pressure to which they are habitually and normally subjected. It knows and recognises them, however ugly and revolting they might appear to be when they present themselves in their natural nakedness. Then it becomes easy for the conscious determination to eliminate or regulate or transform them and thus to establish a healthy harmony in the human vehicle. The very recognition itself, as implied in conscious control, means purification.
01.08 - Walter Hilton: The Scale of Perfection, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) William Blake: The Marriage of Heaven and hell
Other Authors Nolini Kanta Gupta Poets and MysticsWalter Hilton: The Scale of Perfection
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The characteristic then of the path is a one-pointed concentration. Great stress is laid upon "oneliness", "onedness":that is to say, a perfect and complete withdrawal from the outside and the world; an unmixed solitude is required for the true experience and realisation to come. "A full forsaking in will of the soul for the love of Him, and a living of the heart to Him. This asks He, for this gave He." The rigorous exclusion, the uncompromising asceticism, the voluntary self-torture, the cruel dark night and the arid desert are necessary conditions that lead to the "onlyness of soul", what another prophet (Isaiah, XXIV, 16) describes as "My privity to me". In that secreted solitude, the "onlistead"the graphic language of the author calls itis found "that dignity and that ghostly fairness which a soul had by kind and shall have by grace." The utter beauty of the soul and its absolute love for her deity within her (which has the fair name of Jhesu), the exclusive concentration of the whole of the being upon one point, the divine core, the manifest Grace of God, justifies the annihilation of the world and life's manifold existence. Indeed, the image of the Beloved is always within, from the beginning to the end. It is that that keeps one up in the terrible struggle with one's nature and the world. The image depends upon the consciousness which we have at the moment, that is to say, upon the stage or the degree we have ascended to. At the outset, when we can only look through the senses, when the flesh is our master, we give the image a crude form and character; but even that helps. Gradually, as we rise, with the clearing of our nature, the image too slowly regains its original and true shape. Finally, in the inmost soul we find Jesus as he truly is: "an unchangeable being, a sovereign might, a sovereign soothfastness, sovereign goodness, a blessed life and endless bliss." Does not the Gita too say: "As one approaches Me, so do I appear to him."Ye yath mm prapadyante.
Indeed, it would be interesting to compare and contrast the Eastern and Western approach to Divine Love, the Christian and the Vaishnava, for example. Indian spirituality, whatever its outer form or credal formulation, has always a background of utter unity. This unity, again, is threefold or triune and is expressed in those great Upanishadic phrases,mahvkyas,(1) the transcendental unity: the One alone exists, there is nothing else than theOneekamevdvityam; (2) the cosmic unity: all existence is one, whatever exists is that One, thereare no separate existences:sarvam khalvidam brahma neha nnsti kincaa; (3) That One is I, you too are that One:so' ham, tattvamasi; this may be called the individual unity. As I have said, all spiritual experiences in India, of whatever school or line, take for granted or are fundamentally based upon this sense of absolute unity or identity. Schools of dualism or pluralism, who do not apparently admit in their tenets this extreme monism, are still permeated in many ways with that sense and in some form or other take cognizance of the truth of it. The Christian doctrine too says indeed, 'I and my Father in Heaven are one', but this is not identity, but union; besides, the human soul is not admitted into this identity, nor the world soul. The world, we have seen, according to the Christian discipline has to be altogether abandoned, negatived, as we go inward and upward towards our spiritual status reflecting the divine image in the divine company. It is a complete rejection, a cutting off and casting away of world and life. One extreme Vedantic path seems to follow a similar line, but there it is not really rejection, but a resolution, not the rejection of what is totally foreign and extraneous, but a resolution of the external into its inner and inmost substance, of the effect into its original cause. Brahman is in the world, Brahman is the world: the world has unrolled itself out of the Brahmansi, pravttiit has to be rolled back into its, cause and substance if it is to regain its pure nature (that is the process of nivitti). Likewise, the individual being in the world, "I", is the transcendent being itself and when it withdraws, it withdraws itself and the whole world with it and merges into the Absolute. Even the Maya of the Mayavadin, although it is viewed as something not inherent in Brahman but superimposed upon Brahman, still, has been accepted as a peculiar power of Brahman itself. The Christian doctrine keeps the individual being separate practically, as an associate or at the most as an image of God. The love for one's neighbour, charity, which the Christian discipline enjoins is one's love for one's kind, because of affinity of nature and quality: it does not dissolve the two into an integral unity and absolute identity, where we love because we are one, because we are the One. The highest culmination of love, the very basis of love, according to the Indian conception, is a transcendence of love, love trans-muted into Bliss. The Upanishad says, where one has become the utter unity, who loves whom? To explain further our point, we take two examples referred to in the book we are considering. The true Christian, it is said, loves the sinner too, he is permitted to dislike sin, for he has to reject it, but he must separate from sin the sinner and love him. Why? Because the sinner too can change and become his brother in spirit, one loves the sinner because there is the possibility of his changing and becoming a true Christian. It is why the orthodox Christian, even such an enlightened and holy person as this mediaeval Canon, considers the non-Christian, the non-baptised as impure and potentially and fundamentally sinners. That is also why the Church, the physical organisation, is worshipped as Christ's very body and outside the Church lies the pagan world which has neither religion nor true spirituality nor salvation. Of course, all this may be symbolic and it is symbolic in a sense. If Christianity is taken to mean true spirituality, and the Church is equated with the collective embodiment of that spirituality, all that is claimed on their behalf stands justified. But that is an ideal, a hypothetical standpoint and can hardly be borne out by facts. However, to come back to our subject, let us ow take the second example. Of Christ himself, it is said, he not only did not dislike or had any aversion for Judas, but that he positively loved the traitor with a true and sincere love. He knew that the man would betray him and even when he was betraying and had betrayed, the Son of Man continued to love him. It was no make-believe or sham or pretence. It was genuine, as genuine as anything can be. Now, why did he love his enemy? Because, it is said, the enemy is suffered by God to do the misdeed: he has been allowed to test the faith of the faithful, he too has his utility, he too is God's servant. And who knows even a Judas would not change in the end? Many who come to scoff do remain to pray. But it can be asked, 'Does God love Satan too in the same way?' The Indian conception which is basically Vedantic is different. There is only one reality, one truth which is viewed differently. Whether a thing is considered good or evil or neutral, essentially and truly, it is that One and nothing else. God's own self is everywhere and the sage makes no difference between the Brahmin and the cow and the elephant. It is his own self he finds in every person and every objectsarvabhtsthitam yo mm bhajati ekatvamsthitah"he has taken his stand upon oneness and loves Me in all beings."2
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Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) William Blake: The Marriage of Heaven and hell
01.09 - William Blake: The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
object:01.09 - William Blake: The Marriage of Heaven and hell
author class:Nolini Kanta Gupta
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Other Authors Nolini Kanta Gupta Poets and MysticsWilliam Blake: The Marriage of Heaven and hell
William Blake: The Marriage of Heaven and hell
The ideal was Blake's. It will not sound so revolting if we understand what the poet meant by hell. hell, he explains, is simply the body, the Energy of Life hell, because body and life on earth were so considered by the orthodox Christianity. The Christian ideal demands an absolute denial and rejection of life. Fulfilment is elsewhere, in heaven alone. That is, as we know, the ideal of the ascetic. The life of the spirit (in heaven) is a thing away from and stands against the life of the flesh (on earth). In the face of this discipline, countering it, Blake posited a union, a marriage of the two, considered incompatibles and incommensurables. Enfant terrible that he was, he took an infinite delight in a spirit of contradiction and went on expatiating on the glory of the misalliance. He declared a new apocalypse and said that Lucifer, the one called Satan, was the real God, the so-called Messiah the fake one: the apparent Milton spoke in praise of God and in dispraise of Satan, but the real, the esoteric Milton glorified Satan, who is the true God and minimised or caricatured the counterfeit or shadow God. Here is Blakean Bible in a nuts hell:
But first the notion that man has a body distinct from his soul is to be expunged.. . . If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is, infinite.
--
Viewed in this light, Blake's memorable mantra attains a deeper and more momentous significance. For it is not merely Earth the senses and life and Matter that are to be uplifted and affianced to Heaven, but all that remains hidden within the bowels of the Earth, the subterranean regions of man's consciousness, the slimy viscous undergrowths, the darkest horrors and monstrosities that man and nature hide in their subconscient and inconscient dungeons of material existence, all these have to be laid bare to the solar gaze of Heaven, burnt or transmuted as demanded by the law of that Supreme Will. That is the hell that has to be recognised, not rejected and thrown away, but taken up purified and transubstantiated into the body of Heaven itself. The hand of the Highest Heaven must extend and touch the Lowest of the lowest elements, transmute it and set it in its rightful place of honour. A mortal body reconstituted into an immemorial fossil, a lump of coal revivified into a flashing carat of diamond-that shows something of the process underlying the nuptials of which we are speaking.
The Life Divine
0.10 - Letters to a Young Captain, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
on recurring. Please help me to get out of it.
You must continue to fight against the bad thoughts until you
gain a total victory. My help is always with you as well as my
blessings.
--
with Your help.
Persist in your aspiration and the dream will be realised.
--
The annual demonstration of physical culture, held at the Ashram Sportsground.
"The Titans are stronger than the gods because they have agreed with God to front
--
it will help you in your inner progress; because if you are sincere,
you will one day realise that it is the Divine in her that you love
--
A superficial observation cannot help. And so long as one
is not in contact with one's psychic being, it would be better to
--
you think it will help you to find the Divine?
7 May 1964
--
Regarding the fan, I don't think it will help me to
find the Divine, but is it an obstacle? If You think it
--
it, you may do so, knowing that it will not help you in any way
to make progress - that it will only give your body the illusion
--
How can one know the other's need and help him?
I was not speaking of external things and mental faculties! True
--
If you are sincere and scrupulously honest, my help is certainly with you and one day you will become aware of it.
22 July 1964
--
and see if it helps them to suffer less!
12 August 1964
--
It is always preferable not to try to assess the progress one is making because it does not help one to make it - on the contrary.
Aspiration for progress, if it is SINCERE, is sure to have an effect.
--
will perhaps help to enlighten your thought.
"It is equally ignorant and one thousand miles away from
--
of goodwill, understanding and mutual help.
To feel deeply, intensely and constantly a total gratitude
--
However, as an initial help to set you on the path, I can tell
you: (1) that on getting up, before starting the day, it is good
--
knowing very well that His help will be refused. Why
then does He do it?
--
Men always complain of not being helped, but the truth is
that they refuse the help which is always with them.
5 May 1965
--
for India. Sri Aurobindo held that this proposal conferred essential independence on
India by putting her on a par with the various Dominions already associated with the
--
India ought to be the spiritual guide who explains what is happening and helps to hasten the movement. But unfortunately,
in her blind ambition to imitate the West, she has become
--
are living here, you are helped in your yoga to the utmost of
your possibilities. The only thing you lack is being conscious.
--
lives are intangible and academic rather than a help and
Series Ten - To a Young Captain
--
conscious of the help they are given.
28 November 1970
01.10 - Nicholas Berdyaev: God Made Human, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
William Blake: The Marriage of Heaven and hell Aldous Huxley: The Perennial Philosophy
Other Authors Nolini Kanta Gupta Poets and MysticsNicholas Berdyaev: God Made Human
--
William Blake: The Marriage of Heaven and hell Aldous Huxley: The Perennial Philosophy
01.11 - Aldous Huxley: The Perennial Philosophy, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
We fear Mr. Huxley has completely missed the point of the cryptic sentence. He seems to take it as meaning that human kindness and morality are a means to the recovery of the Lost Way-although codes of ethics and deliberate choices are not sufficient in themselves, they are only a second best, yet they mark the rise of self-consciousness and have to be utilised to pass on into the unitive knowledge that is Tao. This explanation or amplification seems to us somewhat confused and irrelevant to the idea expressed in the apophthegm. What is stated here is much simpler and transparent. It is this that when the Divine is absent and the divine Knowledge, then comes in man with his human mental knowledge: it is man's humanity that clouds the Divine and to reach the' Divine one must reject the human values, all the moralities, sarva dharmn, seek only the Divine. The lesser way lies through the dualities, good and evil, the Great Way is beyond them and cannot be limited or measured by the relative standards. Especially in the modern age we see the decline and almost the disappearance of the Greater Light and instead a thousand smaller lights are lighted which vainly strive to dispel the gathering darkness. These do not help, they are false lights and men are apt to cling to them, shutting their eyes to the true one which is not that that one worships here and now, nedam yadidam upsate.
There is a beautiful quotation from the Chinese sage, Wu Ch'ng-n, regarding the doubtful utility of written Scriptures:
01.12 - Goethe, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
The Christian too accepts the dual principle, but does not give equal status to the two. Satan is there, an eternal reality: it is anti-God, it seeks to oppose God, frustrate his work. It is the great tempter whose task it is to persuade, to inspire man to remain always an earthly creature and never turn to know or live in God. Now the crucial question that arises is, what is the necessity of this Antagonist in God's scheme of creation? What is the meaning of this struggle and battle? God could have created, if he had chosen, a world without Evil. The orthodox Christi an answer is that in that case one could not have fully appreciated the true value and glory of God's presence. It is to manifest and proclaim the great victory that the strife and combat has been arranged in which Man triumphs in the end and God's work stands vindicated. The place of Satan is always hell, but he cannot drag down a soul into his pit to hold it there eternally (although according to one doctrine there are or may be certain eternally damned souls).
Goe the carries the process of convergence and even harmony of the two powers a little further and shows that although they are contrary apparently, they are not contradictory principles in essence. For, Satan is, after all, God's servant, even a very obedient servant; he is an instrument in the hand of the Almighty to work out His purpose. The purpose is to help and lead man, although in a devious way, towards a greater understanding, a nearer approach to Himself.
The Challenge and the Pact
--
Thus, as sanctioned by God, there is a competition, a wager between man and Satan. The pact between the parties is this that, on the one hand, Satan will serve man here in life upon earth, and on the other hand, in return, man will have to serve Satan there, on the other side of life. That is to say, Satan will give the whole world to man to enjoy, man will have to give Satan only his soul. Man in his ignorance says he does not care for his soul, does not know of a there or elsewhere: he will be satisfied if he gets what he wants upon earth. That, evidently, is the demand of what is familiarly known as life-force (lan vital): the utmost fulfilment of the life-force is what man stands for, although the full significance of the movement may not be clear to him or even to Satan at the moment. For life-force does not necessarily drag man down, as its grand finale as it were, into hellhowever much Satan might wish it to be so. In what way, we shall see presently. Now Satan promises man all that he would desire and even more: he would give him his fill so' that he will ask for no more. Man takes up the challenge and declares that his hunger is insatiable, whatever Satan can bring to it, it will take in and press on: satisfaction and satiety will never come in his way. Satan thinks he knows better, for he is armed with a master weapon to lay man low and make him cry halt!
Love Human and Love Divine
Satan proposes to lead man down into hell through a sure means, nothing more sure, according to him, viz., love for a woman and a woman's love in return. Nothing like that to make man earth-bound or hell-bound and force out of him the nostalgic cry, "Time must have a stop." A most simple, primal and primeval lyric love will most suit Satan's purpose. Hence the Margaret episode. Love=Passion=Lust= hell; that is the inevitable equation sequence, and through which runs the magic thread of infatuation. And that charm is invincible. Satan did succeed and was within an ace, as they say, of the final and definitive triumph: but that was not to be, for he left out of account an incalculable element. Love, even human love has, at least can have, a wonderful power, the potency of reversing the natural decree and bring about a supernatural intervention. Human love can at a crucial momentin extremiscall down the Divine Grace, which means God's love for man. And the soul meant for perdition and about to be seized and carried away by Satan finds itself suddenly free and lifted up and borne by Heaven's messengers. Human Jove is divine love itself in earthly form and figure and whatever its apparent aberrations it is in soul and substance that thing. Satan is hoisted with his own petard. That is God's irony.
But Goethe's Satan seems to know or feel something of his fate. He knows his function and the limit too of his function. He speaks of the doomsday for people, but it is his doomsday also, he says in mystic terms. Yes, it is his doomsday, for it is the day of man's liberation. Satan has to release man from the pact that stands cancelled. The soul of man cannot be sold, even if he wanted it.
01.12 - Three Degrees of Social Organisation, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
We may perhaps view the three terms Right, Duty and Dharma as degrees of an ascending consciousness. Consciousness at Its origin and in its primitive formulation is dominated by the principle of inertia (tamas); in that state things have mostly an undifferentiated collective existence, they helplessly move about acted upon by forces outside them. A rise in growth and evolution brings about differentiation, specialisation, organisation. And this means consciousness of oneself of the distinct and separate existence of each and everyone, in other words, self-assertion, the claim, the right of each individual unit to be itself, to become itself first and foremost. It is a necessary development; for it signifies the growth of self consciousness in the units out of a mass unconsciousness or semi-consciousness. It is the expression of rajas, the mode of dynamism, of strife and struggle, it is the corrective of tamas.
In the earliest and primitive society men lived totally in a mass consciousness. Their life was a blind obedienceobedience to the chief the patriarch or pater familiasobedience to the laws and customs of the collectivity to which one belonged. It was called duty; it was called even dharma, but evidently on a lower level, in an inferior formulation. In reality it was more of the nature of the mechanical functioning of an automaton than the exercise of conscious will and deliberate choice, which is the very soul of the conception of duty.
01.13 - T. S. Eliot: Four Quartets, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
Eliot seems to demur, however, and does not go to that extreme length. He wishes to go beyond, but to find out the source and matrix of the here below. As I said, he seeks a synthesis and not a mere transcendence: the transcendence is indeed a part of the synthesis, the other part is furnished by an immanence. He does not cut away altogether from Time, but reaches its outermost limit, its rim, its summit, where it stops, not altogether annihilated, but held in suspended animation. That is the "still point" to which he refers in the following lines:
At the still point of the turning world. Neither flesh nor fleshless;
0.11 - Letters to a Sadhak, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
"A greater force than the earthly held his limbs,...
Unwound the triple cord of mind and freed
--
Divine go through hell in a different way than others?
Savitri, Book II, Canto 8.
--
of its parts is a veritable hell. But those who have surrendered
to the Divine and been adopted by Him are surrounded by the
--
Memory is a mental faculty and helps the mental consciousness.
But feeling and sensation must also participate.
0.12 - Letters to a Student, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
his help.
If these things have any value for you, you must do them
--
If so, I will help you.
Blessings.
--
divine help will be there to support and to help. This help is felt
inwardly in the heart.
--
From the viewpoint of the inner nature, the individual is more receptive on his birthday from year to year, and thus it is an opportune moment to help him to make some new progress each year.
Blessings.
--
we think about? Does being in contact with Nature help
us in any way?
--
with her, that can help in widening the consciousness.
Blessings.
--
peace is helpful for sleep.
When the sun rises, a vigorous energy descends on earth and
this energy is helpful for work.
When you go to bed late and get up late, you contradict the
--
elder brothers and sisters who take a lot of trouble to help you.
Blessings.
0.13 - Letters to a Student, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
the parents help you in your spiritual progress, because they are
usually more interested in a worldly realisation.
--
how can we be of help to it?
This great change is the appearance on earth of a new race that
--
can most help the one who has departed.
Blessings.
0.14 - Letters to a Sadhak, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
for help and light. The wisdom of men is ignorant. Only the
Divine knows.
--
The divine help is assured to those who set to work sincerely.
8 December 1971
--
The Divine help always responds to a sincere aspiration.
25 December 1971
--
This gives life its true meaning and will help us to overcome
all obstacles.
--
that we do not rely exclusively on the Divine for the help we
need.
--
the best way to help the world is to realise the Divine oneself.
5 February 1972
0 1954-08-25 - what is this personality? and when will she come?, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
I dont know to whom I was mentioning this today (I think it was for a Birthday3 No, I dont know now. It was to someone who told me he was 18 years old. I said that between the ages of 18 and 20, I had attained a constant and conscious union with the Divine Presence and that I had done this ALL ALONE, without ANYONES help, not even books. When a little later I chanced upon Vivekanandas Raja Yoga, it really seemed so wonderful to me that someone could explain something to me! And it helped me realize in only a few months what would have otherwise taken years.
I met a man (I was perhaps 20 or 21 at the time), an Indian who had come to Europe and who told me of the Gita. There was a French translation of it (a rather poor one, I must say) which he advised me to read, and then he gave me the key (HIS key, it was his key). He said, Read the Gita (this translation of the Gita which really wasnt worth much but it was the only one available at the timein those days I wouldnt have understood anything in other languages; and besides, the English translations were just as bad and well, Sri Aurobindo hadnt done his yet!). He said, Read the Gita knowing that Krishna is the symbol of the immanent God, the God within. That was all. Read it with THAT knowledgewith the knowledge that Krishna represents the immanent God, the God within you. Well, within a month, the whole thing was done!
--
It is very clear. So it is not I who can make Her stay. And I certainly cannot ask Her to stay for egotistical reasons. Moreover, all these Aspects, all these Personalities manifest constantly but they never manifest for personal reason. Not one of them has ever thought of helping my bodybesides, I dont ask them to because that is not their purpose. But it is more than obvious that if the people around me were receptive, She could permanently manifest since they could receive Herand this would help my body enormously because all these vibrations would run through it. But She never gets even a chance to manifestnot a single one. She only meets people who dont even feel Her when Shes there! They dont even notice Her, theyre not even aware of her presence. So how can She manifest in these conditions? Im not going to ask Her, Please come and change my body. We dont have that kind of relationship! Furthermore, the body itself wouldnt agree. It never thinks of itself, it never pays attention to itself, and besides, it is only through the work that it can be transformed.
Yes, certainly had there been any receptivity when She came down and had She been able to manifest with the power with which She came But I can tell you one thing: even before Her coming, when, with Sri Aurobindo, I had begun going down (for the Yoga) from the mental plane to the vital plane, when we brought our yoga down from the mental plane into the vital plane, in less than a month (I was forty years old at the time I didnt seem very old, I looked less than forty, but I was forty anyway), after no more than a month of this yoga, I looked exactly like an 18 year old! And someone who knew me and had stayed with me in Japan5 came here, and when he saw me, he could scarcely believe his eyes! He said, But my god, is it you? I said, Of course!
0 1955-03-26, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Mother, once more I come to ask you for Mahakalis1 intervention. After a period when everything seemed much better, I again awake to impossible mornings when I live badly, very badly, far from you, incapable of calling you and, whats more, of feeling your Presence or your help.
I dont know what mud is stirring about in me, but everything is obscured, and I cannot dissociate myself from these vital waves.
Mother, without Mahakalis grace, I shall never be able to get out of this mechanical round, to shatter these old formations, ever the same, which keep coming back. Mother, I beg of you, help. me to BREAK this s hell in which I am suffocating. Deliver me from myself, deliver me in spite of myself. Alone, I am helpless; sometimes I cannot even call you! May your force come and burn all my impurities, shatter my resistances.
Signed: Bernard2
0 1955-04-04, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
I am not so absurdly pretentious as to blame the divine, nor yourself and I remain quite convinced that all this is my own fault. Undoubtedly I have not known how to surrender totally in some part of myself, or I do not aspire enough or know how to open myself as needed. Also, I should rely entirely upon the divine to take care of my progress and not be concerned about the absence of experiences. I have therefore asked myself why I am so far away from the true attitude, the genuine opening, and I see two main reasons: on the one hand, the difficulties inherent in my own nature, and on the other, the outer conditions of this sadhana. These conditions do not seem to be conducive to helping me overcome the difficulties in my own nature.
I feel that I am turning in circles and taking one step backward for each one forward. Furthermore, instead of helping me draw nearer to the divine consciousness, my work in the Ashram (the very fact of working for to change work, even if I felt like it, would not change the overall situation), diverts me from this divine consciousness, or at least keeps me in a superficial consciousness from which I am unable to unglue myself as long as I am busy writing letters, doing translations, corrections or classes.1 I know its my own fault, that I should know how to be detached from my work and do it by relying upon a deeper consciousness, but what can be done? Unless I receive the grace, I cannot remember the essential thing as long as the outer part of my being is active.
When I am not immediately engrossed in work, I have to confront a thousand little temptations and daily difficulties that come from my contact with other beings and a life that does indeed remain in life. Here, even more, there is the feeling of an impossible struggle, and all these little difficulties seem to gnaw away at me; scarcely has one hole been filled when another opens up, or the same one reappears, and there is never any real victoryone has constantly to begin everything again. Finally, it seems to me that I really live only one hour a day, during the evening distribution at the playground.2 It is scarcely a life and scarcely a sadhana!
--
I know that you do not like to write, Mother, but couldnt you say in a few words if you approve of my project or what I should do? In spite of all my rebellions and discouragements and resistances, I am your child. O Mother, help me!
Signed: Bernard
--
You may go to Almora if you think it will help you break this s hell of the outer consciousness, so obstinately impenetrable.
Perhaps being far away from the Ashram for a while will help you feel the special atmosphere that exists here and that cannot be found anywhere else to the same extent.
In any event, my blessings will always be with you to help you find, at long last, this inner Presence which alone gives joy and stability.
Signed: Mother
0 1955-06-09, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
If only I could see a distinct error blocking my path which I could clearly attack But I feel that I am not responsible, that it is not my personal fault if I remain without aspiration, stagnating. I feel like a battlefield of contending forces that are beyond me and against which I can do NOTHING. Oh Mother, it is not an excuse for a lack of will, or at least I dont think so I profoundly feel like a helpless toy, totally helpless.
If the divine force, if your grace, does not intervene to shatter this obscure resistance that is drawing me downwards in spite of myself, I dont know what will become of me Mother, I am not blackmailing you, I am only expressing my helplessness, my anguish.
During the day, I live more or less calmly in my little morass, but as evening and the moment to meet you draw near, then the forces pinning me to the ground begin raging beneath your pressure, and I feel at times an unbearable tearing that burns and constricts in my throat like tears that cannot be shed. Afterwards, Truth regains possession of me but the following day it all begins again.
0 1955-09-03, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
No matter where I concentrate, in my heart, above my head, between my eyes, I bang everywhere into an unyielding wall; I no longer know which way to turn, what I must do, say, pray in order to be freed from all this at last. Mother, I know that I am not making all the effort I should, but help me to make this effort, I implore your grace. I need so much to find at last this solid rock upon which to lean, this space of light where finally I may seek refuge. Mother, open the psychic being in me, open me to your sole Light which I need so much. Without your grace, I can only turn in circles, hopelessly. O Mother, may I live in you.
Your child,
0 1955-09-15, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Mother suddenly everything seems to have crystallizedall the little revolts, the little tensions, the ill will and petty vital demandsforming a single block of open, determined resistance. I have become conscious that from the beginning of my sadhana, the mind has led the gamewith the psychic behind and has held me in leash, helped muzzle all contrary movements, but at no time, or only rarely, has the vital submitted or opened to the higher influence. The rare times when the vital participated, I felt a great progress. But now, I find myself in front of this solid mass that says No and is not at all convinced of what the mind has been imposing upon it for almost two years now.
Mother, I am sufficiently awakened not to rebel against your Light and to understand that the vital is but one part of my being, but I have come to the conclusion that the only way of convincing this vital is not to force or stifle it, but to let it go through its own experience so it may understand by itself that it cannot be satisfied in this way. I feel the need to leave the Ashram for a while to see how I can get along away from here and to realize, no doubt, that one can really brea the only here.
0 1956-03-19, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
and the body sat up and held itself absolutely straight during the entire class.
***
0 1956-04-04, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Mother, two months ago I had a clear mental perception of what was asked of me: to spend the rest of my life here. This is the source of my difficulties and of the inner hell I have been living through ever since. Each time I try to emerge, there is this image that rises up in me: your-whole-life and this casts me into a violent conflict. When I came here, I thought of staying for two or three years; for me the Ashram was a means of realization, not an end.
I understand now that as long as my whole being has not ACCEPTED that it must finish its life here, there is no way out nor any recovery possible. Through my mental force alone, this acceptance is impossible; I have been turning infernally in circles these past two months, and the mind is in league with the vital. Therefore, a force greater than mine must help me accept that my way is here. I need you, Mother, for without you I am lost. I need you to tell me that the Truth of my being is indeed here and that I am truly ready to follow this path. Mother, I beseech you, help me to see the truth of my being, give me some sign that my way is here and not elsewhere. I beg of you, Mother, help me to know.
I also had a very clear sensation that you were abandoning me, that you had no further interest in me and I could just as well do as I pleased. Perhaps you cannot forgive some of my inner rebellions which have been so very violent? Am I totally guilty? Is it true that you are abandoning me?
I am broken and battered in the depths of my being as I was in my flesh in the concentration camps. Will the divine grace take pity on me? Can you, do you want to help me? Alone I can do nothing. I am in an absolute solitude, even beyond all rebellion, at my very end.
Yet I love you in spite of all that I am.
--
My help is always with you.
Signed: Mother
0 1956-04-20, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Agreedwith all my heart I accept the gift you give me of your freedom to choose wrongly And it is with all my heart, too, that I shall always help you make the choice that leads straight to the goal that is, towards your real self.
With all my affection and my blessings.
0 1956-05-02, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Onlyyes, there is an only, I dont want to be so cruel: NOW MAN CAN COLLABORATE. That is, he can lend himself to the process, with good will, with aspiration, and help to his utmost. Which is why I said it will go faster. I hope it will go MUCH faster.
But even if it does go much faster, it will still take some time!
--
Individually, each ones goal was to make himself ready, to enter into a more or less intimate individual relationship with this Force, so as to help the process; or else, if he could not help, at least be ready to recognize and be open to the Force when it would manifest. Then instead of being an alien element in a world in which your OWN inner capacity remains unmanifest, you suddenly become THAT, you enter directly, fully, into the very atmosphere: the Force is there, all around you, permeating you.
If you had had a little inner contact, you would have recognized it immediately, dont you think so?
--
(Turning to the disciple) So you may tell them this: be sincere and you will be helped.
Mother, very recently a text has been circulating which says, What has just now happened, with this Victory, is not a descent but a manifestation. And it is no longer merely an individual event: the Supermind has sprung forth into the universal play.
0 1956-09-14, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Sweet Mother, may I still ask for your Love, your help? For without your help, nothing is possible, and without your love, nothing has any meaning.
I feel that I am your child in spite of all my contradictions and failings. I love you.
--
But perhaps you have felt this way because you had left your work in the Ashram for an entirely personal, that is, necessarily egoistical reason, and egoism always isolates one from the great current of universal forces. That is why, too, you no longer clearly perceive my love and my help which nevert heless are always with you.
You asked me what I see and whether your difficulties will not reappear upon your return to the Ashram. It may well be. If you return as you still are at present, it may be that after a very short period it will all begin again. That is why I am going to propose something to you but to accept it you will have to be heroic and very determined in your consecration to my work.
0 1956-10-28, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Sweet Mother, my birthday is the day after tomorrow, the 30th. I come to place my inner situation before you so that you may help me take a decision.
I am facing the same difficulties as before my departure to Hyderabad, and I have made the same mistakes. The main reason for this state is that, on the one hand, words and ideas seem to have lost all power over me, and on the other, the vital elan which led me thus far is dead. So upon what shall my faith rest? I still have some faith, of course, but it has become totally ABSTRACT. The vital does not cooperate, so I feel all withered, suspended in a void, nothing seems to give me direction anymore. There is no rebelliousness in me, but rather a void.
In this state, I am ceaselessly thinking of my forest in Guiana or of my travels through Africa and the ardor that filled me with life in those days. I seem to need to have my goal before me and to walk towards it. Outer difficulties also seem to help me resolve my inner problems: there is a kind of need in me for the elements the sea, the forest, the desert for a milieu with which I can wrestle and through which I can grow. Here, I seem to lack a dynamic point of leverage. Here, in the everyday routine, everything seems to be falling apart in me. Should I not return to my forest in Guiana?
Mother, I implore you, in the name of whatever led me to you in the first place, give me the strength to do WHAT HAS TO BE DONE. You who see and who can, decide for me. You are my Mother. Whatever my shortcomings, my difficulties, I feel I am so deeply your child.
0 1957-04-09, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
For I SEE that, were I to give in now, I would be done forthere would be no alternative but to live out the rest of my days in the Ashram. But everything in me rebels at this idea. The idea of winding up as General Secretary of the Ashram, like Pavitra, makes my skin crawl. It is absurd, and I apologize for speaking this way, Mother, for I admire Pavitra but I cant help it, I cant do it, I do not want to end up like that.
For more than a year now, I have been hypnotized by the idea that if I give in, I will be condemned to remain here. Once more, forgive me for speaking so absurdly, for of course I know it is not a condemnation; and yet a part of me feels that it would be.
0 1957-07-03, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
So to help you understand this enigma, let me tell you that the mother is physical Nature as she is, and the daughter is the new creation. The manageress is the worlds organizing mental consciousness as Nature has developed it thus far, that is, the most advanced organizing sense to have manifested in the present state of material Nature. This is the key to the vision.
Naturally, when I awoke, I immediately knew what could resolve this problem which appeared so absolutely insoluble. The vanishing of the manageress and her key was an obvious sign that she was altogether incapable of leading what could be called the creative consciousness of the new world to its true place.
--
It is certainly not an arbitrary construction of the type built by men, where everything is put pell-mell, without any order, without reality, and which is held together by only illusory ties. Here, these ties were symbolized by the hotels walls, while actually in ordinary human constructions (if we take a religious community, for example), they are symbolized by the building of a monastery, an identity of clothing, an identity of activities, an identity even of movementor to put it more precisely: everyone wears the same uniform, everyone gets up at the same time, everyone eats the same thing, everyone says his prayers together, etc.; there is an overall identity. But naturally, on the inside there remains the chaos of many disparate consciousnesses, each one following its own mode, for this kind of group identification, which extends right up to an identity of beliefs and dogma, is absolutely illusory.
Yet it is one of the most common types of human collectivityto group together, band together, unite around a common ideal, a common action, a common realization but in an absolutely artificial way. In contrast to this, Sri Aurobindo tells us that a true communitywhat he terms a gnostic or supramental communitycan be based only upon the INNER REALIZATION of each one of its members, each realizing his real, concrete oneness and identity with all the other members of the community; that is, each one should not feel himself a member connected to all the others in an arbitrary way, but that all are one within himself. For each one, the others should be as much himself as his own bodynot in a mental and artificial way, but through a fact of consciousness, by an inner realization.
0 1957-10-08, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
There is no question of my abandoning the path and I remain convinced that the only goal in life is spiritual. But I need things to help me along the way: I am not yet ripe enough to depend upon inner strength alone. And when I speak of the forest or a boat, it is not only for the sake of adventure or the feeling of space, but also because they mean a discipline. Outer constraints and difficulties help me, they force me to remain concentrated around that which is best in me. In a sense, life here is too easy. Yet it is also too hard, for one must depend on ones own discipline I do not yet have that strength, I need to be helped by outer circumstances. The very difficulty of life in the outside world helps me to be disciplined, for it forces me to concentrate all my vital strength in effort. Here, this vital part is unemployed, so it acts foolishly, it strains at the leash.
I doubt that a new experience outside can really resolve things, but I believe it might help me make it to the next stage and consolidate my inner life. And if you wish, I would return in a year or two.
I shall soon have completed the revision1 of The Life Divine and The Human Cycle, so I believe I shall have done the best I could, at present, to serve you. October 30th is my birthday. Could I leave immediately thereafter?
0 1957-10-18, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
I am well aware that a supple attitude is recommended in the Yoga, yet for the time being, it seems to me that one well-defined method would help me hold on1this practical aspect would help me. I will do it methodically, obstinately, until it cracks for good.
Your child,
0 1957-12-13, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Sweet Mother, this is what is rising from my soul: I feel in me something unemployed, something seeking to express itself in life. I want to be like a knight, your knight, and go off in search of a treasure that I could bring back to you. The world has lost all sense of the wonderful, all beauty of Adventure, this quest known to the knights of the Middle Ages. It is this that calls so relentlessly within me, this need for a quest in the world and for a beautiful Adventure which at the same time would be an adventure of the soul. How I wish that the two things, inner and outer, be JOINED, that the joy of action, of the open road and the quest help the souls blossoming, that they be like a prayer of the soul expressed in life. The knights of the Middle Ages knew this. Perhaps it is all childish and absurd in the midst of this 20th century, but this is what I feel, this that is summoning me to leavenot anything base, not anything mediocre, only a need for something in me to be fulfilled. If only I could bring you back a beautiful treasure!
After that, perhaps I would be riper to accept the everyday life of the Ashram, and know how to give myself better.
Mother, I feel all this very strongly; I need your help to follow the true path of my being and fulfill this new outer cycle, should you see that it has to be fulfilled. I feel so strongly that something remains for me to DO. Guide me, Sweet Mother.
Your child,
0 1958-02-03a, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
I would like to tell you that I am staying, very simply, for something in me wants this, but I am afraid to make a decision that I may not be able to keep. A force other than mine is needed. In short, you have to do the willing for me, to utter a word that would help me understand truly that I must stay here. Grant me the grace of helping and enlightening me. I would like to decide without preference, in obedience to the sole Truth and in accordance with my real possibilities.
I have received a long letter from Swami,1 who in essence says that I should be able to realize what I have to realize right here with you, but he does not refuse to take me with him should I persist in my intention.
0 1958-02-03b - The Supramental Ship, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
When I came back, along with the memory of the experience, I knew that the supramental world was permanent, that my presence there is permanent, and that only a missing link is needed to allow the consciousness and the substance to connectand it is this link that is being built. At that time, my impression (an impression which remained rather long, almost the whole day) was of an extreme relativityno, not exactly that, but an impression that the relationship between this world and the other completely changes the criterion by which things are to be evaluated or judged. This criterion had nothing mental about it, and it gave the strange inner feeling that so many things we consider good or bad are not really so. It was very clear that everything depended upon the capacity of things and upon their ability to express the supramental world or be in relationship with it. It was so completely different, at times even so opposite to our ordinary way of looking at things! I recall one little thing that we usually consider bad actually how funny it was to see that it is something excellent! And other things that we consider important were really quite unimportant there! Whether it was like this or like that made no difference. What is very obvious is that our appreciation of what is divine or not divine is incorrect. I even laughed at certain things Our usual feeling about what is anti-divine seems artificial, based upon something untrue, unliving (besides, what we call life here appeared lifeless in comparison with that world); in any event, this feeling should be based upon our relationship between the two worlds and according to whether things make this relationship easier or more difficult. This would thus completely change our evaluation of what brings us nearer to the Divine or what takes us away from Him. With people, too, I saw that what helps them or prevents them from becoming supramental is very different from what our ordinary moral notions imagine. I felt just how ridiculous we are.
(Then Mother speaks to the children)
0 1958-04-03, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
I am trying to be near you as MATERIALLY as possible in order to help your body victoriously pass through the test.
I want it to come out of this tempered forever, above all attacks.
0 1958-07-21, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Human beings dont know how to keep energy. When something happensan accident or an illness, for example and they ask for help, a double or a triple dose of energy is sent. If they happen to be receptive, they receive it. This energy is given for two reasons: to restore order out of the disorder caused by the accident or illness, and to impart a transformative force to repair or change the source of the illness or accident.
But instead of using the energy in this way, they immediately throw it out. They start stirring about, reacting, working, speaking They feel full of energy and they throw it all out! They cant keep anything. So naturally, since the energy was not sent to be wasted like that but for an inner use, they feel absolutely flat, run down. And it is universal. They dont know, they do not know how to make this movementto turn within, to use the energy (not to keep it, it doesnt keep), to use it to repair the damage done to the body and to go deeply within to find the reason for this accident or illness, and there to change it by an aspiration, an inner transformation. Instead of that, right away they start speaking, stirring about, reacting, doing this or that!
0 1958-08-29, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
At the Thursday evening meditation, he appeared as the Guru of Tantric Initiation, magnified and seated upon a symbolic representation of the forces and riches of material Nature (in the middle of the playground, to my left), and he put into my hand something sufficiently material for me to feel the vibrations physically, and it had a great realizing power. It was a kind of luminous and very vibrant globe which I held in my hands during the whole meditation.
S, who was sitting in front of me, spontaneously asked me afterwards what I had been holding in my hands during the meditation, and she described it thus: It was round, very soft and luminous like the moon.
0 1958-09-16 - OM NAMO BHAGAVATEH, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
When I have this mantra, instead of saying hello, good-bye, I shall say that. When I say hello, good-bye, it means hello: the Presence is here, the Light is here. Good-bye: I am not going away, I am staying here.
But when I have this mantra, I believe something will happen.
0 1958-10-04, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
When you left on your journey,2 for example, I made a specie! concentration for all to go well so that nothing untoward happen to you. I even made a formation and asked for a constant, special help over you. Then I renewed my concentration every day, which is how I came to notice that you were invoking me very regulary. I Saw you everyday, everyday, with a very regular precision. It was something that imposed itself on me, but it imposed itself only because l had initially made a formation to follow you.
For people here in the Ashram, my work is not the same. It is more like a kind of atmosphere that extends everywherea very conscious atmospherewhich I let work for each one according to his need. I dont have a special action for each person, unless something requires my special attention. When I would tune into you while you were travelling, I clearly saw your image appear before me, as though you were looking at me, but now that you have returned here, I no longer see it. Rather, I receive a sensation or an impression; and as these sensations and impressions are innumerable, its rather like one element among many. It no longer imposes itself in such an entirely distinct way nor does it appear before me in the same manner, as a clear image of yourself, as though you wanted to know something.
0 1958-10-06, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Rather, simply say, We do not know how to do things as they should be done, well then, let them be done for us and come what may! If we could only see how everything that looks like a difficulty, an error, a failure or an obstacle is simply there to help us make the realization more perfect.
Once we know this, everything becomes easy.
0 1958-10-17, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
The first group ends with a helping hand to those who have made the wrong choice (!):
7) But even in the event you have not made the irrevocable decision at the outset, should you have the good fortune to live during one of these unimaginable hours of universal history when the Grace is present, embodied upon earth, It will offer you, at certain exceptional moments, the renewed possibility of making a final choice that will lead you straight to the goal.
0 1958-10-25 - to go out of your body, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
I had a Danish friend, an artist, to whom this happened. He wanted me to teach him how to go out of his body. He had interesting dreams so he thought it might be worthwhile to go there consciously. I helped him to go out but it was frightful! When he dreamed, a part of his mind indeed remained conscious, active, and a kind of link remained between this active part and his outer being, so he remembered some of his dreams, but it was only a very partial phenomenon. To go out of your body means that you must gradually pass through ALL the states of being, if you are to do it systematically. But already in the subtle physical it was almost non-individualized, and as soon as he went a bit further, there was no longer anything! It was unformed, nonexistent.
So they sit down (they are told to interiorize, to go within themselves), and they panic!Naturally they feel that they that they are disappearing: there is nothing! There is no consciousness!
0 1958-11-15, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Last night, my effort to understand what was missing in order to help you completely and truly come out of the difficulty reminded me of what I said the other day about Power, the transforming power, the true realizing power, the supramental power. When you enter that, when you suddenly surge into that Thing, then you seeyou see that it is truly almighty in comparison to what we are here. So once again, I touched it, I experienced both states simultaneously.
But as long as this is not an accomplished fact, it will still be a progressiona progression, an ascension; you gain a little, you gain some ground, you rise higher and higher. But as long as the new reversal has not taken place, its as if everything had still to be done. It is a repetition of the experience below, reproduced above.
0 1958-11-20, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
I was VERY HAPPY with the vision, for there was a great POWER, though it was rather terrible. But it was magnificent. When I saw that, I This vision was given to me because I had concentrated with a will to find the solution, a true solution, an enduring and permanent solution that is, I had this spontaneous gratitude which goes out to the Grace when it brings some effective help. Only, what followed was interrupted by someone who came to call me and that cut it short, but it will return.
But now I KNOWbefore I did not know. The other morning I saw, and I was told very clearly that it was a karma1 to be worked out; so then I told you, but at the time I didnt know what it was.
0 1958-11-22, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
And ifit can happenif the second attempt also miscarries, if the conditions make the experience the soul is seeking still more difficult for example, if one is in a body with an inadequate will or some distortion in the thought, or an egoism too too hardened, and it ends in suicide, it is dreadful. I have seen this many times, it creates a dreadful karma that can be repeated for lifetimes on end before the soul can conquer it and manage to do what it wants. And each time, the conditions become more difficult, each time it requires a still greater effort. And people who know this say, You cannot get out! In fact, it is this kind of desire to escape which pushes you into more foolish things3 that result in a still greater accumulation of difficulty. There are momentsmoments and circumstanceswhen no one is there to help you, and then things become so horrible, the circumstances become so abominable.
But if the soul has had but ONE call, but ONE contact with the Grace, then in your next life you are put in the conditions, once, whereby EVERYTHING can be swept away at one stroke. And at this present moment on earth, you cannot imagine the number of people I have met that is, the number of soulswho had reached out towards this possibility with such an intensity and they have all found themselves on my path.
--
But because it is karma, one must, one must DO something oneself. Karma is the construction of the ego; the ego MUST DO something, everything cannot be done for it. This is it, THIS is the thing: karma is the result of the egos actions, and only when the ego abdicates is the karma dissolved. One can help it along, one can assist it, give it strength, bestow courage upon it, but the ego must then make use of it.
(silence)
--
Only, and this is what I wrote to you the other day which you did not understand: it is precisely at the most painful point, at the time when the suggestions are strongest, that one must hold on. Otherwise, it has always to be done all over again, always to be reconfronted. There comes a day, a moment, when it has to be done. And now, there is truly an opportunity on earth that is offered only once in thousands of years, a conscious help, with the necessary Power
But thats about all I know.
0 1958-12-04, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Mother, I have made many mistakes, I have often been rebellious and fallen into many holes. help me to pick myself up, give me nonet heless a little of your Love. This has to change.
I do not want to remain in Hyderabad. This is not the atmosphere I need, although everything is very quiet here.
0 1958-12-15 - tantric mantra - 125,000, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Mother, things are far from being what they were the first time in Rameswaram, and I am living through certain moments that are hell the enemy seems to have been unleashed with an extraordinary violence. It comes in waves, and after it recedes, I am literally SHATTEREDphysically, mentally and vitally drained. This morning, while going to the temple, I lived through one of these moments. All this suffering that suddenly sweeps down upon me is horrible. Yes, I had the feeling of being BACKED UP AGAINST A WALL, exactly as in your vision I was up against a wall. I was walking among these immense arcades of sculptured granite and I could see myself walking, very small, all alone, alone, ravaged with pain, filled with a nameless despair, for nowhere was there a way out. The sea was nearby and I could have thrown myself into it; otherwise, there was only the sanctuary of Parvati but there was no more Africa to flee to, everything closed in all around me, and I kept repeating, Why? Why? This much suffering was truly inhuman, as if my last twenty years of nightmare were crashing down upon me. I gritted my teeth and went to the sanctuary to say my mantra. The pain in me was so strong that I broke into a cold sweat and almost fainted. Then it subsided. Yet even now I feel completely battered.
I clearly see that the hour has come: either I will perish right here, or else I will emerge from this COMPLETELY changed. But something has to change. Mother, you are with me, I know, and you are protecting me, you love me I have only you, only you, you are my Mother. If these moments of utter darkness return and they are bound to return for everything to be exorcised and conqueredprotect me in spite of myself. Mother, may your Grace not abandon me. I want to be done with all these old phantoms, I want to be born anew in your Light; it has to beotherwise I can no longer go on.
--
Mother, may I not be swept away by one of these waves. Protect me. Love me! But EVERYTHING has to be faced NOW. I want to fight. I do not ask you to spare me, therefore, but to help me withstand the blow.
***
0 1958-12-24, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Your last letter was a great comfort to me. If you were not there, with me, everything would be so absurd and impossible. I am again disturbing you because Swami tells me that you are worried and that I should write to you. Not much has changed, except that I am holding on and am confident. Yesterday, I again suffered an agonizing wave, in the temple, and I found just enough strength to repeat your name with each beat of my heart, like someone drowning. I remained as motionless as a pillar of stone before the sanctuary, with only your name (my mantra would not come out), then it cleared. It was brutal. I am confident that with each wave I am gaining in strength, and I know you are there. But I am aware that if the enemy is so violent it is because something in me responds, or has responded, something that has not made its surrender that is the critical point. Mother, may your grace help me to place everything in your hands, everything, without any shadow. I want so much to emerge into the Light, to be rid of all this once and for all.
I am following Swamis instructions to the letter. Sometimes it all seems to lack warmth and spontaneity, but I am holding on. I might add that we are living right next to the bazaar, amidst a great racket 20 hours a day, which does not make things easier. So I repeat my mantra as one pounds his fists against the walls of a prison. Sometimes it opens a little, you send me a little joy, and then everything becomes better again.
0 1958-12-28, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
If you wish, two things can be done to help your action: either X can undertake certain mantric operations upon you here in Rameswaram, or better still, he can immediately come to Pondicherry with Swami and do what is needed in front of you.
Sweet Mother, I indeed suspect that you want to endure, to bear this struggle all alone. Oh, I think I understand a number of things about the mechanism of these attacks and their connection with me, about the Divine Love that embraces all and takes into itself the suffering and the evil of menall this overw helms me with a sudden understanding. It seems to me that I am seeing and feeling all that you are facing, all that you are taking upon yourself for us. The suffering of the Divine in Matter has been an overw helming revelation to meAh! I see, I want to fight, I want to be totally on your side; I am now and forever determined.
But you have enough to do with the higher beasts of prey without still having to fight the little scorpions. I beg of you, Sweet Mother, accept the help that is being offered to you, preserve your strength for the higher struggle. I quite understand that your Love can even go to the scorpions that are attacking you, but it is not forbidden to protect yourself from their venom. You have enough to do on other planes.
X is at the summit of tantric initiation, and his power is not the fruit of a simple knowledge. He holds it directly from the Divine, and these things have been in his family traditionally from ten generations. No black magic can resist his power. His action is not brutal, he does not mechanically apply formulas, he holds this Science and knows how to apply it like an expert chemist, always in Light, Love and sweetness. If you agree that he come to see you, he will immediately know the source of these attacks upon you and will even be able to make the attacking force speak. He has this power. Of course, neither X nor Swami will divulge this to anyone, and everything will be kept secret. You have only to send word, or a telegram: No objection.
--
On my side, within my little field, I am taking the bull by the horns and henceforth the enemy will no longer have my complicity. May all my being be turned solely towards your Lightand be your help, your instrument, your knight.
X has decided to continue his action upon me beyond the eight days foreseen, which doubtlessly corresponds to dosages that exceed my understanding.
0 1958 12 - Floor 1, young girl, we shall kill the young princess - black tent, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Two or three days after I retired to my room upstairs,1 early in the night I fell into a very heavy sleep and found myself out of the body much more materially than I do usually. This degree of density in which you can see the material surroundings exactly as they are. The part that was out seemed to be under a spell and only half conscious. When I found myself at the first floor where everything was absolutely black, I wanted to go up again, but then I discovered that my hand was held by a young girl whom I could not see in the darkness but whose contact was very familiar. She pulled me by the hand telling me laughingly, No, come, come down with me, we shall kill the young princess. I could not understand what she meant by this young princess and, rather unwillingly, I followed her to see what it was. Arriving in the anteroom which is at the top of the staircase leading to the ground floor, my attention was drawn in the midst of all this total obscurity to the white figure of Kamala2 standing in the middle of the passage between the hall and Sri Aurobindos room. She was as it were in full light while everything else was black. Then I saw on her face such an expression of intense anxiety that to comfort her I said, I am coming back. The sound of my voice shook off from me the semi-trance in which I was before and suddenly I thought, Where am I going? and I pushed away from me the dark figure who was pulling me and in whom, while she was running down the steps, I recognized a young girl who lived with Sri Aurobindo and me for many years and died five years back. This girl during her life was under the most diabolical influence. And then I saw very distinctly (as through the walls of the staircase) down below a small black tent which could scarcely be perceived in the surrounding darkness and standing in the middle of the tent the figure of a man, head and face shaved (like the sannyasin or the Buddhist monks) covered from head to foot with a knitted outfit following tightly the form of his body which was tall and slim. No other cloth or garment could give an indication as to who he could be. He was standing in front of a black pot placed on a dark red fire which was throwing its reddish glow on him. He had his right arm stretched over the pot, holding between two fingers a thin gold chain which looked like one of mine and was unnaturally visible and bright. Shaking gently the chain he was chanting some words which translated in my mind, She must die the young princess, she must pay for all she has done, she must die the young princess.
Then I suddenly realized that it was I the young Princess and as I burst into laughter, I found myself awake in my bed.
0 1959-01-06, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
And it happened just as I was despairing of ever getting out of it. I seemed to be touching a kind of fundamental bedrock, so painful, so suffering, and full of revolt because of too much suffering. And I saw that all my efforts, all the meditations, aspirations, mantras, were only covering up this suffering bedrock without touching it. I saw this fundamental thing in me very clearly, a poignant knot, ever ready for an absolute negation. I saw it and I said to you, Mother, only your grace can remove this. I said this to you in the temple that morning, in total despair. And then, the knot was undone. Xs action contri buted a lot, with your grace acting through him. But truly, I have traversed a veritable hell this last while.
X continues his work on me daily; it is to last 41 days in all. He told me that he wants to undo the things of several births. When it is over, he will explain it all to me. I do not know how to tell you how luminous and good this man is, he is a very great soul. He is also giving me Sanskrit lessons, and little by little, each evening, speaks to me of the Tantra.
0 1959-01-14, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
This morning, X told me that he would be most happy to continue his action upon you if it would help your work; he has continued it anyway, even after knowing that the malefic influence was expelled from the Ashram. By the way, X told me that this evil spirit is continuing to circle around the Ashram, but beyond its borders. Therefore, if you agree, it would be necessary for him to come to Pondicherry one of these days to come to grips directly with the evil one and finish him off in such a way that he can no longer come to disturb the sadhaks, or your work, upon the slightest pretext. Then X could force this spirit to appear before him, and thereby free the atmosphere from its influence. Anyway, this trip to Pondicherry would not take place in the near future, and it would be easy to give him an official excuse: seminars on the Tantra Shastra that will interest all the Sanskritists at the Ashram. Moreover, Xs work would be done quietly in his room when he does his daily puja. From here, from Rameswaram, it is rather difficult to attract Pondicherrys atmosphere and do the work with precision. Of course, nothing will be done without your express consent. Swami is writing you on his own to tell you of the revelation that X received from his [deceased] guru concerning your experience and the schemings of certain Ashram members.
In this regard, perhaps you know that X is the tenth in the line of Bhaskaraya (my spelling of this name is perhaps not correct), the great Tantric of whom you had a vision, who could comm and the coming of Kali along with all her warriors. It is from X that Swami received his initiation.
--
Sweet Mother, by what Grace have you guided and protected me through all these years? There are moments when I have the vision of this Grace, bringing me to the verge of tears. I see so clearly that you are doing everything, that you are all that is good in me, my aspiration and my strength. Me is all that is bad, all that resists, me is horribly false and falsifying. If your Grace withdraws for one second, I collapse, I am helpless.2 You alone are my strength, the source of my life, the joy and fulfillment to which I aspire.
I am at your feet, your child eternally.
0 1959-01-27, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
All is well I am enthusiastic and you can count on my conscious help to overcome all the obstacles and all the bad will that may try to stop or delay your progress. It is a matter of being more obstinate, much more obstinate than the enemy, and whatever the cost, to reach the goal in time.
Since my last letter, I have thought about it and I see that I will be able to go down in the morning three times a week for one hour, from 10 to 11, to work with you, but you will have to do only the strict minimum in order to have as much free time as you need for the other things.1
0 1959-05-19 - Ascending and Descending paths, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
The thing can still be brought down as far as the mental and vital planes (although Sri Aurobindo said that thousands of lifetimes would be needed merely to bring it down to the mental plane, unless one practiced a perfect surrender1). With Sri Aurobindo, we went down below Matter, right into the Subconscient and even into the Inconscient. But after the descent comes the transformation, and when you come down to the body, when you attempt to make it take one step forwardoh, not even a real step, just a little step!everything starts grating; its like stepping on an anthill And yet the presence, the help of the supreme Mother, is there constantly; thus you realize that for ordinary men such a task is impossible, or else millions of lives would be needed but in truth, unless the work is done for them and the sadhana of the body done for the entire earth consciousness, they will never achieve the physical transformation, or else it will be so remote that it is better not even to speak of it. But if they open themselves, if they give themselves over in an integral surrender, the work can be done for themthey have only to let it be done.
The path is difficult. And yet this body is full of good will; it is filled with the psychic in every one of its cells. Its like a child. The other day, it cried out quite spontaneously, O my Sweet Lord, give me the time to realize You! It did not ask to hasten the process, it did not ask to lighten its work; it only asked for enough TIME to do the work. Give me the time!
0 1959-05-25, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
A love for you might have held me here. And indeed, for you I have devotion, veneration, respect, an attachment, but there has never been this marvelous thing, warm and full, that links one to a being in the same beating of a heart. Through love, I could do all, accept all, endure all, sacrifice all but I do not feel this love. You cannot give yourself with your head, through a mental decision, yet that is what I have been doing for five years. I have tried to serve you as best I could. But I am at the end of my rope. I am suffocating.
I have no illusions, and I do not at all suppose that elsewhere my life may at last be fulfilled. No, I know that this whole life is cursed, but it may as well be truly cursed. If the Divine does not want to give me his Love, may he give me his curse. But not this life between two worlds. Or if I am too hardened, may he break me. But not this tepidness, this approximation.
--
I want to go to New Caledonia. There, or elsewhere there are forests there. Africa is closing up. You must help me one last time by giving me the means to leave and try something else with a minimum of chancealthough, at the point Im at, I laugh in the face of chance. I need 2,000 rupees, if that is possible for you. If you do not want to, or if you cannot, I will leave anyway, no matter where, no matter how.
And once again, you can judge me all you want, I acknowledge all my wrongs. I am guilty in a guilty and stupid world (which loves its stupidity, no doubt).
0 1959-05-28, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
2) There is the destiny of the writer in me. And this too is linked to the best of my soul. It is also a profound need, like adventuring upon the heaths, because when I write certain things, I brea the in a certain way. But during the five years I have been here, I have had to bow to the fact that, materially, there is no time to write what I would like (I recall how I had to wrench out this Orpailleur, which I have not even had time to revise). This is not a reproach, Mother, for you do all you can to help me. But I realize that to write, one must have leisure, and there are too many less personal and more serious things to do. So I can also sit on this and tell myself that I am going to write a Sri Aurobindo but this will not satisfy that other need in me, and periodically it awakens and sprouts up to tell me that it too needs to breathe.
3) There is also the destiny that feels human love as something divine, something that can be transfigured and become a very powerful driving force. I did not believe it possible, except in dreams, until the day I met someone here. But you do not believe in these things, so I shall not speak of it further. I can gag this also and tell myself that one day all will be filled in the inner divine love. But that does not prevent this other need in me from living and from finding that life is dry and from saying, Why this outer manifestation if all life is in the inner realms? But neither can I stifle this with reasoning.
--
I did not utter the words that you heard I wanted to speak to you of my experience during the night, but I was paralyzed because I clearly felt that you no longer understood me. As soon as I received your letter, I concentrated on you in an effort to help you, and when night fell, just at the hour I enter into contact with X, I called for his helpwhereupon he sent me this little Kali whom he had already sent once before. So I went to your house, I took you in my arms and pressed you tightly to my heart to keep you as s heltered as possible from blows, and I let Kali do her warrior dance against this titan who is always trying to possess you, creating this rebelliousness in you. She must have at least partially succeeded in her work, because very early in the morning the titan went away somewhat discomfited, but while leaving, he flung this at me as he went by: You will regret it, for you would have had less trouble if he had left. I flung his suggestion back in his face with a laugh and told him, Take that, along with all the rest of your ugly person! I have no need of it! And the atmosphere cleared up.
I wanted to tell you all this, but I couldnt because you were still far away from me and it would have seemed like boasting. Also the misunderstanding created by the distance made you hear other words than those I uttered.
0 1959-06-03, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Before five months are over (in September, October or November), Pakistan will attack India with the help or the complicity or the military resources of the United States. And at about the same time, China will attack India because of the Dalai Lama, under the pretext that India is supporting the Dalai Lama and that thousands of Tibetan refugees are escaping into India to carry on anti-Chinese activities. Then America will offer its support to India against China and then, said X, We shall see what will be the political policy of the Congress Party, which pretends to be unaligned with any bloc. If India accepts American aid, there will be no more Pakistan but rather American troops to prevent conflicts between Muslims and Hindus, and a single government for both countries. I pointed out to X that this sounded very much like a world war
Then he made the following comparison: When you throw a pebble into a pond, there is just one center, one point where it falls, and everything radiates out from this center. There are two such centers in the world at present, two places where there are great vibrations: one is India and Pakistan, and that will radiate all over Asia. And the other is.
0 1959-06-04, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
As for the predictions, I am extremely interested. Tell this to X, and also that details of this kind are a great help in my work, for they give physical clues enabling a greater precision in the action. Needless to say, I will be very grateful for any indications he may wish to give me.
For you, my dear child, it is true that something must happen and will happen. Will you please tell X on my behalf that I will participate with all my power in what he wants to undertake. He will understand.
0 1959-06-07, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
1) X spoke to me of the Vedic times when a single emperor or sage ruled the entire world with the help of governors; then these governors gradually became independent kings, and conflicts were born. So I asked him what was going to happen after this next war and whether the world would be better. He replied as follows: Yes, great sages like Sri Aurobindo who are wandering now in their subtle bodies will appear. Some sages may take the physical body of political leaders in the West. It will be the end of ignorant atomic machines and the beginning of a new age with great sages leading the world. So it seems that Xs vision links up with Sri Aurobindos prediction for 1967.
He did not give me any further details about this war, except to say that the countries which will suffer the most will be the countries of the North and the East, and he cited Burma, Japan, China and Russia. He said rather categorically that Russia would be swept away and that America would triumph.
0 1959-06-17, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Mother, I have prayed with so much truth in my heart that I am sure the gods will come to help me, and that you will help me, too. I think not only of Sujata, but of all these destinies that are being stifled within me.
Your child,
0 1959-07-14, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Mother, I need Sujata like my very soul. It seems to me that she is a part of me, that she alone can help me break with this horrible past, that she alone can help me to love truly at last. I need peace so much, a quiet, PEACEFUL happinessa base of happiness upon which I could use my strength to build, instead of always fighting, always destroying. Mother, I am not at all sure of what must be, but I know that Sujata is part of this realization.
Thats all, Mother. Forgive me, but I am so afraid. For how is this possible in the Ashram? What would people say?
0 1959-10-15, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
I would wish to be like Sujata, completely transparent, your child with her at your feet. Mother, help me. I need you. Sujata is healing something that was very painful in me, as though it were flayed or wounded, and which threw me into revolt. With this calming influence, I would like to begin a new life of self-giving. This change of residence is for me like the symbol of another change. Oh, Mother! may the painful road be over, and may all be achieved in the joy of your Will.
Your child,
0 1960-04-07, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
I brought some work with me (revision of The Human Cycle), and that helps me to live. I still dont clearly see the meaning of this trip. Just before I left, I received word from the publisher in Paris that my book will come out in September.
There are moments when I feel you so close to mecould you not help me be more conscious of your presence (not as an impersonal force, but you)?
I love you, sweet Mother. You are truly my Mother, and I need you so much.
0 1960-05-21 - true purity - you have to be the Divine to overcome hostile forces, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
At times, I feel that Ill never get over the difficulty. We are besieged by this enormous world of hostile forcesoceans of forces, churning and combining and submerging each other in gigantic pralayas,1 then again regrouping and combining. When you see that, it feels as if you had to be the Divine Himself to get over the difficulty. Precisely so! (And its the hostile forces who help you to see this, its their role.) You have TO BE THE DIVINE, that is the solution, that is the true divine purity.
***
--
For example, there was one difficulty he helped me resolve. I have always been literally pestered, constantly, night and day, by all kinds of thoughts coming from peopleall kinds of calls, questions, formations2 that have naturally to be answered. For I have trained myself to be conscious of everything, always. But it disturbed me in the work, particularly when I needed absolute concentration and I could never cut myself off from people or cut myself off from the world. I had to answer all these calls and these questions, I had to send the necessary force, the necessary light, the healing power, I constantly had to purify all these formations, these thoughts, these wills, these false movements that were falling on me.
What was needed was to effect a shift, a sort of transference upwards, a lifting up of all these things that come to meso that each one, each thing, each circumstance could directly and automatically receive the force from above, the light, the response from above, and I would be a mere intermediary and a channel of the Light and the Force.
0 1960-05-24 - supramental flood, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
When I went back to bed, the transitional period lasted 45 minutes. During this time, I tried to locate the role of the individual consciousness on earth. In a flash, I understood its purpose. For you see, as long as the experience lasted, I did not feel any necessity at all of an individuality for this supreme flood to manifest. Then I understood, precisely, that the individuality served to put into contact, in this flood, all that reached out towards what is called Ithis individualized representation of the Divinein order to receive help and support from it, and to be put into contact. I did not say put into contact WITH this flood but put into contact IN this flood, for it was not happening outsidenothing was outside this flood, nothing exists outside it.
And what was really very lovely was the ACCURACY and the power which directed the forces. I watched this for three quarters of an hour: for each thing that presented itself (it could have been someone thinking, something taking place, anything at all), a special little concentration of this flood went exactly onto that point, like a special insistence.
0 1960-05-28 - death of K - the death process- the subtle physical, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
I tried to delay the moment, but he was in the hospital, so it was difficult. I was in my room when they burned his body, and then suddenly I saw him arrivesobbingsaying, But But I m dead. I DIDNT WANT to die! Why am I dead, I DIDNT WANT to die! It was dreadful. So I kept him and held him against me to quiet him down.
He remained there for years.
0 1960-07-12 - Mothers Vision - the Voice, the ashram a tiny part of myself, the Mothers Force, sparkling white light compressed - enormous formation of negative vibrations - light in evil, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Heaven and hell are at once true and false. They exist and dont exist. Ive seen various people go to heavens or hells after their death, and its very difficult to make them understand that it is not real. Once it took me more than a year to convince someone that his so-called hell was not hell, and to get him out of it.
But there is something else the psychological condition that you yourself create, the asuric hell you live in when you cultivate an asuric nature within you.
***
--
I had a startling experience one day when X was doing his pujas to encircle the titans. He was in difficulty and I was about to intervene to help him when I was abruptly stopped. I was faced by a massive blackness (blacker than the blackest physical thing) and suddenly, right at its center, I saw the Divine Love shining with such a splendor I had never seen it so splendid.
And now it has become constant; each time I hear or see something ugly or horrible, or each time something ugly or horrible happens, something which is a negation of the divine life just behind is this flameso wonderful. And then the effect is annulled.
0 1960-07-23 - The Flood and the race - turning back to guide and save amongst the torrents - sadhana vs tamas and destruction - power of giving and offering - Japa, 7 lakhs, 140000 per day, 1 crore takes 20 years, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
It was as if the doors of destruction had been flung open. Floodsfloods as vast as an oceanwere rushing down onto something the earth? A formidable current pouring down at an insane speed, with an unstoppable power. It was brackish waternot transparent, but brackish. And it was imperative to reach a certain spot BEFORE the water. Had the water reached there ahead of me, nothing could have been done. Whereas if I got there first (I say I, but it was not I with this body), if I got to the other side before the water, I would be completely safe; and from this safe position, I would be able, I would have a chance to help those left behind.
And this vehicle was going faster than the flood (I saw and felt it by its motion)a formidable flood, but the vehicle was going still faster. It was so wonderful. In places there were some especially difficult and dangerous spots, but I ALWAYS got there before the water, just before the water barred the way. And we kept going and going and going. Then, with a final effort (there was no effort, really, it was willed), with a final push, we made it to the other side and the water came rushing just behind! It rushed down at a fantastic speed. We had made it. Then, just on the other side, it changed color. It was it changed in color to a predominant blue, this powerful blue which is the force, the organizing force in the most material world. So there we were, and the vehicle stopped. And then, after having been looking straight ahead the whole time we were speeding along, I turned around and said, Ah, now I can start helping those who are behind.
Here, Ill draw you a little sketch:
--
Down below, the water was having a grand time; it was it was hopeless. But here, along this path, there was still a hope, even even after the water had passed; I probably had a certain power at my disposal to help others cross these fissured places. But because I woke up, I didnt see what it was. So that stopped everything. Probably because I woke up rather abruptly, I could not see what it meant.
All this is a translation in human language, actually, because really it was
--
But when human beings are involved, I believe that visions take on a special formits a special image. Not an inundation like this. That was very, very impersonal. They were forces. A feeling of floodgates bursting open, of something being held back, retained or prevented, then suddenly
The vehicle and the forward movement are the sadhana, beyond the shadow of a doubt. I understood that the speed of sadhana was greater than the speed of the forces of destruction. And it ended in certain victory, there is not a shadow of doubt. This feeling of POWER once I was firmly grounded there [in the square], enough power to help others.
These were universal forces. I cant say it means war. Ive foreseen many warswidespread wars, local wars, so many warsand up to now they have never been presented to me in that form. Theyve always come as a fireflames, flames, the home burning. Not as an inundation.
0 1960-08-20, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Sri Aurobindo came during my japa to tell me, I will help him all through.
About $7,000.
0 1960-09-20, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
When Amrita,5 seized with zeal, wanted to make him understand what we were doing here and what Sri Aurobindo had wanted, it almost erupted into an unpleasant situation. So after that, I decided to identify myself with him to see I had never done this, because normally I only do it when I am responsible for someone, in order to truly help someone, and Ive never felt any responsibility in regard to X. So I wanted to see his inner situation, what could and could not be done. That was the day you saw him coming down from our meditation in an ecstatic state, when he told you that all separation between him and me had dropped awayit was to be expected, I anticipated as much!
But when I did that, I saw what X wanted to do for me. As a matter of fact, I recalled that when we first met I had told him that everything was all right up to this point (Mother indicates the region above the head), but below that, in the outer being, I wanted to hasten the transformation, and things there were difficult to handle.
--
Later on, when Sri Aurobindo left his body, I said to myself, If only I knew what he had known, it would be easier! So when Swami and later X came, I thought, I am going to take advantage of this opportunity. I had written to Swami that I was working on transforming the cells of the body and that I had noticed the work was going faster with Xs influence. So it was understood that X would help when he came thats how things began, and this idea has remained with X. But I have raced on I dont wait. Ive raced on, Ive gone like wildfire. And now the situation is reversed. What I wanted to find out, I found out. I experienced what I wanted to experience, but he is still He is very kind, actually, he wants really to help me. So, when I identified with him the other day during our meditation, I realized that he wanted to give silence, control and perfect peace to the physical mind. My own trick, if you will, is to have as little relationship with the physical mind as possible, to go up above and stay therethis (Mother indicates her forehead), silent, motionless, turned upwards, while That (gesture above the head) sees, acts, knows, decidesall is done from there. Only there can you feel at ease.
Along the way, I once went down into this physical mind for awhile to try to set it right, to organize it a little (it was done rather quickly, I didnt stay there long). So when I went inside X, I saw It was rather curious, for its the opposite of the method we follow. In his material consciousness (physical and vital), he has trained himself to be impersonal, open, limitless, in communication with all the universal forces. In the physical mind, silence, immobility. But in the speculative mind, the one there at the very top of the head what an organization, phew! All the tradition in its most superb organization, but such a ri-gi-dity! And it had a pretty quality of light, a silver blueVERY pretty. Oh, it was very calm, wonderfully calm and quiet and still. But what a ceiling it had!the outer form resembled rigid cubes. Everything inside was beautiful, but that There was a very large cube right at the top, I recall, bordered by a purple line, which is a line of powerall this was quite luminous. It looked like a pyramid; the smaller cubes formed a kind of base, the lower part of which faded into something cloudy, and then this passed imperceptibly downwards to a more material realm, or in other words, the physical mind. The cube on top was the largest and most luminous, and the least yieldingeven inflexible, you could say. The others were somewhat less defined, and at the bottom it was very blurred. But up at the top!thats where I wanted to go, right to the top.
--
But for us who want an integral realization, are all these mantras and this daily japa really a help, or do they also shut us in?
It gives discipline. Its an almost subconscious discipline of the character more than of thought.
--
Of course not! A disciplined work, which to us seems important, is to him basically an ignorance. What is true to such a person is a contemplative, ecstatic lifealong with a sentiment of compassion and charity, so that nonet heless you spend a bit of your time helping out the poor brutes! But the true thing is ecstatic contemplation. As for those who are advanced and yet still attach some importance to workits irrational!
The only way I can make him understand that I have work to do is to tell him, Mother asked me to do it; then he keeps quiet.
--
Afterwards, I kept very still so as not to disturb it. I didnt speak, above all I refrained from thinking and held it, held it tight against me I said to myself, make it last, make it last, make it last
Later on, I heard Sri Aurobindo saying that there were two people here to whom he had done this and as soon as there was silence, they panicked: My God, Ive gone stupid!! And they threw it all overboard by starting to think again.
--
From the material point of view, its almost hellish the noise, the smella nauseating smell. I had to apply all my will not to be physically disturbed they made me climb up narrow little stairs, go down, climb back up, look into deep pits. At some places there werent even guardrails, so I had really to control myself.
I was watching all this sugar canepiles of sugar canewhich is thrown into the machine, and then it travels along and falls down to be crushed, crushed, and crushed some more. And then it comes back up to be distilled. And then I saw all this is living when its thrown in, you see, its full of its vital force, for it has just been cut. As a result, the vital force is suddenly hurled out of the substance with an extreme violence the vital force comes out the English word angry is quite expressive of what I meanlike a snarling dog. An angry force.10
0 1960-10-02a, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
From a documentary standpoint, my nights are getting quite interesting. In the Yoga of Self-Perfection, Sri Aurobindo describes precisely this state you reach in which all things assume meaning and a quality of inner significance, clarification of various points, and help. From this point of view, my nights have become extraordinary. I see infinitely more things than I saw before. Before, it was very limited to a personal contact with people. Now In my nights, each thing and each person has the appearance, the gesture, the word or the action that describes EXACTLY his condition. Its becoming quite interesting.
Of course, I much prefer being in my great currents of forcefrom a personal standpoint, such immensity of action is much more interesting. But these documentary things are also valuable. It is so tremendously different from the dreams and even the vi. signs you have when you enter certain representative realms of the mind (which is what I used to do). It is so different, it has another content, another life altogether: it carries its light, its understanding, its explanation within itselfyou look, and everything is explained.
0 1960-10-15, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Of course, I dont say, All right, now lets meditate! So on his birthday Ill have to sit down and tell him, Now we are going to meditate that way hell feel sure. What childishness!
Its so funny the thing in itself doesnt exist for people. Whats important to them is their attitude towards the thing, what they think of it. How odd!
0 1960-10-19, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
One day, hell tell you all this himself.1
Now I understand it.
0 1960-10-25, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
All this happened just on the day X1 was leaving. So I told S to take the photograph and letter to X and tell him the story. X consulted some book, did a very short japa for a few seconds and said, Oh, hell come back before September 26, BUT inform Mother so that She may see to ft. therefore, I concentrated a little.
About two weeks later (in other words, ten days or so before September 26), some more news the boys older brother, who lives in Ahmedabad (not Bombay), came to visit his mother, father and grandmo ther (theres also a grandmo ther), and he asked about his brother. He had come with a friend. Your brother has disappeared, they explained, we dont know what has happened to him. So the two of them decided to search for him: Well find him .
0 1960-10-30, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
According to tradition, Anubis, the jackal-headed god, helped Isis to rebuild the body of her spouse, Osiris, who had been killed and dismembered by his brother Set. Osiris was the first god to rule over men. Owing to certain special rites, Isis, helped by Anubis, succeeded in bringing him back to life. So we are not very far from the legend of Savitri and Satyavan.
L'Orpailleur, which had just been published. The man's description, as a matter of fact, bears a striking resemblance to the publisher.
0 1960-11-05, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
All these memories (actually theyre rather pictures) seem to be coming forward to show themselves with all the knowledge, truth and helP they represent; they come to say, There! You see, this is the origin of thata whole curve. Then once Ive seen it, its gone.
One day, as an experiment, I tried to remember something from the past, for I was interested in what it contained; I triedimpossible! It had been cleaned out, it was gone. So I understood that these things come, they show themselves (you have to be ATTENTIVE and know what purpose they have served) and then they go away.
0 1960-11-08, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Its an approach which is not at all mental nor intellectual nor (God knows!) moral in the leastno notion of Good or Evil nor any of those things, absolutely none of that. Theres a moment in life when you begin thinking a little and you see all this from an overall or universal point of view in which all moral notions completely disappearFOR ANOTHER REASON. This experience with Z reminded me of a certain way of approaching Beauty that enables you even to find it in what appears dirty and ugly to the common vision. It is She trying to express herself in this something which to the common vision is ugly, dirty, hypocritical. But of course, if you yourself have striven assiduously and have greatly held yourself in, then you look at it reprovingly.
From my earliest childhood, instinctively, I have never felt the slightest contempt or how should I say (well, well! I was thinking in English) shrinking or disapproval, severe criticism or disgust for the things people call vice.
--
This is entirely another way of understandingits not an ascent, not even a descent nor an inspiration it must be what Sri Aurobindo calls a revelation. Its the meeting of this subconscious notationthis something which has remained buried within, held down so as not to manifest, but which suddenly surges forth to meet the light streaming down from above, this very vast state of consciousness that excludes nothing and from it springs forth a lightoh, a resplendence of light!like a new explanation of the world, or of that part of the world not yet explained.
And this is the true way of knowing.
--
Thats it, exactly. Its what I was telling you, that its not the result of any effort In fact, sometimes it comes all by itself when youre no longer thinking about it. Maybe Ill be able to help you one day.
Mother is referring to traditional tantrism.
0 1960-11-12, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
I listen, I answer. Its not satisfactory! I told them. But theyve kept to their idea, they like it. When that first storm came some time back (you remember, with those terrible bolts of lightning and that asuric being P.K. saw and sketched): Dont you want us to destroy something? I got angry. But it was This influence was so close and acute that it gave you goose bumps! The whole time the storm lasted, I had to hold on tight in my bed, like this (Mother closes her fists tight as in a trance or deep concentration), and I didnt movedidnt movelike a a rock during the entire storm, until he consented to go a bit further away. Then I moved. And even now, it comesfrom others (theres not just one, you see, there are many): How about a good flood? A roof collapsed the other day with someone underneath, but he was able to escape. So roofs are collapsing, houses Arouse public sympathy, we must help the Ashram! Its no good, I said. But maybe thats whats responsible for this interminable rain. And they offer so many other things oh, what they parade past me! You could write books on all this!
But generally and this is something Theon had told me (Theon was very qualified on the subject of hostile forces and the workings of all that resists the divine influence, and he was a great fighteras you might imagine! He himself was an incarnation of an asura, so he knew how to tackle these things!); he was always saying, If you make a VERY SMALL concession or suffer a minor defeat, it gives you the right to a very great victory. Its a very good trick. And I have observed, in practice, that for all things, even for the very little things of everyday life, its trueif you yield on one point (if, even though you see what should be, you yield on a very secondary and unimportant point), it immediately gives you the power to impose your will for something much more important. I mentioned this to Sri Aurobindo and he said that it was true. It is true in the world as it is today, but its not what we want; we want it to change, really change.
--
I dont really see what we can do I mean, its you who does, of course, but I dont see what we can do to help change things.
Nor do I!
0 1960-11-15, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
While it was all coming up, I thought, How is this possible? For during those years of my life (Im now outside things; I do them but Im entirely outside, so they dont involve mewhether its like this or like that makes no difference to me; Im only doing my work, thats all), I was already conscious, but nevert heless I was IN what I was doing to a certain extent; I was this web of social life (but thank God it wasnt here in India, for had it been here I could not have withstood it! I think that even as a child I would have smashed everything, because here its even worse than over there). You see, there its its a bit less constricting, a bit looser, you can slip through the mesh from time to time to brea the some air. But here, according to what Ive learned from people and what Sri Aurobindo told me, its absolutely unbearable (its the same in Japan, absolutely unbearable). In other words, you cant help but smash everything. Over there, you sometimes get a breath of air, but still its quite relative. And this morning I wondered (you see, for years I lived in that way for years and years) just as I was wondering, How was I ABLE to live that and not kick out in every direction?, just as I was looking at it, I saw up above, above this (it is worse than horrible, it is a kind of Oh, not despair, for there isnt even any sense of feeling there is NOTHING! It is dull, dull, dull gray, gray, gray, clenched tight, a closed web that lets through neither air nor life nor lightthere is nothing) and just then I saw a splendor of such sweet light above itso sweet, so full of true love, true compassion something so warm, so warm the relief, the solace of an eternity of sweetness, light, beauty, in an eternity of patience which feels neither the past nor the inanity and imbecility of thingsit was so wonderful! That was entirely the feeling it gave, and I said to myself, THAT is what made you live, without THAT it would not have been possible. Oh, it would not have been possible I would not have lived even three days! THAT is there, ALWAYS there, awaiting its hour, if we would only let it in.
(silence)
0 1960-12-13, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
Now X is coming, and these days of meditation with him.2 What is going to happen? By the way, he no longer writes that hes coming to help the Ashram. He wrote to Amrita that hes coming to have the opportunity (I cant exactly remember his words) anyway, to take advantage of his meditations with me so that he can make the necessary transformations! Quite a changed attitude. I had several visions concerning him which Ill tell you later.
Later, Mother added the following: 'In this regard I don't know where, but somewhereSri Aurobindo spoke of this physical mind, and he said that there was nothing you could do with it; it must only be destroyed.'
0 1960-12-31, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Zen
But later I observed, I saw that this had helped drain him of all the weight of his past education. Very interesting Night after night, night after night, night after nightplenty of things! You could write novels about it all.
'This wonderful world of Delight waiting at our gates for our call, to come down upon earth.'
0 1961-01-10, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
It is quite elementary: never take notice of evil, never speak of the evil present in others, never perpetuate the vibrations of evil by observation, criticism or giving undue attention to the evil deed. This is what Buddha taught: each time you mention an evil you help spread it.
This skirts the issue.
--
I want to be able to act directly without its helpdo what Sri Aurobindo said: be rid of it!
Sri Aurobindo's aphorisms appear in the Cent. Ed. Vol. XVII, pp. 79-159.
0 1961-01-22, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Later, on the 27th, Mother remarked: 'I was reading about this very thing yesterday in The Secret of the Veda, in the first hymn translated by Sri Aurobindo (the reference is to the colloquy between Indra and Agastya, Rig Veda I.170cf. The Secret of the Veda, Cent. Ed., X.241 ff.), and it helped me put my finger on the problem. In this hymn there is a dispute between Indra and the Rishi because the Rishi wants to progress too quickly without first passing through Indra [the god of the Mind], and Indra stops him; finally they reach an agreement. Sri Aurobindo's commentary is quite interesting: when one has the INDIVIDUAL power to go directly, but neglects the steps which are still necessary for the whole, for the universal movement, then one is stopped short. That is absolutely my experience.'
***
0 1961-01-24, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
In the middle of the night before last, I woke up (or rather I returned to an external consciousness) with the feeling of having a much larger (by larger I mean more voluminous) and much more powerful being in my body than I usually have. it was as if it could scarcely be held inside me but was spilling over; and SO COMPACTLY POWERFUL that it was almost uncomfortable. The feeling of: what to do with all this?
It lasted the remainder of the night and all day long I had considerable trouble containing an overw helming power that spontaneously created reactions utterly disproportionate to a human body and made me speak in a way that. When something was not going well: wham! Such an instantaneous and strong reply that it looked like anger. And I found it difficult to control the movementit had happened already in the morning and it very nearly happened again in the afternoon. That last attack has weakened me terribly! I told myself, I dont have the strength to contain this Power; its difficult to remain calm and controlled. That was my first thought, so I insisted upon calm.
--
Then she returned to India and I took her in with me. I continued to treat her almost as a friend and I helped her to develop her gifts. Mon petit,10 how dirty she started to get, lying, stealing, and absolutely needlesslyshe had money, she was well treated, she had everything she needed, she ate what we didthere was absolutely no reason! When I finally asked her, But why, why!? (she was no longer young at this point), she replied, When I came back here, it took hold of me again; its stronger than I am. That was a revelation for me! Those old habits had been impervious to education.
We think these people are the way they are because the environment is bad, the education is poor, the conditions are difficultits not true! In the universal economy of things they REPRESENT something, a certain type of force and vibration. It will have to be either dissolved or transformed. Transformed? But perhaps that is. It may disappear along with the hostile forces. Perhaps once everything has been transformed it will disappear I dont know when.
--
In the Vedas, the panis and dasyus represent beings or forces hidden in subterranean caves who have stolen the 'Riches' or the 'Lights', symbolized by herds of cows. With the help of the gods, the Aryan warrior must recover these lost riches, the 'sun in the darkness,' by igniting the flame of sacrifice. It is the path of subterranean descent.
Indra represents the king of the gods, the master of mental power freed from the limitations and obscurities of the physical consciousness.
0 1961-01-29, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
But otherwise. Some of the things you note down I just put away. But some I show to Nolini (of them all, Nolini is the one who can best understand). I give him certain things to read, but otherwise, no. It is completely different between us, as I told you completely different. If you benefit from it, so much the better! If it helps you in your inner development, good, I have no objectionon the contrary. Its quite natural, the natural consequence of our meetings.
But if while speaking with Sujata you feel that something might help her, I have no objection to your telling hersimply say that its between the two of you.
So far, I havent said anything. You know how I am: I keep quiet, I dont say a word.
0 1961-01-31, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Now I have begun reading those hymns2. Oh, now I understand! All those obstacles were a preparation straight from Sri Aurobindo. Now I understand! (What I mean by understand is that its a help for making progress.) I understand the nature of certain obstructions and certain difficulties, and what allows certain forces to oppose each other I understand it quite clearly.
I have read only two hymns so far. By the time I reach the end I will probably have found something.
0 1961-02-04, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
One could almost say that of all animals, the serpent is the most sensitive to hypnotic or magnetic power. If you have it (magnetic power comes from the most material vital), you can easily gain a mastery over snakes; all the people who like snakes have it and use it to make snakes obey them. Thats how I got out of my encounter with the cobra at Tlemcen7do you know the story? Theon had told me about this power and I was aware of it in myself, so I was able to make the cobra obey and he left. Afterwards (Ive told this story, too), I was visited by the King of Serpents I mean the spirit of the species. He came to me in Tlemcen after this and another incident when I helped a cat overpower a little asp (there are asps over there like Cleopatras, very dangerous)a big russet angora cat. At first it started to play with the asp, but then naturally grew furious. The asp struck at the cat, but the cat leapt aside with such swiftness that the asp missed it (I watched this going on for more than ten minutes, it was extraordinary). Just as the snake darted by, the cat would swat at it with all his claws outand the asp got scratched each time, so that little by little it ran out of energy, and at the end. I stopped the cat from eating it that part was disgusting!
Then after these two incidents, I received a visit one night from the King of Serpents. He was wearing a superb crown on his headsymbolic, of course, but anyway, he was the spirit of the species. He had the appearance of a cobra, and he was wonderful! A formidable beast, and wonderful! He said he had come to make a pact with me: I had demonstrated my power over his species, so he wanted to come to an understanding. All right, I said, what do you propose? I not only promise that serpents wont harm you, he replied, but that they will obey you. But you must promise me something in return: never to kill one of them. I thought it over and said, No, I cant make this promise, because if ever one of yours attacks one of mine (a being that depends upon me), my pact with you could not stop me from protecting him. I can assure you that I have no bad feelings and no intention of killingkilling is not on my program! But I cant commit myself, because it would restrict my freedom of decision. He left without replying, so it remains status quo.
--
Lately, the nights are being spent in a subconscious realm that absolutely must be clarified; its precisely the realm where one feels helpless, foolish, ignorant, utterly unprogressive, bound up in all sorts of stupidities. It all must be clarified.
These nights, I have been having experiences which, if I didnt know what I do or hadnt had the experiences Ive had, would be very discouraging: how to get out of it? Seekers have always had the very same impression: that we are all incurable imbeciles. And always the same solution, to flee life and escape this folly. Now I see it from another angle.
0 1961-02-11, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
T. asks, Why dont the gods help us? Why do they keep us in bondage?
Thats not what Sri Aurobindo means! He means he doesnt WANT to be limited by the gods, not even by their powers. He wants to be vaster than they are: vaster, more total, more complete. Its not a question of getting rid of their influence but of becoming more than that.
--
Of course, theres the constant difficulty of all the thoughts coming from outside and from the people you live with. But now the consciousness is such that these outer things are seen objectively (Mother makes a gesture of seeing vibrations coming and stopping before her eyes)automatically I see everything that comes from the surrounding vibrations objectively: far, near, above, below, everywhere. The vibration comes WITH THE KNOWLEDGE. In other words, its not that you see what it is only after it has been received and absorbed: it comes with the knowledge, and this is a great help. This type of perception has considerably increased and become much more precise since that experience [of January 24], much more; it has made a big difference.
But perhaps there will have to be many experiences of this nature before the work is done. It is possible.
0 1961-02-14, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Ah, if we can hold outor to put it in a better way, after we have held outthere will indeed be some interesting things to say.
The Synthesis of Yoga, Cent. Ed., Vol. XX, p. 303.
0 1961-02-18, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I wish I could help them out!
that they are counting on it, that its going to be a big hit world-wide, and so forth. They put out a feeler with LOrpailleur, and seem quite pleased. They are very, very impatient they say now is the time. Now is the time but it will be more and more the time, thats what they dont know! The time is only beginning.
--
Whats natural also and annoyingis that people know nothing, understand nothing, even those who see me all the time, like the doctor. He still hasnt been able to understand and he suddenly grew worried, thinking I was on my way to the other side! All this makes a mess of the atmosphere it just doesnt help! Their faith is not sufficiently (how to put it?) enlightened for them to keep still and simply say, Well, we shall see, without questioning. They are not beyond questioning and this complicates matters.
I have a feeling (but these are old ideas) that if I were all alone somewhere and didnt have to look after these people and things, it would be easier. But that would not be the TRUE thing. For when I had the experience [of January 24], all that is normally under my care was present: the whole earth seemed to be present at the experience. There is no individuality (Mother indicates her body). I have difficulty finding an individuality now, even in my own body. What I do find in this body are the subconscious vibrations (conscious as well as subconscious) of a WORLD, a whole world of things. So it can be done ONLY on a large scale, otherwise its the same old story but then its not the power HERE [in matter]one simply quits this world. Oh, these people cant imagine what it is! They have made such a fuss over their departure. They have wanted us to believe it was something quite extraordinary. But its infantile, its childs play, its nothing at all to quit this world! One simply goes poff!, like diving into watera little kick and one resurfaces, and thats all there is to it, its done (Mother laughs).
0 1961-02-25, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
All this [the world, the Ashram] is held in my consciousness with a kind of essential compassion applying equally to all things, all difficulties, all obstacles. I receive letters by the dozens, as you know, and each person comes to me with his own little misery or problem, inner or outer (a tiny pimple becomes a mountain). When people come to me, my inner consciousness always responds in the same way, with a kind of equality and compassion for all. But when people are talking to me or I am reading a letter and my body grows conscious of what it calls the to-do they make over their miseries, it has a kind of feeling (I mean there is a feeling in the cells): Why do they take things like that! They are making things much more difficult. The body understands. It understands that their way of taking the least little difficulty in such a blind, egotistical and self-centered manner, increases its difficulties furiously!
Its a rather amusing sensation, a combination of sensation and feeling, that the ordinary human attitude towards things multiplies and magnifies the difficulties to FANTASTIC proportions; while if they simply had the true attitudea NORMAL attitude, quite simple, uncomplicatedahh, all life would be much easier. For the body feels the vibrations (those very vibrations which concentrate to form a body), it feels their nature and sees that its normal reaction, a peaceful and confident reaction, makes things so much easier! But as soon as this agitation of anxiety, fear, discontent comes in, the reaction of a will that doesnt want any of it oh, right away it becomes like water boiling: pff! pff! pff! like a machine. While if the difficulty is accepted with confidence and simplicity, its reduced to its minimum, and I mean purely materially, in the material vibration itself.
--
Its a curious thing speaking evidently helps me follow the experience. But I cant just begin speaking all alone up in my room! And talking to a tape recorder is useless. Up to now, it certainly flows the best with youby far. I havent tried with others, although occasionally Ive said something to Nolini, but his receptivity is fuzzy (I dont know whether you can understand this impression: its as though my. words were going into cotton-wool). Once, as I told you, I spoke with R., and with him I felt that three quarters of it was absolutely lostand as a matter of fact it was. But with you I begin to SEE, and the need to formulate makes me concentrate on my vision. And this I experience with you more than I ever have with anyone. So.
So you are bearing the consequences!
0 1961-03-04, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
So they kept pulling in opposing directions. Eventually they tried to set something up (which still didnt hold together), and finally they wrote me a little more clearly. (There is one very nice man involved, Y. He isnt particularly intellectual but has a lot of common sense and a very faithful hearta very good man.) Y asked me some direct questions, without beating around the bush, and I replied directly: World Union is an entirely superficial thing, without any depth, based on the fact that Sri Aurobindo said the masses must be helped to follow the progress of the elitewell, let them go ahead! If they enjoy it, let them go right ahead! I didnt say it exactly like that (I was a bit more polite!), but that was the gist of it.
Now it has all fallen flat. They are carrying on with their little activities, but its absolutely unimportant. They publish a small journal, and V, who writes for them, is far from stupid. She is rather intelligent and I have some control over her, so I will try to stop her from writing nonsense.
--
In addition, I told them it was preferable not to hold any functions herethey can be held at Tapogiri in the Himalayas, or elsewhere and this is understood. They did hold a seminar here (a perfect fiasco, besides), but it had been arranged a long time ago. They invited people who promised to come (I think very few showed up in the end), and it was of very secondary importance. Nevert heless, I told them, This is the last time; dont do it here any more. At Tapogiri, as often as you like: its a beautiful spot in the mountains, a health resort, people go there in the summer for the fresh air and to sit around and chat!
What shocked me was. You know I rarely leave my house, but each time I would come to the Ashram for darshan or to see you, always, as if by chance, I would find J. off in a corner with some European visitor. The repetition of this coincidence made me wonder, Whats he doing so systematically with ALL the European visitors?! And it shocked me to imagine myself in their place: just suppose, I said to myself, you are coming to the Ashram for the first time, very open, in search of a great truth, and you stumble upon this man who tells you: Sri Aurobindo = World Union. Well, my first reaction would be, Im leaving, Im not interested!
--
Things are going very badly: a pack of enemies assailing me, friends deserting usits going very, very badly. Then yesterday evening, while I was walking for japa and all these good tidings were arriving, I said to the Lord, Listen, Lord, you have Indra to help the good people I beseech you, send him to me; he has some work to do!(Mother laughs) Then my walk became so amusing! I was watching them come in as I walked Indra and all the other godsand they were hard at work. Delightful!
Hibiscus, double flower, light pink.
0 1961-03-07, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Until 1958, Mother went daily to the Ashram Playground, from 5 p.m. to 9 or 10 in the evening, to see people and give her direct spiritual help to some 2,000 disciples who passed before her one by one.
Mother is referring to the movements of consciousness, both good and bad, of those whom she has accepted as disciples and taken into her consciousness.
0 1961-03-11, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Then I had to return here that is, to my home in India, to Sri Aurobindos home: I had to return to Sri Aurobindos home. Pavitra was also working there and he didnt want to let me leave; when he saw me going he came and tried to stop me. You, on the contrary, were helping. Shall I take anything with me or not? I asked myself Oh, I dont need anything, Ill go all alone. That worried you a little because of the journey ahead, and you said, There will be many complications. It doesnt matter! I replied (laughing). But if you only knew how living and concrete it was! The impressions were so there was the feeling of making a long voyageit was a LONG voyage, as if I were crossing the sea (but not physically), a long voyage. I remember setting off (I was with you, you were there) and telling myself, At last hes here! At last I have found a reasonable being who doesnt try to stop me from doing what I must do! I had (laughing mischievously) a very high opinion of you, thats why I am telling you this!
I was abruptly awakened by the clock striking (I didnt count), and my immediate feeling was, Well, he is really very nice! Now theres a good companion!
0 1961-03-17, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
For a very long time now I have been watching all the phases of the subjection to mental functioning come undone, one after another for a very long time. That night was the end of it, the last phase: I was leaving this subjection behind and rising up into a realm of freedom. You had been very, very helpful, as I told you. Well, this latest experience was something else! It came to make me look squarely at the fact of our incapacity!
Can you imagine!
0 1961-04-07, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I have never written or spoken to X about this, but through mental contact I have told him I dont know how many times: Satprem has a work to accomplish that is INFINITELY more important than reciting mantras. If it can help him to discipline himself, fine, but its nothing more; he will not accomplish his work by reciting mantras. He has something to do and he will do it. I have hammered that into his head (Mother laughs).
So, petit, see you tomorrow.
0 1961-04-08, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
After more than a month I have resumed my translation [of The Synthesis of Yoga], and I fell exactlyits splendid!exactly on the passage that helped me understand what has happened, why there are all these difficulties. And the Synthesis and the Veda go hand in hand, so reading that passage brought some improvement; its like being able to shift position, you know, so that now its a bit better. Anyway.
***
0 1961-04-12, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Before that, I lost another one from that kind of typhoid cats get. He was called Browny and he was so beautiful, so nice, such a marvelous cat! Even when utterly sick, he wouldnt make a mess, except in a corner prepared just for that; he would call me to carry him to his box, with such a soft and mournful voice. He was so nice, with something sweeter and more trusting than a child. There is a trust in animals which doesnt exist in humans (even children already have too much of a questioning mind). But with him, there was a kind of worship, an adoration, as soon as I took him in my armsif he could have smiled, he would have. As soon as I held him, he became blissful.
That one too was beautiful, with such a color! Golden chestnut, I have never seen a cat like him. He is buried here beneath the tree I named Service. I put him beneath the roots myself. There had been an old mango tree there that was withering away. We replaced it with a little copper pod tree with yellow flowers.
0 1961-04-15, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Yes, if I could cut down a bit it would help.
(long silence)
0 1961-04-18, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
And I see a very steady, insistent and regular action to eliminate moral values. How I have been plagued all my life by these moral values! Everything is immediately placed on a scale of moral values (not ordinary moralityfar from it! But a sense of what has to be encouraged or discouraged, what helps me towards progress or what hampers it); instantly everything was seen from the angle of this will to progresseverything, all circumstances, reactions, movements, absolutely everything was translated by that. Now, the subconscient is mounting upwards and, knee-deep in it, you see it as a lesson to tell you: so much for all your notions of progress! They are all based on illusionsa general lie. Things are not at all what they seem, they dont have the effects they appear to have, nor the results that are perceivedall, all, all, oh Lord!
(silence)
0 1961-04-22, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I had a vision last night which lasted for a long timeit was rather interestingabout your work concerning Sri Aurobindo: the plane where its situated, what place Sri Aurobindo gives it and the helP he is giving you. It was very, very interesting. I no longer recall all the details, but broad bands of a bluish-white light seemed to be spreading out in special forms (Mother sketches spirals in the air), showing how it would touch the earths mental atmosphere. It was truly interesting.
And Sri Aurobindo spoke of it as my work with you. I told him that I myself was doing nothing! But he told me it was my work with you.
0 1961-04-25, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Look here, theres a muddle in all this. The Sri Aurobindo Society people had ABSOLUTELY nothing to do with the spiritual life when they began; they didnt at all present themselves as a spiritual groupnothing of the kind; they were people of good will who volunteered to collect money to help the Ashram. So I said, Very well, excellent and as long as its like that, Im behind it. Leaflets can be handed outwhatever people like; its enough if their interest is aroused, if they know there is an Ashram and that it needs some help to go on. But thats all. It has nothing to do with yoga or spiritual progress or anything of the kindit was a strictly practical organization. It was not the same thing as World Union. World Union wanted to do a spiritual work on earth and to create human unity. I told them, You are taking something of an inward nature and you want to externalize it, so naturally it immediately goes rotten.(But its almost over now, Ive pulled the rug out from under them.)
Anyway.
--
But then, they [the S.A.S. people] began posing as almost as teachers! Luckily, the draft of their brochure was brought to me. I said, Nothing doing. If you want to talk to people, tell them what you like, its all the same to me, but I am not publishing this. What you have written about me is not to be printed and you are not to distribute it. Im not in the picture. My name, the fact that I am president, is simply to give my guarantee that the money wont go into the pockets of those who collect it but will be used for the Ashram, the running of the Ashram, and thats all. And on this basis alone I give my guarantee. I am in no way going to help people imagine they are doing a yoga! Its absurd.
The other day, I told N. (and I told him loud enough for everyone to hear): We can dispense with a good half of the ashramites straight-away and not lose a single sadhak.4
0 1961-04-29, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Someone made a large painting of Sri Aurobindo and myself, and they brought it here to show me. I said, Oh, its dreadful! It was to the physical eye it was really dreadful. Its dreadful, I said, we cant keep it. Then immediately someone asked me for it, saying, Im going to put it up in my house and do my puja before it. Ah! I couldnt help saying, But how could you put up a thing like that! (It wasnt so much ugly as frightfully banal.) How can you do puja before something so commonplace and empty! This person replied, Oh, to me its not empty! It contains all the presence and all the force, and I shall worship it as that: the Presence and the Force.
All this is based on the old idea that whatever the imagewhich we disdainfully call an idolwhatever the external form of the deity may be, the presence of the thing represented is always there. And there is always someonewhe ther priest or initiate, sadhu or sannyasisomeone who has the power and (usually this is the priests work) who draws the Force and the Presence down into it. And its true, its quite real the Force and the Presence are THERE; and this (not the form in wood or stone or metal) is what is worshipped: this Presence.
--
Another thing happened to me in a fishing village near A., on the seashore, where there is a temple dedicated to Kalia terrible Kali. I dont know what happened to her, but she had been buried with only her head sticking out! A fantastic story I knew nothing about it at all. I was going by car from A. to this temple and halfway there a black form, in great agitation, came rushing towards me, asking for my help: Ill give you everything I haveall my power, all the peoples worshipif you help me to become omnipotent! Of course, I answered her as she deserved! I later asked who this was, and they told me that some sort of misfortune had befallen her and she had been buried with only her head above ground. And every year this fishing village has a festival and slaughters thousands of chickensshe likes chicken! Thousands of chickens. They pluck them on the spot (the whole place gets covered with feathers), and then, after offering the blood and making the sacrifice, the people, naturally, eat them all up. The day I came this had taken place that very morningfea thers littered everywhere! It was disgusting. And she was asking for my help!
But the curious thing is that these vital beings are aware of what is happening. I knew nothing about any of it, neither the story, nor the being, nor the head sticking out of the ground and she wanted me to get her out of it. They feel the atmosphere. They are awarethey may not be conscious on higher planes, but they are conscious on vital planes, aware of vital power and the vital force it represents. Its like this asura from M.: when I came in he suddenly seemed to tremble on his pedestal; then he left his idol and came to seek my alliance.
--
But all the same, cant it be said that whatever the appearances these vital spiders or frightful Kalis the Divine still acts and helps people through them? Its not all totally swallowed up and lost, is it?
No, but this is something else. Those who are capable of personal experiences pass through everything. But not the common herd.
0 1961-05-19, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
There are moments when its brought to a dead halt. Oh, sometimes while I walk for the japa everything is held like this (gesture of all being dominated from above and immobilized), inflexibly.
But then the difficulty is that for the ordinary consciousness and unfortunately I am surrounded by a lot of people who have a very ordinary consciousness (at least it seems very ordinary to me, although from the human standpoint they are probably rather remarkable people)for the ordinary consciousness I seem to be in a stupor, a coma, a state of imbecility, of yes, of torpor. It has all those appearances. Something which becomes immobile, unresponsive, stopped short (same gesture as before); one can no longer think, one can no longer observe, one can no longer react, one can no longer do anything, one is like that (same gesture). But all these things keep coming from outside, all the time, coming and trying to interrupt that state; yet if I manage to prevent this, if I can keep this condition, after a while it becomes something so MASSIVE! So concrete in its power, so massive in its immobility, ohh! It must lead somewhere.
0 1961-06-17, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Its a contemplation going right up to the Supreme, with a constant, continuous Descent: something which doesnt waver the whole time (doesnt waver I mean doesnt vary), during the whole meditation. But if I ask him what happened, hell tell me a little story!
Yesterday I saw N. and he told me, Oh! X had an experience during the meditation with you this morning. Ah! I said to myself, This is going to be interesting. (I was wrong to think so, by the way, even for a quarter of a second.) Yes, he told me, he saw what seemed to be a transparent golden veil descending over you; and by your side were flowers like roses, or colored like roses, with the feet of a child upon them.
0 1961-06-24, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I have received your note1 and it didnt surprise me, because just about a month ago I received what seemed like an SOS from your mother, telling me your father was rapidly declining. I have done what I could, mainly to bring in some tranquillity, some calm, some inner peace. But I havent done. You see, there are always two possibilities when people are so seriously ill: they can be helped to die quickly, or else made to linger on for a very long time. When I have no outer or inner indications, all I ever do is apply the consciousness for the best to happen to them (the best from the souls standpoint, of course).
Do you know whether your father has expressed any wish?
--
Then, when I went to Tlemcen, I told Madame Theon about it. Yes, she told me, it is part of the work you have come on earth to do. Everyone with even a slightly awakened psychic being who can see your Light will go to your Light at the moment of dying, no matter where they die, and you will help them to pass through. And this work is constant. Constant. It has given me a considerable number of experiences concerning what happens to people when they leave their bodies. Ive had all sorts of experiences, all kinds of examplesits really very interesting.
Lately it has increased, become more precise.
--
I cant say I was surprised, but I admired the mighty power by which the simple fact of having been here and died here was sufficient to help you to the utmost in that transition.
But there are all sorts of cases. Take N.D., for example, a man who lived his whole life with the idea of serving Sri Aurobindohe died clasping my photo to his breast. This was a consecrated man, very conscious, with an unfailing dedication, and all the parts of his being well organized around the psychic.6 The day he was going to leave his body little M. was meditating next to the Samadhi when suddenly she had a vision: she saw all the flowers of the tree next to the Samadhi (those yellow flowers I have called Service) gathering themselves together to form a big bouquet, and rising, rising straight up. And in her vision these flowers were linked with the image of N.D. She ran quickly to their house andhe was dead.
--
I have to goa high-priest is waiting for me! Yes, the man in charge of all the temples of Gujarat, thoroughly orthodoxhe has come to the Ashram for some mysterious reason and he wants to see me. Is it really necessary? I asked. He wanted an interview, he wants to speak to me (naturally hell be speaking god knows whatGujarati!). I had him told, I cant hear, Im deaf! Its very convenient Im deaf, I cant hear. If he wants to receive a flower from me (I didnt say make a pranam,8 because that would be scandalous!), he can come and Ill give him a flower. I told him eleven oclockits that time now.
This is all Xs work. The most unexpected people, people youd think would rather be cursed than come to a place like this, are coming from everywhere, from the most diverse milieus the most materialistic materialists, fanatical communists, as well as all sorts of sannyasis, bhikkus, swamis, priestsoh! People who previously were not at all they werent so much disinterested as actually displeased with the Ashram.
--
And then one understands all, allall the details. Some things can be understood intellectually or psychologically (which is very good, it has an effect and it helps you), but that always seems so hazy; it works through an imprecision. But now the vibrations mechanism is understoodits MECHANICS; and thus it becomes precise. All these attitudes the yoga recommendsbeginning with action done as offering, then complete detachment from the result (leaving the result to the Lord), then perfect equanimity in all circumstances, all these stages which one understands intellectually, feels sentimentally, and has fully experiencedwell, all this takes on its TRUE MEANING only when it becomes what could be called a mechanical action of vibrationat that point one understands why it must be like it is.
And these last few days, especially yesterday and this morning, oh! Extraordinary discoveries! We are on the right track.
0 1961-07-28, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Lets take Savitri, which is very explicit on this: the universal Mother is universally present and at work in the universe, but the earth is where concrete form is given to all the work to be done to bring evolution to its perfection, its goal. Well, at first theres a sort of emanation representative of the universal Mother, which is always on earth to help it prepare itself; then, when the preparation is complete, the universal Mother herself will descend upon earth to finish her work. And this She does with SatyavanSatyavan is the soul of the earth. She lives in close union with the soul of the earth and together they do the work; She has chosen the soul of the earth for her work, saying, HERE is where I will do my work. Elsewhere (Mother indicates regions of higher Consciousness), its enough just to BE and things Simply ARE. Here on earth you have to work.
There are clearly universal repercussions and effects, of course, but the thing is WORKED OUT here, the place of work is HERE. So instead of living beatifically in Her universal state and beyond, in the extra-universal eternity outside of time, She says, No, I am going to do my work HERE, I choose to work HERE. The Supreme then tells her, What you have expressed is My Will.. I want to work HERE, and when all is ready, when the earth is ready, when humanity is ready (even if no one is aware of it), when the Great Moment comes, well I will descend to finish my work.
--
All at once, as I gaze above me, I glimpse something roseate; I draw nearer and discern what appears to be a shrub, as large as a tree, held fast to a blue reef. The denizens of the waters glide to and fro, myriad and diverse. Now I find myself standing upon fine, shining sand. I gaze about me in wonder. There are mountains and valleys, fantastic forests, strange flowers that could as well be animals, and fish that might be flowersno separation, no gap is there between stationary beings and mobile. Colors everywhere, brilliant and shimmering, or subdued, but always harmonious and refined. I walk upon the golden sands and contemplate all this beauty bathed in a soft, pale blue radiance, tiny, luminous spheres of red, green and gold circulating through it.
How marvelous are the depths of the sea! Everywhere the presence of the One in whom all harmonies reside is felt!
0 1961-08-02, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
The other tradition Theon said it was the origin of both the Kabbala and the Vedasalso held the same concept of divine life and a divine world as Sri Aurobindo: that the summit of evolution would be the divinization of everything objectified, along with an unbroken progression from that moment on. (As things are now, one goes forward and then backwards, then forward and backwards again; but in this divine world, retrogression wont be necessary: there will be a continuous ascent.) This concept was held in that ancient tradition Theon spoke to me very clearly of it, and Sri Aurobindo hadnt yet written anything when I met Theon. Theon had written all kinds of thingsnot philosophy, but stories, fantastic stories! Yet this same knowledge was behind them, and when asked about the source of this knowledge he used to say that it antedated both the Kabbala and the Vedas (he was well-versed in the Rig-veda).
But Theon had no idea of the path of bhakti,5 none whatsoever. The idea of surrender to the Divine was absolutely alien to him. Yet he did have the idea of the Divine Presence here (Mother indicates the heart center), of the immanent Divine and of union with That. And he said that by uniting with That and letting That transform the being one could arrive at the divine creation and the transformation of the earth.
--
Shiva, on the other hand, refused. No, he said, I will come only when you have finished your work. I will not come into the world as it is now, but I am ready to help. He was standing in my room that day, so tall (laughing) that his head touched the ceiling! He was bathed in his own special light, a play of red and gold magnificent! Just as he is when he manifests his supreme consciousnessa formidable being! So I stood up and (I too must have become quite tall, because my head was resting on his shoulder, just slightly below his head) then he told me, No, Im not tying myself to a body, but I will give you ANYTHING you want. The only thing I said (it was all done wordlessly, of course) was: I want to be rid of the physical ego.
Well, mon petit (laughing), it happened! It was extraordinary! After a while, I went to find Sri Aurobindo and said, See what has happened! I have a funny sensation (Mother laughs) of the cells no longer being clustered together! Theyre going to scatter! He looked at me, smiled and said, Not yet. And the effect vanished.
0 1961-08-05, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Once when I was at Tlemcen with Theon (this happened twice, but Im not sure about the second time because I was alone), my body was in a cataleptic state and I was in conscious trance. It was a peculiar kind of catalepsy in the sense that my body could speak, though very slowly Theon had taught me how to do it. But this is because the life of the form always remains (this is what takes seven days to leave the body) and it can even be trained to make the body move the being is no longer there, but the life of the form can make the body move (in any case, utter words). However, this state is not without danger, the proof being that while I was working in trance, for some reason or other (which I no longer remember, but obviously due to some negligence on the part of Theon who was there to watch over me), the cord I dont know what to call itwent snap! The link was cut, malevolently,5 and when it was time and I wanted to return, I could no longer re-enter my body. But I was still able to warn him: The cord is cut. Then he used his power and knowledge to help me come back but it was no joke! It was very difficult.6 And this is when I had the experience of the two different states, because the part that had gone out was now without the bodys support the link was cut. Then I knew. Of course, I was in a special state; I was doing a fully conscious work with all the vital power, and I was in control not only of my surroundings but. You see, what happens is a kind of reversal of consciousness: you begin to belong to another world; you feel this quite distinctly. Theon instantly told me to concentrate (I was finding it all interestingMo ther laughs I was making experiments and getting ready to go wandering off, but he was terribly scared that I would die on him!). He begged me to concentrate, so I concentrated on my body.
When I re-entered, it hurt terribly, terriblyan excruciating pain, like plunging into a hell.
Into a?
Into a hell (Mother laughs).
It was frightful. It doesnt last long.
--
Satprem remembers that a few years earlier Mother had told him about the circumstances of this incident: during her work in trance, Mother discovered the location of the 'mantra of life'the mantra that has the power to create life (and to withdraw it, as well). Theon, an incarnation of the Asura of Death, was of course quite interested and told Mother to repeat this mantra to him. Mother refused. Theon became violently angry and the link was cut (the link that connected Mother to her body). When he realized the catastrophe his anger had caused, Theon grew afraid (for he knew who Mother was) and he then, as Mother recounts, made use of all his power to help her re-enter her body. Later, Mother gave this mantra to Sri Aurobindo... who let it quietly sink into oblivion. For it is not through a mantra that the secret of life (or death) is to be mastered, but through knowledge of the true Powerin other words, ultimately, knowledge of the reality of Matter and the mechanism of death: it is the whole cellular yoga of Sri Aurobindo and Mother.
Tamas: inertia, obscurity.
0 1961-08-11, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Because this kind of creative Power coming from on high, from up, up, up on the highest heights, beyond all forms of manifestation, mon petit, its like something tremendous held behind a floodgate. And sometimes (Mother smiles) theres a temptation to open the floodgate a little.
When it pours out that will be something.
0 1961-09-16, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I have asked Sri Aurobindo to help you.
You know, we are surrounded by complications, but there is always a place where it all opens out simple and straightthis is a fact of my experience. You go around in circles, seeking, working at it, and you feel stuck; then something in the inner attitude gives way, and all of a sudden it opens outquite simply.
--
This morning when I was walking, the program of the day and the work ahead of me was so formidable that I felt it to be impossible. And yet simultaneously there was this immobile inner POSITION in me; as soon as I stop my movement of formation and action, it becomes like a dance of joy: all the cells vibrating (there is a sort of vivacity, and an extraordinary music), all the cells vibrant with the joy of the Presence the divine Presence. But when I see the outside world entering and attacking, well this joy doesnt exactly disappear, but it retreats. And the result is that I always feel like sitting down and keeping stillwhen I can do that it is marvelous. But of course, all the suggestions from outside come in: suggestions of helplessness and old age, of wear and tear, of diminishing power, all thatand I know positively that its false. But calm in the body is indispensable. Well, for me also Sri Aurobindos answer is always the same: Be simple, be simple, very simple.
And I know what he means: to deny entry to regimenting, organizing, prescriptive, judgmental though the wants none of all that. What he calls being simple is a joyous spontaneity; in action, in expression, in movement, in lifebe simple, be simple, be simple. A joyous spontaneity. To rediscover in evolution that condition he calls divine, which was a spontaneous and happy condition. He wants us to rediscover that. And for days now he has been here telling me (and the same goes for your work): Be simple, be simple, be simple. And in his simplicity was a luminous joy.
--
We are not here to do only a little better what the others do, we are here to do what the others CANNOT do, because they do not have even the idea that it can be done. We are here to open the way of the Future to children who belong to the Future. Anything else is not worth the trouble and not worthy of Sri Aurobindos help.
Thats what I wrote.
0 1961-09-28, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I feel completely abandoned to myself. This book is a real SUFFERING. I dont see where I am going, I am groping in all directions. Mother, do help me. Where lies the fault? I am suffering, you know. I would like to do it well, but it comes only in fits and starts, nothing coherent. Sometimes I feel quite incapable of carrying out this task properly.
What should I do?
--
If you agree, here is what we could do: read aloud to me what you have written; perhaps seeing it in my consciousness will help you.
If you think this could be useful, I will see you on Saturday at 10 oclock.
0 1961-09-30, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
1. This letter to Mother is, with a few others, the sole survivor of thirteen years of correspondence. All the rest, all Satprem's correspondence with Mother since 1960, was confiscated by the Ashram after the Mother's departure, for its own reasons. His letters of 1960, already published in Volume I, escaped the destruction because Mother herself had kept them. It makes a big hole in this Agenda, not only for himbecause he had poured out his heart, his questions and doubts and difficulties into these letters but also from an historical point of view, for many of these conversations with Mother were invisibly oriented by his own condition. In fact, he was intimately linked with the flow of this Agenda, which thus stands mutilated. Need we add that we had to prepare the first two volumes as fugitives, and it required Mother's miraculous help to avert even more serious mutilations than the auto-da-f of Satprem's correspondence.
***
0 1961-10-02, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Then there is a doctor, V., who comes here twice a year to give a check-up to all who take part in the physical education program and all the children. He is an extremely honest and sincere man who believes in the mission of medical science. Each time he comes, I write something in his diary on the day of his departure (his whole diary is full of things Ive written they usually appear in the Bulletin or somewhere). On that very same day I learned that V. was leaving, and it suddenly came to meso clearly! Falsehood in the body that sort of juxtaposition of contraries, the inversion of the Vibration (only it doesnt really invertits a curious phenomenon: the vibration remains what it is but its received inverted)this falsehood in the body is a falsehood in the CONSCIOUSNESS. The falsity of the consciousness naturally has material consequences and thats what illness is! I immediately made an experiment on my body to see if this held, if it actually works that way. And I realized that its true! When you are open and in contact with the Divine, the Vibration gives you strength, energy; and if you are quiet enough, it fills you with great joyand all of this in the cells of the body. You fall back into the ordinary consciousness and straightaway, without anything changing, the SAME thing, the SAME vibration coming from the SAME source turns into a pain, a malaise, a feeling of uncertainty, instability and decrepitude. To be sure of this, I repeated the experiment three or four times, and it was absolutely automatic, like the operation of a chemical formula: same conditions, same results.
This interested me greatly.
0 1961-10-30, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
The secret lies in matter. Because Agni is imprisoned in matter and we ourselves are imprisoned there. It is said that Agni is without head or feet, that it conceals its two extremities: above, it disappears into the great heaven of the supraconscient (which the Rishis also called the great ocean), and below, it sinks into the formless ocean of the inconscient (which they also called the rock). We are truncated. But the Rishis were men of a solid realism, a true realism resting upon the Spirit; and since the summits of mind opened out upon a lacuna of lightecstatic, to be sure, but with no hold over the worldthey set upon the downward way.6 Thus begins the quest for the lost sun, the long pilgrimage of descent into the inconscient and the merciless fight against the dark forces, the thieves of the sun, the panis and vritras, pythons and giants, hidden in the dark lair with the whole cohort of usurpers: the dualizers, the confiners, the tearers, the COVERERS. But the divine worker, Agni, is helped by the gods, and in his quest he is led by the intuitive ray, Sarama, the heavenly hound with the subtle sense of smell who sets Agni on the track of the stolen herds (strange, shining herds). Now and again there comes the sudden glimmer of a fugitive dawn then all grows dim. One must advance step by step, digging, digging, fighting every inch of the way against the wolves whose savage fury increases the nearer one draws to their denAgni is a warrior. Agni grows through his difficulties, his flame burns more brilliantly with each blow from the Adversary; for, as the Rishis said, Night and Day both suckled the divine Child; they even said that Night and Day are the two sisters, Immortal, with a common lover [the sun] common they, though different their forms (I.113.2,3). These alternations of night and brightness accelerate until Day breaks at last and the herds of Dawn7 surge upward awakening someone who was dead (I.113.8). The infinite rock of the inconscient is shattered, the seeker uncovers the Sun dwelling in the darkness (III.39.5), the divine consciousness in the heart of Matter. In the very depths of Matter, that is to say, in the body, on earth, the Rishis found themselves cast up into Light that same Light which others sought on the heights, without their bodies and without the earth, in ecstasy. And this is what the Rishis would call the Great Passage. Without abandoning the earth they found the vast dwelling place, that dwelling place of the gods, Swar, the original Sun-world that Sri Aurobindo calls the Supramental World: Human beings [the Rishis emphasize that they are indeed men] slaying the Coverer have crossed beyond both earth and heaven [matter and mind] and made the wide world their dwelling place (I.36.8). They have entered the True, the Right, the Vast, Satyam, Ritam, Brihat, the unbroken light, the fearless light, where there is no longer suffering nor falsehood nor death: it is immortality, amritam.
***
--
Reminiscent of Homer and the 'herds of helios.'
***
0 1961-11-05, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
As a matter of fact, the books he wrote (especially the first one, The Living Ether) were based on my knowledge; he put my knowledge into French and beautiful French, I must say! I would tell him my experiences and he would write them down. Later he wrote The Gods (it was incomplete, one-sided). Then he became a lawyer and entered politics (he was a first-class orator and fired his audiences with enthusiasm) and was sent to Pondicherry to help a certain candidate who couldnt manage his election campaign single-handed. And since Richard was interested in occultism and spirituality, he took this opportunity to seek a Master, a yogi. When he arrived, instead of involving himself in politics, the first thing he did was announce, I am seeking a yogi. Someone said to him, Youre incredibly lucky! The yogi has just arrived. It was Sri Aurobindo, who was told, Theres a Frenchman asking to see you. Sri Aurobindo wasnt particularly pleased but he found the coincidence rather interesting and received him. This was in 1910.
When Richard had finished his work, he returned to France with a poor photograph of Sri Aurobindo and a completely superficial impression of him, yet with the feeling that Sri Aurobindo KNEW (he hadnt at all understood the man that Sri Aurobindo was, he hadnt felt the presence of an Avatar, but he had sensed that he had knowledge). Moreover, I think he always held this opinion, because he used to say that Sri Aurobindo was a unique intellectual giant without many spiritual realizations! (The same type of stupidity as Romain Rollands.) Well, my relationship with Richard was on an occult plane, you see, and its difficult to touch upon. What happened was far more exciting than any novel imaginable.
But he was a man who.
--
Evidently he is making your book the starting point for all that will be thought and said and done upon earth on the intellectual plane. And I assure you that I am helping you and he is helping you!
You much ask him.
0 1961-11-12, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
If you start to explain, it falls flattheres no help for it.
So I wonder, after all, if there arent many revelations in your book which MUST NOT be explained; then its left up to each ones capacity to muse over it, to fill in the gaps with his imagination.
0 1961-12-20, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Dear Sir I must begin by telling you that although this text is an excellent essay, it is not, in its present form, a book for the Spiritual Masters series. Let us enumerate the reasons for this. First of all, the general impression is of an ABSTRACT text. I can straight-away imagine your reaction to this and I dread misunderstandings! But putting myself in the readers place, since, once again, it does involve a collection intended for a wide public that we are beginning to know well, I can assure you that this public will not be able to follow page after page of reflections upon what one is bound to call a philosophical and spiritual system. Obviously this impression is caused primarily by the fact that you have begun with twenty-one pages where the reader is assumed to already know of Sri Aurobindos historical existence and the content of the Vedas and the Upanishads, plus I dont know how many other notions of rite, truth, divinity, wisdom, etc., etc. In my view, and the solution is going to appear cruel to you, for you certainly value these twenty-one pages [on the Secret of the Veda], they should purely and simply be deleted, for everything you say there, which is very rich in meaning, can only become clear when one has read what follows. There are many books in which readers can be asked to make the effort entailed in not understanding the beginning until they have read the end: but not books of popular culture. One could envisage an introduction of three or four pages to situate the spiritual climate and cultural world in which Sri Aurobindos thought has taken place, provided, however, that it is sufficiently descriptive, and not a pre-synthesis of everything to be expounded upon in what follows. In a general way you are going to smile, finding me quite Cartesian! But the readership we address is more or less permeated by a widespread Cartesianism, and you can help them, if you like, to reverse their methodology, but on the condition that you make yourself understood right from the start. Generally, you dont make enough use of analysis and, even before analysis, of a description of the realities being analyzed. That is why the sections of pure philosophical analysis seem much too long to us, and, even apart from the abstract character of the chapter on evolution (which should certainly be shorter), one feels at a positive standstill! After having waited patiently, and sometimes impatiently, for some light to be thrown on Sri Aurobindos own experience, one reads with genuine amazement that one can draw on energies from above instead of drawing on them from the material nature around oneself, or from an animal sleep, or that one can modify his sleep and render it conscious master illnesses before they enter the body. All of that in less than a page; and you conclude that the spirit that was the slave of matter becomes again the master of evolution. But how Sri Aurobindo was led to think this, the experiences that permitted him to verify it, those that permit other men to consider the method transmittable, the difficulties, the obstacles, the realizationsdoesnt this constitute the essence of what must be said to make the reader understand? Once again, it is the question of a pedagogy intimately tied in with the spirit of the collection. Let me add as well that I always find it deplorable when a thought is not expressed purely for its own sake, but is accompanied by an aggressive irony towards concepts which the author does not share. This is pointless and harms the ideas being presented, all the more so because they are expressed in contrast with caricatured notions: the allusions you make to such concepts as you think yourself capable of evoking the soul, creation, virtue, sin, salvationwould only hold some interest if the reader could find those very concepts within himself. But, as they are caricatured by your pen, the reader is given the impression of an all too easily obtained contrast between certain ideas admired and others despised. Whereas it would be far more to the point if they corresponded to something real in the religious consciousness of the West. I have too much esteem for you and the spiritual world in which you live to avoid saying this through fear of upsetting you.
Amen.
--
From the practical standpoint, I would much prefer the book to be printed here and for us to make the necessary effort for it to go out and touch as many people as possible. The publisher may be a handy and less troublesome channel, but hes not at all the best onefar from it. THAT I know, because I am constantly seeing your book with Sri Aurobindos perception, and I am absolutely positive that he likes it very much; he has put a lot into it and he sees that it can be an enormous help but not in the short run. There is always the sense of it needing a hundred years to have its full effect. With your publisher, on the other hand, the effects are far more violent, more external and noisy, but they fade far more quickly.
And I feel its rather essential to change all the emphasis on pictures. I let them go because there was nothing else to do, but I must say I wasnt too happy about it.1 it was not a deep understanding, a soul-understanding, that chose the pictures, but a very developed intellect.
--
I came here. But something in me wanted to meet Sri Aurobindo all alone the first time. Richard went to him in the morning and I had an appointment for the afternoon. He was living in the house thats now part of the second dormitory, the old Guest House.5 I climbed up the stairway and he was standing there, waiting for me at the top of the stairs. EXACTLY my vision! Dressed the same way, in the same position, in profile, his head held high. He turned his head towards me and I saw in his eyes that it was He. The two things clicked (gesture of instantaneous shock), the inner experience immediately became one with the outer experience and there was a fusion the decisive shock.
But this was merely the beginning of my vision. Only after a series of experiencesa ten months sojourn in Pondicherry, five years of separation, then the return to Pondicherry and the meeting in the same house and in the same waydid the END of the vision occur. I was standing just beside him. My head wasnt exactly on his shoulder, but where his shoulder was (I dont know how to explain itphysically there was hardly any contact). We were standing side by side like that, gazing out through the open window, and then TOGETHER, at exactly the same moment, we felt, Now the Realization will be accomplished. That the seal was set and the Realization would be accomplished. I felt the Thing descending massively within me, with the same certainty I had felt in my vision. From that moment on there was nothing to sayno words, nothing. We knew it was THAT.
--
I dont know, Im putting it poorly, but this experience was concrete to the point of being physical. It happened in a Japanese country-house where we were living, near a lake. There was a whole series of circumstances, events, all kinds of thingsa long, long story, like a novel. But one day I was alone in meditation (I have never had very profound meditations, only concentrations of consciousness Mother makes an abrupt gesture showing a sudden ingathering of the entire being); and I was seeing. You know that I had taken on the conversion of the Lord of Falsehood: I tried to do it through an emanation incarnated in a physical being [Richard]7, and the greatest effort was made during those four years in Japan. The four years were coming to an end with an absolute inner certainty that there was nothing to be done that it was impossible, impossible to do it this way. There was nothing to be done. And I was intensely concentrated, asking the Lord, Well, I made You a vow to do this, I had said, Even if its necessary to descend into hell, I will descend into hell to do it. Now tell me, what must I do?The Power was plainly there: suddenly everything in me became still; the whole external being was completely immobilized and I had a vision of the Supreme more beautiful than that of the Gita. A vision of the Supreme.8 And this vision literally gathered me into its arms; it turned towards the West, towards India, and offered meand there at the other end I saw Sri Aurobindo. It was I felt it physically. I saw, sawmy eyes were closed but I saw (twice I have had this vision of the Supremeonce here, much later but this was the first time) ineffable. It was as if this Immensity had reduced itself to a rather gigantic Being who lifted me up like a wisp of straw and offered me. Not a word, nothing else, only that.
Then everything vanished.
--
Think it over. I would like us to publish your book exactly as it is, with its full force, with all that Sri Aurobindo has put into it; and we will give it a bit of help to go and do its work. And you should come to an understanding with these people. But first you should write just a simple book, quite simple and quite positive: the constructive aspectvery constructive, very simple. No attempt to convince, no big problemsno, no, no! Sri Aurobindo has come to tell the world that man is not the final creation, that there is another creation; and he said this not because he knew it but because he felt it. And he began to do it. And thats all.
It neednt be long.
0 1961-12-23, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Because there comes a time when one perceives the entire universe in such a total and comprehensive way that, in truth, it is impossible to remove anything from it without disturbing everything. And going a couple of steps further, one knows for certain that things which shock us as contradictions of the Divine are simply things out of place. Each thing must be exactly in its place, and whats more, be supple enough, plastic enough, to admit into a harmonious, progressive organization all the new elements constantly being added to the manifest universe. The universe is in a perpetual movement of internal reorganization, and at the same time its growing: its becoming more and more complex, more and more complete, more and more integralindefinitely. And as the new elements manifest, the whole reorganization must be built on a new basis, and thus there isnt a second when ALL is not in perpetual movement. And when the movement is in accord with the divine order, its harmonious, so perfectly harmonious that its almost imperceptible. Now, if you descend from this consciousness towards a more external consciousness, you begin naturally to have a very precise feeling of what helps you attain the true consciousness and what bars the way or pulls you backwards or even fights against your progress. And so the perspective changes and you are obliged to say: this is divine or a help towards the Divine; and that goes against the Divine, its the Divines enemy. But this is a pragmatic standpoint, geared to action, to movement in material lifebecause you havent yet attained the consciousness surpassing all that; because you havent reached that inner perfection where you no longer have to fight, since you have gone beyond the field or the time or the utility of struggle. But before reaching that state in your consciousness and action, there is necessarily struggle; and if there is struggle, there is choice; and to choose, you need discrimination.
(Mother remains silent)
0 1962-01-09, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
During that return to the past over the last few days, the life I led with Sri Aurobindo suddenly came back to me. What helped this to happen was reading passages about me in his book,6 letters he wrote about me that I had never read before. And it all came back, those full thirty years I lived with him.
Psychologically, there was no struggle, no tension, no effortnot ONCE; I was living in total and confident serenity. On the material plane there were attacks, but even these he took upon himself. Well, I saw it all, all those thirty years of life; not for a SECOND did I have any sense of responsibility, in spite of all the work I was doing, all the organizing and everything. He had supposedly passed on the responsibility to me, you see, but he was standing behindHE was actually doing everything! I was active, but with absolutely no responsibility. I never felt responsible for a single minutehe took the full responsibility. It was really.
--
I cant blame my body for anything. It may be a bit weary, but it has held out very well.
It was a unique kind of grace, an absolutely miraculous power, which did what I just mentioned, which locked up the part of my consciousness that was CONSCIOUSLY living that miracle, locked it all up tight, padlocked it: Youre locked in, dont stir; no manifestation for youyoure going out of Time and Manifestation until everything else is ready to follow.
--
69Sin and virtue are a game of resistance we play with God in His efforts to draw us towards perfection. The sense of virtue helps us to cherish our sins in secret.
Well?
--
helps us to cherish our sins in secret.
Thats not something ordinary human thought can easily grasp.
helps us to cherish in secret the sense of sin.
But did you think of a question?
--
With people, too, I saw that what helps or prevents them from becoming supramental is very different from what our ordinary moral notions imagine.
Yes. Yes, indeed.
So what I wanted to ask you was: if its not a matter of moral notions, then what capacity or quality DOES help us on the way towards the Supermind? What is this totally different criterion?
All this is exactly what I have been observing and studying these past few days. I will tell you about it next time.
0 1962-01-12 - supramental ship, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
There have been times, while working in the most material mind (the mind ingrained in the material substance), when I felt my brain swelling and swelling and swelling, and my head becoming so large it seemed about to burst! On two occasions I was forced to stop, because it was (was it only an impression, or was it a fact?) in any event it seemed dangerous, as if the head would burst, because what was inside was becoming too tremendous (it was that power in Matter, that very powerful deep blue light which has such powerful vibrations; it is able to heal, for example, and change the functioning of the organsreally a very powerful thing materially). Well then, thats what was filling my head, more and more, more and more, and I had the feeling that my skull was (it was painful, you know) that there was a pressure inside my skull pushing out, pushing everything out. I wondered what was going to happen. Then, instead of following the movement, helping it along and going with it, I became immobile, passive, to see what would happen. And both times it stopped. I was no longer helping the movement along, you see, I simply remained passive and it came to a halt, there was a sort of stabilization.
(silence)
0 1962-01-21, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
The other motive for anubhava is of a more general applicability; for in order to reject anything from the being one has first to become conscious of it, to have the clear inner experience of its action and to discover its actual place in the workings of the nature. One can then work upon it to eliminate it, if it is an entirely wrong movement, or to transform it if it is only the degradation of a higher and true movement. It is this or something like it that is attempted crudely and improperly with a rudimentary and insufficient knowledge in the system of psycho-analysis. The process of raising up the lower movements into the full light of consciousness in order to know and deal with them is inevitable; for there can be no complete change without it. But it can truly succeed only when a higher light and force are sufficiently at work to overcome, sooner or later, the force of the tendency that is held up for change. Many, under the pretext of anubhava, not only raise up the adverse movement, but support it with their consent instead of rejecting it, find justifications for continuing or repeating it and so go on playing with it, indulging its return, eternising it; afterwards when they want to get rid of it, it has got such a hold that they find themselves helpless in its clutch and only a terrible struggle or an intervention of divine grace can liberate them.Some do this out of a vital twist or perversity, others out of sheer ignorance; but in yoga, as in life, ignorance is not accepted by Nature as a justifying excuse. This danger is there in all improper dealings with the ignorant parts of the nature; but none is more ignorant, more perilous, more unreasoning and obstinate in recurrence than the lower vital subconscious and its movements. To raise it up prematurely or improperly for anubhava is to risk suffusing the conscious parts also with its dark and dirty stuff and thus poisoning the whole vital and even the mental nature. Always therefore one should begin by a positive, not a negative experience, by bringing down something of the divine nature, calm, light, equanimity, purity, divine strength into the parts of the conscious being that have to be changed; only when that has been sufficiently done and there is a firm positive basis, is it safe to raise up the concealed subconscious adverse elements in order to destroy and eliminate them by the strength of the divine calm, light, force and knowledge. Even so, there will be enough of the lower stuff rising up of itself to give you as much of the anubhava as you will need for getting rid of the obstacles; but then they can be dealt with with much less danger and under a higher internal guidance.
***
0 1962-01-27, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
The words are so childish that if you tell this story to intelligent people, they look at you with pity but it gives such a concrete grasp of the problem! It helped me a lot.
It was written in English and I am the one who translated it into Frenchinto horrible French, perfectly ghastly, because I put in all the new words Theon had dreamed up. He had made a detailed description of all the faculties latent in man, and it was remarkable but with such barbarous words! You can make up new words in English and get away with it, but in French its utterly ridiculous. And there I was, very conscientiously putting them all in! Yet in terms of experience, it was splendid. It really was an experienceit came from Madame Theons experiences in exteriorization. She had learned what Theon also taught me, to speak while youre in the seventh heaven (the body goes on speaking, rather slowly, in a rather low voice, but it works quite well). She would speak and a friend of hers, another English woman who was their secretary, would note it all down as she went along (I think she knew shorthand). And afterwards it was made into stories, told as stories. It was all shown to Sri Aurobindo and it greatly interested him. He even adopted some of the words into his own terminology.
--
Considering it to be of no interest, Satprem unfortunately did not keep a record of his answer. The P. in question died insane, in a so-called "Japanese hospital," and one night (this is most likely the story he was telling Mother here) Satprem found him being held prisoner in a kind of hell. His body was covered with wounds which Satprem treated with balm. He then told P., "But go on, say Mother's mantra!" And the moment Satprem began to recite the mantra, the whole place explodedblown to smithereens. An instantaneous deliverance. A few months later (or it may have been a few years), P. came to see Satprem at night with a bouquet of flowers and a smile, as if to announce that he was taking on a new body.
***
0 1962-02-03, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I often wonder, very often, whether it helps people to know their karma. I dont think it does.
I mean, if they themselves discover the experiences they had in their past life, then its part of a whole inner, psychic awakening, and very useful. But if some guru or other comes along and tells you, Here, this was your karma. I dont think its useful, to put it mildly!
If you discover the line of a former life on your own, thats different; its part of an inner, psychic awakening, and its very good. But I dont think its helpful when someone sees something and comes and tells you, You know, you have been this, you have done that. I feel it makes things worse instead of betterit puts you back in touch with things you were in the process of eliminating.
(silence)
--
Yet I found it helpful to have some understanding of what happened in my other lives.
Because you were here.
--
Im glad. I can see that my consciousness is steadier. I feel clearly that something is helping me to be conscious.2 Where I go isnt so interesting, but that will change, I expect.
The point is to become conscious of ones activities and master of ones actions.
--
From another, almost identical point of view, it fills the physical atmosphere with the Divine Presence. So time spent in japa is time consecrated to helping the material substance enter into more intimate rapport with the Divine.
And if one adds to this, as I do, a mantric program, that is, a sort of prayer or invocation, a program for both personal development and helping the collective, then it becomes a truly active work. Then theres also what I call external work: contact with others, reading and answering letters, seeing and speaking to people, and finally all the activities having to do with the organization and running of the Ashram (in meditation this work becomes worldwide, but physically, materially, it is limited for the moment to the Ashram).
In the course of my observation, I also saw the position of X and people like him, who practically spend their lives doing japa, plus meditation, puja,4 ceremonies (I am talking only about sincere people, not fakers). Well, thats their way of working for the world, of serving the Divine, and it seems the best way to themperhaps even the only way but its a question of mental belief. In any case, its obvious that even a bit of not exactly puja, but some sort of ceremony that you set yourself to dohabitual gestures symbolizing and expressing a particular inner statecan also be a help and a way of offering yourself and relating to the Divine and thus serving the Divine. I feel its important looked at in this waynot from the traditional viewpoint, I cant stand that traditional viewpoint; I understand it, but it seems to me like putting a brake on true self-giving to the Divine. I am speaking of SELF-IMPOSED japa and rules (or, if someone gives you the japa, rules you accept with all your heart and adhere to). These self-imposed rules should be followed as a gesture of love, as a way of saying to the Divine, I love You. Do you see what I mean? Like arranging flowers in a certain way, burning incense, dozens of little things like that, made beautiful because of what is put into themit is a form of self-giving.
Now, I think that doing japa with the will and the idea of getting something out of it spoils it a little. You spoil it. I dont much like it when somebody says, Do this and you will get that. Its trueits true, but its a bit like baiting a fish. I dont much like it.
0 1962-02-06, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
But then how to help people? You can recommend neither one nor the other. And if you say both, you are plunged into this same dilemma.
A problem like that reaches a point of such acute tension that you feel you know nothing, understand nothing, you will never understand anything, its hopeless. When I reach that point, I always tilt in the same direction, its always: All right, I adore the Lord, as for the rest, it doesnt matter to me! I enter into a marvelous adoration and let Him do what He wants! Thats how it all ends up for me.
--
Because a day or two ago (I dont remember exactly, it was rather fleeting but very interesting), I went through such a moment while walking in my room (it lasted while I was out on the balcony, too): suddenly a kind of absolute certainty that I knew nothing (there was no I at all) that one knew nothing (one, there was no one, there was only); one couldnt know (I have to use words), one couldnt know, there was nothing to know, it was totally hopeless, it was completely IMPOSSIBLE to understand anything, even, even going beyond the mind, and no formulation was possible, there was no possibility of understanding. It was really so absolute that helping others, making the world progress, spiritual life, seeking the Divine, all of that seemed idle talk, empty words! There was nothing in it, it was nothing, and there was nothing to understand, it was impossible to understandit was impossible to BE. The feeling of a total incapacity. The experience was like a solventeverything seemed to dissolve: the world, the earth, people, life, intelligence, all of it, everything was dissolved. An absolutely negative state. And my solution was the same as always: when the experience was total and complete, when nothing was left, then: Who cares! (it could really be put in the most ordinary words), I adore You! And the I was something utterly insubstantial: there was no form, no being, no qualityonly I adore You. This I was I adore You, there was just enough I to adore You with.
From that moment on there was an inexpressible Sweetness, and within that Sweetness, a Voice so sweet and harmonious too! There was a sound but no wordsyet it held a perfectly clear meaning for me, like very precise words: You have just had your most creative moment!
Oh really! Well, thats fine!
0 1962-02-13, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
But truly, if someone (I dont know who or what this Someone is) if I am given the time, I will know I am convinced of it. For despite all the growing difficulties, there is also a growing knowledge, a constant progress. So from that standpoint, I CANNOT be mistaken; it is impossible. This Presence is becoming so concrete and so (what shall I say?) so helpful, so concrete in its help. But it obviously takes a long time.
This is exactly one month before the first radical turning point in Mother's yoga.
--
In fact, in the Agenda conversations of 1958 and '59 (never noted by Satprem because he believed them too "personal"), Mother mentioned this as one of the main reasons for encouraging his tantric discipline. He even set out for the Himalayas, like a knight of yore, with the idea of bringing back to Mother the secrets of transformation; and Mother indicated to him the spot where one of her former bodies lay in a Himalayan cave, petrified by a mineral spring. But the secret of the new species can manifestly not be found through any "trick" tantric or otherwiseone's very nature must change. No one could help Mother because if someone "knew," it would already be done.
Mother means that it wasn't possible for Sri Aurobindo to continue.
0 1962-02-24, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
You can achieve excellent control of the heart. But I never practiced it violently, never strained myself. I think holding for 16 is too long. I used to do it simply like this: brea the in very slowly to the count of 4, then hold for 4 like this (I still have the knack of it!), lifting the diaphragm and lowering the head8 (Mother bends her neck), closing everything and exerting pressure (this is an almost instantaneous cure for hiccupsits handy!). Then while I held the air, I would make it circulate with the force (because it contained force, you see) and with the peace as well; and I would concentrate it wherever there was a physical disorder (a pain or something wrong somewhere). Its very effective. The way I did it was: inhale, hold, exhale and emptyyou are completely empty. Its very useful; very handy for underwater swimmers, for instance!
I had trouble breathing in slowly enough thats a bit hard. I began with 4 and eventually managed to do 12. I did 12-12-12-12. It took me months to reach that, it cant be done quickly. To brea the in very slowly and hold all that air isnt easy.
--
No, its not at all dangerous, at least if you dont overdo it. If you do it simply. I think some people practice pranayama with the idea of gaining powers. That idea of gaining powers fouls it up more than anything. But if you do it simply as a help to your progress, theres no danger.
At any rate, Sri Aurobindo and I both did a lot of things considered dangerous, and absolutely nothing happened to us. Not that its necessary to do dangerous things, but nothing happened to us, so it all depends on how you do them.
--
But instead of doing equal amounts of time, it might be better to do less for inhaling and more for holding the breath. The holding part is extremely interesting! When the air is inside, lets say you have a headache or a sore throat or a pain in your arm, anything then you take the air (Mother demonstrates) and direct it to the unwell part very, very helpful and pleasant and interesting. You see the force go to the spot, settle in and stay there, all sorts of things.
Ah, its funny, because just this morning. Did you come for the balcony?
--
Yes, I thought I didnt see you! But when I went out on the balcony, something suddenly began making me do pranayama! I started doing it and it was funny I had great fun. It was like the Lord entering into me as air, and when it was held inside like that (I was doing it physically at the same time), all the air began to flow out into everybody and do its work in each onewith such a sensation of ease, of tranquil power, and so sure of itself! So comfortably peaceful.
The balcony darshans are interesting.
0 1962-02-27, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Ultimately, absolute sincerity is the great deciding factor for those who predict or foresee. Unfortunately, because of peoples curiosity, their insistence and the pressure they exert (which very few can resist), an almost involuntary mechanism of inner imagination comes to add just that small missing element to something not seen with precision or exactness. Thats what causes flaws in prediction. Very few have the courage to say, Ah no, I dont know this, I dont see that, this eludes me. They dont even have the courage to say it to themselves! So then, with a tiny drop of imagination, which acts almost subconsciously, the vision or information gets rounded outit can turn out to be anything at all! Very few people can resist this tendency. I have known many, many psychics, many extraordinarily gifted beings, and only a handful were able to stop just at the point where their knowledge stopped. Or else they embellish. Thats what gives these faculties their slightly dubious quality. One would have to be a great saint, a great sage, and completely free from other peoples influences (I dont speak of those who seek fame: they fall into the most flagrant traps); because even goodwillwanting to satisfy people, please them, help themis enough to distort the vision.
(Smiling) Are you satisfied? Have I answered everything?
--
This type of thing has happened to me very, very oftenfour times with snakes. There was one incident here near the fishing village of Ariankuppam, a place where a river empties into the sea. Night had fallen swiftly, it was pitch dark, and I was walking along a road when right in the middle of a step (I had already lifted my foot and was about to lower it), I distinctly heard a voice in my ear: Watch out! Yet no one had spoken. So I looked, and just as my foot was about to touch the ground, I saw an enormous black cobra right where I was casually going to put my foot. Those fellows dont like that sort of thing! It slithered away and swam across the waterwhat a beauty, mon petit! Hood wide open, head held high, he swam across like a king. I would certainly have been punished for my impertinence!
I have had hundreds and hundreds of experiences like thatinformed just at the last moment (not one second too soon)and in very different circumstances. Once in Paris I was crossing the Boulevard Saint Mic hel (I had resolved to attain union with the psychic presence, the inner Divine, within a certain number of months, and these were the last weeks I was thinking of nothing but that, engrossed in that alone). I lived near the Luxembourg Gardens and was going there for a stroll, to sit in the gardens that eveningstill indrawn. I came to a kind of intersectionnot a very sensible place to cross when youre interiorized! So, in that state, I started to cross when all of a sudden I had a shock, as if something had hit me, and I instinctively jumped back. As I jumped back a streetcar rushed by. I had felt the streetcar at a little more than arms length. It had touched my aura, the protective aura (that aura was very strong at the time I was deep into occultism and knew how to maintain it). My protective aura was touched, and it literally threw me backwards, just like a physical shock. Accompanied by the drivers insults!
0 1962-03-11, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
The other day, didnt I tell you the story of those entities working for me? (It wasnt you? Id had a vision.) In fact, I very often see entities like Nature spirits when I enter the subtle physical and work there (usually for people here and the Ashram, and for the world at large), I very, very often have them with me, or else I meet them in the course of my work. They are forces, generally feminine in appearance, that do some work and have a great deal of power. They are usually the ones that respond to Tantric invocations (I dont mean the Tantrics who call on Kali or Durga, thats something else altogether, those belong to a totally different world). Most of the time these Nature forces are very willing to helpat any rate, they are wonderfully obliging with me! But they are limited beings, with their own ideas and laws, their own volition, and when vexed they can do unpleasant things. Yet they are not hostile beings, nor are they vital beings: they are personified forces of physical Nature, in the subtle physical.
A world of things could be said.
0 1962-04-03, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Now, individually, if you want to help, you have only to pray. What the Lord wants will be done. Whatever He wills, He will do with this body, which is a poor thing.
(Sometime later, when the communication was read to her.)
0 1962-05-08, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
1) That he will make a special four-day puja here, in order to help.
2) That he has understood: it has come to his [inner] knowledge that the present period is terrible.
0 1962-05-15, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
There was, in fact, a whole group of Ashram people (they might be called the Ashram "intelligentsia") who, influenced by Subhas Bose, were strongly in favor of the Nazis and the Japanese against the British. (It should be recalled that the British were the invaders of India, and thus many people considered Britain's enemies to be automatically India's friends.) It reached the point where Sri Aurobindo had to intervene forcefully and write: "I affirm again to you most strongly that this is the Mother's war.... The victory of one side (the Allies) would keep the path open for the evolutionary forces: the victory of the other side would drag back humanity, degrade it horribly and might lead even, at the worst, to its eventual failure as a race, as others in the past evolution failed and perished.... The Allies at least have stood for human values, though they may often act against their own best ideals (human beings always do that); Hitler stands for diabolical values or for human values exaggerated in the wrong way until they become diabolical.... That does not make the English or Americans nations of spotless angels nor the Germans a wicked and sinful race, but...." (July 29, 1942 and Sept. 3, 1943, Cent. Ed., Vol. XXVI.394 ff.) And on her side also, Mother had to publicly declare: "It has become necessary to state emphatically and clearly that all who by their thoughts and wishes are supporting and calling for the victory of the Nazis are by that very fact collaborating with the Asura against the Divine and helping to bring about the victory of the Asura.... Those, therefore, who wish for the victory of the Nazis and their associates should now understand that it is a wish for the destruction of our work and an act of treachery against Sri Aurobindo." (May 6, 1941, original English.)
See note at the end of this conversation
0 1962-05-24, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
It dawned on me that that approach, which used to be so useful to me, so convenient, helping me do my yoga and giving me a grip on Matter, is simply a method, a means, a procedureit is not THAT.
Well, thats the state I am in.
0 1962-05-27, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
What youre asking of Sujata is nothing short of sacrifice. Not outwardly, perhaps, but it would be a sacrifice for her. She would be sacrificing something to you, something very precious. To help you she would have to sacrifice her own realization. Well, that in itself has a place in the spectrum of realizations.
I understand.
--
But it may not be unimportant to take a few precautions and make use of certain external aids. Thats why I cant say, Dont mind your bodyjust keep going and everything will be all right. No. Spending two or three months in the mountains, for example, might help you. It might. But I dont see anything, mind you; I dont know.
And this blockage in my meditationsis it also due to this special work? I have a sort of feeling that Ive already had those yogic realizations, you see
0 1962-05-29, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
And if you like, you too can help make that story come down to earth.
Done like that, mon petit, the book could be delightful!
--
I was brought up by an ascetic, a stoic; my mother was a woman like an iron bar, you know. When my brother and I were small she spent her time telling us over and over that we werent on earth to have fun; that its constant hell, but you have to put up with it, and the only possible satisfaction lies in doing your duty!
A splendid education, mon petit!
--
Theres a little American boy here (I dont know if his mother is completely helpless or just idolizes him, but anyway she lets him run wildshes always defending him, she wont allow anyone to scold or punish him), and this child wont take any classes or accept any teacher, but just runs around the school from one classroom to anothermaking noise, hitting people, calling the teacher nameslike a whirlwind; and then off he goes! And one day he went into the Playground; hes such a maniac that hes not allowed there, but he sneaked in, and there were some girls and women doing exercises on the groundhe started running around on their stomachs! (Laughter) It was a scandal.
Oh, what a circus! But thats the atmosphere.
--
Yes, exactly! Thats where I find fault with the Tantric system they have no belief in the possibility of something helping you from above. They believe in walking the tightrope. Its no good.
Yes, I sensed its very subtle, but I sensed a change for the better.
0 1962-05-31, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Words that repeat themselves automatically, with no effort of will (but the body itself is quite aware that although these three particular Words happen to have been given to it, it might also have been something elseit was originally the choice of a higher Intelligence). This has become an automatic accompaniment. It is not so much the words in themselves as what they will represent and bring with them in their vibration. I mean it would be quite inaccurate to say, Only these Words are helpful, no, not that. But they provide an accompaniment, an accompaniment of subtle, physical vibrations, which has built up a certain state or experience, a sort of association between the presence of those words and this movement of eternal Life, that undulating vibration.
Obviously, another center of consciousness, another (how shall I put it?) another concretization, another amalgam, mightwould of coursehave another vibration.
In ordinary language, the vibration of the mantra is what helps the body to enter a certain state but it is not particularly THIS mantra: it is the particular relationship established between a mantra (it has to be a true one, a mantra endowed with power) and the body. It surges up spontaneously: as soon as the body starts walking, it walks to the rhythm of those Words. And the rhythm of the Words quite naturally brings about a certain vibration, which in turn brings about the state.
But to say its these particular Words exclusively would be ridiculous. What counts is the sincerity of the aspiration, the exactness of the expression and the power; that is, the power that comes from the mantra being accepted. This is something very interesting: the mantra has been ACCEPTED by the supreme Power as an effective tool, and so it automatically contains a certain force and power.5 But it is a purely personal phenomenon (the expression is the same, but the vibrations are personal). A mantra leading one person straight to divine realization will leave another person cold and flat.
--
And yet I have noticed that to associate a certain state and a certain aspiration with a certain sound helps the body. No one told me the mantra; I had begun doing japa before we met X (it had come to me when I was trying to find a means of getting the body to take part in the experience the body itself, you know: THIS). And this help was certainly given to me, because the method imposed itself very, very imperiouslywhen I heard certain Words it was like an electric shock. And then, disregarding all Sanskrit rules, I made myself a sentence; it isnt really a Sanskrit sentence, or any kind of sentence at alla phrase made up of three Words. And these three Words are full of meaning for me. (I wouldnt mention it to a Sanskritist!) They have a full, living meaning. And they have been repeated literally millions and millions of times, I am not exaggerating they surge up from the body spontaneously.
It was the first sound that came from the body when I had that last experience [April 13]. Along with the first pain, came that first soundso it must be quite well rooted.6 And it brings in exactly that vibration of eternal Life: the first thing I felt, all of a sudden, was a kind of strong calm, confident and smiling.
Oh, I am sure it is very good, very helpful.
Voil, mon petit. Nowadays I have nothing to say I chatter away quite uselessly. But I like to see you. And I think its worthwhile.
0 1962-06-02, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Then someone came. There are symbolic people in these dreams; they seem to be made up of various parts of the beings of those around me, people who have a particular relationship with me and bring a particular help to the Work. They are symbolic characters and always the same: one of them is tall and thin, some are small, there are young ones, old ones. I cant say its this person or that person, but rather that something IN this or that person is represented in these characters. And one of them is like a big brotherhe helps out in certain circumstances; if theres a boat, for instance, the big brother steers it. So he came up to me and said, Yes, I know the method, and began to try. Stop, for heavens sake! I said. Youll spoil everything; to make it work I have to say: I WANT TO GO THERE. When he began trying to bring me across with his own methods, the water grew muddy again and I started to sink! No no no! I protested. Dont do that, thats notit at all! THAT has to (although I wasnt formulating it to myself, what I meant was the sense of a certain higher Will) THAT has to say: I WANT TO GO THERE; then it works.
After that, the experience changed, other things happened. But what I have just related is certainly part and parcel of that experience the other day [the two rooms, one inside the other], because the two were coexistent.1
--
Last night I spent almost all my time in such a building. And all the people who help the work were symbolized there but its always a material help, either work or money or. I remember being particularly struck by one character last night. (Again, there were a lot of aggravations, but someone or something was always on the scene when I arrived and it all sorted itself outit was the exact opposite of the dreams I was talking about the other day: all the difficulties sorted themselves out when I arrived.) Then I came to a rather difficult place to cross (you had to flounder about on slippery scaffoldings) and suddenly, facing me, there was a man (of course, it was probably a symbol rather than a man, but it might really be someone physical). He was one of the workers, a master mason (when I woke up this morning, I thought of the symbolism of Freemasonry and wondered if it might give a clue to the experience). Nearby, people were coming to supervise, observe, direct, people who thought themselves highly superior but they were never any help in solving practical problems! They were creating more problems than they were helping to solve. Anyway, this master mason appeared to be around fifty, with a beautiful facea workers face, beautiful and concentrated. There was a difficult place to cross, and he had worked the thing out very efficiently, with a lot of care. Then, when it was all done and I was able to go on my way, I felt a great surge of love go out to him, with neither gesture nor word and he received it, he felt and received it. His face lit up and he implored me, with wonderful humility, Never let me forget this moment, the most beautiful moment of my life. (I dont know what language he used because it didnt come to me in words.) It was such an intense experience. His humility, his receptivity, his response were all so beautiful and pure that when I woke upwhen I came out of the experience, at any rate I was left with a most delightful impression.
What he represents might be partly manifested by somebody here. A beautiful face a man around fifty. Or it may be symbolic: such characters are sometimes put together with features from several people, to make it very clear that they represent a state of consciousness and not an individual. Its far more often a state of consciousness than an individual.
--
You remember all the difficulties I encountered in those other visions at night. Well, this was very interesting because it was just the opposite: I was in a very complicated place full of obstacles and difficulties, but someone or something was always there when I arrivedeverything would get sorted out and I would go on my way. It all sorted itself out automatically the feeling of a power putting everything in order. And I remember when the mason arrived, just as I was facing that rather big obstacle, there was someone on my right (someone very official, wearing a dark coat) who thought (the contact was through thought rather than words), Oh! Shes always calling on the workers for help instead of. And I answered, The workers are more efficient and their goodwill (all that business of caste, you know, or of society or social position). The workers have simple hearts, I said, they are efficient in their work and have more goodwill than the people who think theyre so smart! It was funny. So this made two interesting experiences yesterday, one after the other.
The afternoon experience was very intriguing; I was busy working (organizing things for one of the departments, I no longer remember which) and then I said to the person I was with, Now I am going to my cousins place! When I was very young I had a cousin, the eldest son of one of my fathers brothers (he had a large family, such as you seldom see in France). This cousin became some kind of engineera civil engineer, maybe, or a mechanical engineer (he was an outstanding chemist). Anyway, this boy was very attracted to me. He went off to the war as an officer and caught some disease (I forget what) and died around 1915, at the time I returned to France. Well, in my experience yesterday afternoon, a certain family living HERE gave me exactly the same sensation I had had towards those people when I was young. And especially for this cousin (for the rest of the family it was more vague, like a background to the experience). I am going to their place, I said. They have a lovely estate here, just as they had a lovely estate in France before (they had Madame de Sevignes chateau at Sucy, near Parisa beautiful property). And it was all so concrete! It wasnt coming through the head; it wasnt a thought but a sensation. I have to go see him now, I said. And even as I was having my vision I was telling myself, You must be going crazy! Can they really be here in Pondicherry? This uncle with whom I had only rather distant relations and this cousin I never saw much of, but whom I knew to be very nice and very loyalAre they really here?! The sensation was most strange (the head wasnt functioning at all; it was a SENSATION). So off I went to see this cousin, and it was on the way to see him that I had the experience of crossing the river. And on the way back, after the discussion with the spiritual brother (whom I really told off: Get out of here! I dont need you!), after that, when I found myself back on the bank, I started collecting my consciousness again, telling myself, Look here now! Lets try to see clearly. And then I realized that the cousin who died prematurely during the war had reincarnated in someone here. How strange, I thought. And the dates coincided.
0 1962-06-06, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I remember reading something by Sri Aurobindo, I think, about certain philosophical or spiritual theories which held that there was only one Soul, or one Purusha (I dont remember what he called it); this Soul had the entire experience of the distortion of the universe, and this same Soul was also experiencing the Return. And it was pointed out with indisputable logic that if there really is but ONE Soul, then from the moment mastery is attainedregardless of whether it is by an individual or a world, a god or an ant the moment the power to change the distortion into the Truth exists, its all over and done with! The change automatically comes into force.
But then it was noted that some people did accomplish this Returnsince they lived it and described it but all the same, everything else continues to exist, to coexist. Therefore.
--
Yes, but maybe it wont crack in the right way. One day Im just going to say the hell with it.
No, thats just the obstacle, that hardening in you.
0 1962-06-12, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
When I spoke to him, you know, when I went to see him, it was just after my japa and I was in a state of absolute inner calmabsolute, with not a. I simply felt he had to be helped, because he was saying things that were going against him. So I had this feeling, a very strong feeling of affection, but an affection that states things clearly and unemotionally. I was very calm when I said all that. I did get upset afterwards, but I was upset mainly because he immediately had such an incredible reaction! So then I was at a loss. But the way I put things to him. Really, if he had the least. But even a man who has never done any yoga would have felt I was speaking from my heart, candidly. Even a man with no spiritual culture would have felt that. So how could he take it in such a way!
I am not sure he did.
--
Thats exactly it! I detest gossip, you know, so I never spread any, but he has told some people incredible things. I dont tell on him to you because I find it a kind of its something I dislike. Thats why I spoke to himin such a case, I always refer to something within, to the deep affection I had for him. I mean I was trying to help. I had NO OTHER kind of reaction. I saw him in a bad spot and tried to help him out, thats all.
Yes, but with the sort of people he had around him, you understand.
--
But I did it KNOWINGLY, because I saw he needed help.
A man in his position, with such a rudimentary degree of culture, CANNOT be helped. Especially since all his learning is based on a knowledge that denies progress. So how can he be helped to progress?
Anyway, what will happen will happen, and it will certainly be whats best for everyone, including him!4
--
Tell me frankly, very frankly: does it help you or not [to meditate]? You can tell me anything you like that it doesnt help you, that it harms you; you can tell me whatever you like! It doesnt matter, I am not sensitive.
No, Mother.
0 1962-06-27, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
But what in our present existence doesnt keep life from being divine? Nothing I know of! (Mother laughs) happily, Sri Aurobindo and I were the same on this point [a sense of humor]. Effortlessly, from a very young age, something in me has always laughed. It sees all the catastrophes, sees all the suffering, sees it all and cant help laughing the way one laughs at something that pretends to be but isnt.
In the end, thats how you manage to hold on. Its a great thing.
0 1962-07-07, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
The Lord we must help Him out a little!
He doesnt know the job! (Mother laughs)
0 1962-07-11, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
When I said that, oh, you cant imagine, I had just been seeing it somewheresomewhere in a dazzling lightand it was full of marvelous meaning. And of course when I uttered it I wondered why why it was no longer the same. It was absolutely wonderful, it explained not that it explained everything, but it was a revelation. There must have been some fault in the transcription. It all came back after you left. I looked and asked myself, Why did I say it was so marvelous! And I understood: when I saw it, I really SAW, saw those words, more dazzling than the most brilliant diamonds and full of a marvelous power of knowledge, as though it held the key to things; but when I spoke it, it became almost flat. At any rate, it was utterly flat in comparison.
What did you feel when I said it?
--
When you said it, I felt it held a secret.
Yes, yes! The POWER of the thing.
--
Some of the people concerned are here, others elsewhere that is, its the mental state (even the higher mind in some cases, not necessarily very down-to-earth) of this one or that one or. It comes individually (and the persons name along with it). And a kind of uneasiness takes hold of my body, as if I were in the presence of I dont know, in ordinary life I would say, Go away! (Mother brusquely shoos something away) But here it is presented for me to do a particular work (I know the people, some are here, others elsewhere; theyre people I am in touch with for the yoga). So I am faced with these mental formations and each one is helD like this (Mother grips the thing with both hands) so that I dont simply brush it aside. Then (its certainly a good opportunity to go completely crazy!) I slowly bring in the divine Vibration, and I hold it like this, without moving (Mother holds this vibration tight and drives it in like a sword of light), without moving until everything fades away into silence.
I havent had the chance (laughing) to ask them what happened to them!
0 1962-07-18, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
For instance, sometimes He tells me (of course its not external; its an extremely delicate working, and sort of automatic; no time elapses between the order and its execution: theyre not two movements but one single thing) when He says Speak, or when He says Keep silentlike the other day when, as you pointed out, I stopped in the middle of a sentenceits that all of a sudden (Mother makes a gesture as if she were unable to speak, or as if suddenly held by silence). At other times it pours out like its doing now. And I dont hear an order, I dont feel an order: I LIVE the Order; and its so patently the Lords that it seems stupid to even mention it.
Oh, such humorous things happen. The other day I saw T. Her old mother lives in Moscow; shes very old and on her deathbed, and has asked T. to come see her. So T. is going to go there. Its a risky adventure. She wrote to ask if she could see me before leaving (I dont see anyone and I had no intention of receiving her, but it was decided in spite of me and I let her come). She had been told not to speak, but thats impossible for such a chatterbox! So she began by lamenting (probably thinking it was the thing to do) over my serious illness and god knows what else I didnt listen. I simply told her, No, its not that, its the yoga. Then, with the effervescence of an ignorant child: Yoga! But you shouldnt be doing yoga! You shouldnt be. Just then, the Lords face came (the Lords face often takes on Sri Aurobindos appearancean idealized Sri Aurobindo, not exactly as he was physically), and it came here (right up against Mothers face), and it was blue. Then It made my finger touch her cheek, like this (Mother seems to tap T.s cheek), and It told that child, Little children dont know what theyre talking about. And it was so thoroughly Him! He was speaking and I saw only Him, his appearance: Little children dont know what theyre talking about.
0 1962-07-21, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Let me tell you in brief one or two things about what I have long seen. My idea is that the chief cause of the weakness of India is not subjection nor poverty, nor the lack of spirituality or dharma [ethics] but the decline of thought-power, the growth of ignorance in the motherl and of Knowledge. Everywhere I see inability or unwillingness to thinkthought-incapacity or thought-phobia. Whatever may have been in the middle ages, this state of things is now the sign of a terrible degeneration. The middle age was the night, the time of the victory of ignorance. The modern world is the age of the victory of Knowledge. Whoever thinks most, seeks most, labors most, can fathom and learn the truth of the world, and gets so much more Shakti. If you look at Europe, you will see two things: a vast sea of thought and the play of a huge and fast-moving and yet disciplined force. The whole Shakti of Europe is in that. And in the strength of that Shakti it has been swallowing up the world, like the tapaswins [ascetics] of our ancient times, by whose power even the gods of the world were terrified, held in suspense and subjection. People say Europe is running into the jaws of destruction. I do not think so. All these revolutions and upsettings are the preconditions of a new creation.
Then look at India. Except for some solitary giants, everywhere there is your simple man, that is, the average man who does not want to think and cannot think, who has not the least Shakti but only a temporary excitement. In India, you want the simple thought, the easy word. In Europe they want the deep thought, the deep word; there even an ordinary laborer or artisan thinks, wants to know, is not satisfied with surface things but wants to go behind. But there is still this difference: there is a fatal limitation in the strength and thought of Europe. When it comes into the spiritual field, its thought-power can no longer move ahead. There Europe sees everything as riddlenebulous metaphysics, yogic hallucination. They rub their eyes as in smoke and can see nothing clear. Still, some effort is being made in Europe to surmount even this limitation. We already have the spiritual sensewe owe it to our forefa thersand whoever has that sense has at his disposal such Knowledge and Shakti as with one breath might blow away all the huge power of Europe like a blade of grass. But to get that Shakti one must be a worshiper of Shakti. We are not worshipers of Shakti. We are worshipers of the easy way. But Shakti is not to be had by the easy way. Our forefa thers dived into a sea of vast thought and gained a vast Knowledge and established a mighty civilization. As they went on in their way, fatigue and weariness came upon them. The force of thought diminished and with it also the strong current of Shakti. Our civilization has become an achalayatana [prison], our religion a bigotry of externals, our spirituality a faint glimmer of light or a momentary wave of religious intoxication. And so long as this sort of thing continues, any permanent resurgence of India is improbable
--
Rama, the divine Avatar who killed the demon Ravana with the help of Hanuman and the other monkeys.
A prison; a place where everything is regimented down to the last detail.
0 1962-07-25, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
And I was very careful not to disturb it; I held it like that for I dont know how long, eight or ten days. Nothingnot one idea, not one thought, nothinga complete BLANK. In other words, from the outside, it must have looked like total idiocy.
But I was living in my inner joynothing stirring. I spoke as little as possible and it was like something mechanical, it wasnt me. Then slowly, slowly, as though falling drop by drop, something was built up again. But it had no limits, it had no it was vast as the universe and wonderfully still and luminous. Nothing here (the head), but THERE (gesture above the head); and then everything began to be seen from there.
0 1962-08-04, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
These vibrations have various qualities; if they were expressed through a mental observation, it would be done through such things as taste, color, and so forth, everything Ive just mentioned1but thats not how theyre expressed. They come almost exclusively as sensations, but those sensations some, I mean some vibrations, have rounded edges. Some come horizontally (I was in fact studying everything that comes horizontally), others result from the state of consciousness (vertical gesture from top to bottom). While at the same time, others are. Yes, its like looking through a high-powered microscope: some are rounded, others pointed; some are darker, some brighter. Some are very upsetting to the body, and some even feel dangerous. On the other hand, certain ones make the body receptive to the vibration, which we might call the Lords Vibration, the supreme Vibration. You see, all this is the outcome of a discipline, a tapasya, for preparing the body to receive the Lords Vibrations (the first step is receiving, being able to receive them; afterwards you have to hold on to and then manifest them). Those vibrations are unmistakable, they are something else entirely. But other vibrations are helpful, beneficial, while still others are disruptive, contradictory.
And each one is beginning to reveal its own particular nature. There are those stemming from peoples thoughts (I sense them in my body, not in the mind: the material consequence of peoples psychological state, and even their state of health). Some things are general and last a bit longer; others are momentary, lasting only a few seconds. The first step is to study the different vibrational qualitiesyou could practically draw diagrams: if we had a machine sensitive enough to record these things, it would produce all kinds of zigs and zags.2 Certain vibrations immediately stop or change or are dissolved or repelled. Others are adopted, as it were, and transformed. The majority are simply pushed back and worked on from a distancequite a distance! I keep them at a fair distance (Mother laughs). Very few are let in. But some are let in for the sake of the experience, to see how much they upset the body. Theres also the effect of peoples permanent auras: I know a certain person is arriving by his auras effect on the body; because (laughing) each vibration has its particular effect on the bodyperfectly prosaic things, maybe, but by studying them you realize that each thing has its own law.
0 1962-08-08, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Well, wellwhy has that returned? I wondered. And then I saw that this body has been built in such a way that it instinctively ATTRACTS ordeals, painful experiences. And in the face of such formations, it is always passive, consenting, accepting, and totally confident in the ultimate outcome, with such an ingrained certitude that even at the moment of greatest difficulty, it will be helped and saved, and that the purpose behind all those ordeals is to speed up, to gain time, and to exhaust all the I cant say the evil possibilities, but all the hindrancesthings that hamper, block the way and seem to negate the goalso that they are pushed back into the past and no longer hinder progress.
Once I saw that, the formation went away. It had come just to show me that. And once again the body gave its eternal assent: no matter what its burdened with, it will always be ready to receive and to bear it.
I never thought this would have any consequences, but it did!1 Something probably needed to be exhausted. So physically speaking, yesterday was a pretty bad dayoh, only quite externally! In fact, the body was luminously conscious, profoundly happy and joyous, to the point where all suffering becomes negligibleyou dont notice it. And so it was a real opportunity for the whole entourage to make progress. That helps.
Superficially, it [the bodys characteristic of attracting ordeals] could be called a sort of karma, but thats not what it is. Its actually like one of the pivotsnot a central one, but one of the pivots of the bodys invisible action, of its consciousness. And it is expressed by attracting certain circumstances. A whole range of things having to do with the physical body has thus become very clear and precise to meand thats what the body was made for: to go full speed ahead.
0 1962-08-14, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
(Satprem did not keep any record of his questions at the beginning of the following conversation, nor does he exactly remember the circumstances that led to it. It seems that he wanted to write a letter to X, his former Tantric guru, or meet him, to explain what had happened and, in fact, to tell X that he still held him in deepest affection, despite external circumstances and Satprem's outward break with him.)
One must never go back; one must always go forward.
0 1962-08-18, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
(Then Mother speaks of the collective meditation held on August 15, Sri Aurobindos ninetieth birthday.)
Mon petit, we had a meditation here on the 15th, at ten oclock.2 At a quarter to ten, I was sitting here at the table in a total silence. And then I cant say Sri Aurobindo came, for he is always here, but he manifested in a special way. Concretely, in the subtle physical, he became so tall that, sitting cross-legged as they do here, he covered the whole compoundeven extended a bit beyond it! He was literally sitting upon the compound; so to the extent that the people meditating were not closed, they were all inside him. He was sitting like that (not on their heads!), and I could feel (I was here, you see) the FRICTION of his presence in the subtle physicalan utterly physical friction! And I saw him (as you well know, I am not shut up in here [the body]), I saw him sitting there, very tall and perfectly proportioned; and then he started gently, gently descendingthis descent is what caused the frictiongently, very gently, so as not to give people a shock. Then he settled there and stayed for a little more than half an hour, a few minutes more, like that, absolutely still, but fully concentrated on all the people they were inside him.
0 1962-08-31, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
But the vibration was there, you see, high above and all around the earth, very powerful (it was all around the earth) and very strong, it seemed to be coming from other parts of the universe and trying to enter the earths atmosphere to help it participate in those new combinations. And it all seemed like childishness to me the whole universe seemed to be living in childishness. There was something so tranquil hereso tranquil, so calm and unhurried, not interested in showing anything off, but capable of living in an eternity of quiet effort and progress. It was here, immobile, watching all these things. Finally (the spectacle lasted all evening) when I lay down in bed for the night, I said to the Lord, I dont need diversions, I dont need to see encouraging things I only want to work calmly, quietly, IN You. You, You are the worker; You are here and You alone exist. You are the realizer. Then all grew silent, still, motionlessand the excitement waned.
So you see, theres excitement in the universe too, if youre not careful! But my impression is that it simply complicates thingsit clouds the issue, you know, it complicates things. Then you have to wait for the bubbles to subside before you can calmly set off again on your way towards the goal.
0 1962-09-05, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Yes, and it will help people understand the process.
Yes, its really funny.
0 1962-09-08, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
There was an extremely violent attack (it was yesterday, I believe; no, the day before) and this time, a formidable combative power came to me. The attack consisted of this: the Originif there is oneis to be blamed for all ill will, and any process that seems dangerous has to be furthered and helped! But then that consciousness came (almost like an entity with a warlike power), and it stayed until the body recovered its peace, its usual peace.
I could see something almost like the fire of battlean interesting spectacle! The body was very conscious of the help it was getting, and that gave it a lot of confidence: it came out of the battle with a kind of increased certainty that it was being led just as it had to be in order to do the thing something nobody knows how to do externally, nobody! Nobody can knownei ther the process nor anything. Its entirely new.
Of course, the supreme Consciousness knows what Its doing and whats going to happen, in that It knows what It wants; but it isnt something that operates from cause to effect, and from events or circumstances to consequences, the way ordinary consciousness operates; its not like that at all, and thats why were unable to express it outwardly for the moment. Maybe later we will be able to spell something out, but it will never be more than (how can I put it?) just a story, right? Not THE thing itself.
0 1962-09-15, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Prayers and Meditations came to me, you knowit was dictated each time. I would write at the end of my concentration, and it didnt pass through the mind, it just came and it obviously came from someone interested in beautiful form. I used to keep it under lock and key so nobody would see it. But when I came here Sri Aurobindo asked about it, so I showed him a few pages and then he wanted to see the rest. Otherwise I would have always kept it locked away. I destroyed whatever was leftthere were five thick volumes in which I had written every single day (there was some repetition, of course): the outcome of my concentrations. So I chose which parts would be published (Sri Aurobindo helped in the choice), copied them out, and then I cut the pages up and had the rest burned.
Thats a shame!
0 1962-09-18, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
So now I dont mind finishing The Synthesis. I was a little bothered because I have no other books by Sri Aurobindo to translate that can help me in my sadhana: there was only The Synthesis. As I said, it always came right on time, just when it was needed for a particular experience.
When this new translation is finished (because I know Savitri, I know what it is), I know that when its finished either Ill be there or else things will take a very long time.1
All his other books that could help me are already translated. And with Savitri, the idea isnt to make a translation, but to SEE. To try something. To give me the daily experience of that contact.
I had some magnificent experiences when I read it the first time (two years ago, I believe). Wonderful, wonderful experiences! And since then, each time I read those lines, the same thing happensnot the same experience, but I come in contact with the same realm.
0 1962-10-06, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
And these kinds of revelations happen only in a silent mindor at least a mind at rest. Unless the mind is absolutely tranquil and still, it doesnt come. Or if it does come, you dont even notice anything with all the racket youre making! And of course, these experiences help the tranquillity, the silence and receptivity to become better and better established. This sense of something utterly immobile, but not closedimmobile, but open and receptivegets more established the more you have these experiences. There is a big difference between a dead, lackluster, unresponsive silence and the receptive silence of a quieted mind. It makes a big difference. And it results from these experiences. All the progress we make is always, quite naturally, the result of truths coming down from above.
It has an effect: all these things have an effect on the way the body functions the workings of the organs, the brain, the nerves and so forth. And this will certainly take place long before there is any effect on the external form.
0 1962-10-12, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Theres a person I wont name who has read Sri Aurobindos books and thought he understood them. He has been following a yogic discipline (anyway, he thought he was doing yoga) and he pulled down the Force. The Force responded (Mother laughs). He wound up with a headache! He got frightened and wrote to me in these exact words: This Force is the Lords Force (which is true, quite true), and it has turned into fear. So (Mother laughs) fear is the Lords principal perversion. There you have it. He read in books that the Lord is behind everything, that there is nothing that isnt the Lord; so its the Lord who has become perverted in His manifestation, naturally. The Force of the Lord came to help him and was changed into fear, so the Lords principal perversion is fear!
If you read that, youd say he was going off his rocker.
--
And how many times, how many times the feeling that. There is no formthere is a form and there is none, it just cant be expressed. You feel a look, too, and there are no eyesthere is no look but there is a look; a look and a smile and theres no mouth, no face! And yet there is a smile and a look and (Mother laughs) you cant help saying, Yes, Lord, I am stupid! But He laughsand you laugh, and youre happy.
It cant, it cant be explained! It cant be expressed. You cant say anything. Whatever you say is nothing, nothing.
0 1962-10-16, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
But for those who are attached to people and things when they die, it must be a hellish torment.
hellish.
But then, is it better to be buried or burned?
0 1962-10-30, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
But still, can it help ones progress?
These are experiences.
Yes, but do they help us progress?
At any rate, they must help to make people steady.
(silence)
0 1962-11-03, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Its more a sort of weariness. I spend terrible nights in the subconscient. Over the past six months theres been a really abrupt change in my dreams. Previously I would remember something once in a while; now I remember nothing except the subconscient, and what a subconscient! Im lucky when its not hellish.
Mon petit, from that point of view my nights are abominable toothey cant really be abominable because I live in beatitude, but what I see, what I am forced to see each night is horrible. Just horrible. It seems like an attempt to make me thoroughly disgusted with my work. The subconscient is really a mass of horrors. And its been going on like this for at least six months.
Its a hell of a thing to wake up with!
Yes, its always when you wake up. Its always the last thing that comesand what things! If I told you some of them, youd see, oh. Of course, I sort them out. I do whats needed and then sweep them away.
At times its hellish, certain beings and situations.
Yes, frightful, unimaginable situations and ways of being.
0 1962-11-27, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
One day, I dont remember on what occasion, I saw what had motivated the forefa thers who wrote the Vedas: it was the need for immortality; they were in quest of immortality.6 From there, I went on to Buddha and saw what had set the Buddha on his way: this kind of need for permanence, purely and simply; the vision of the impermanence of things had profoundly troubled him, and he felt the need for Permanence. His whole quest was to find the Permanent (why was he so anxious to have the Permanent?). There are a few things like that in human nature, in the deep human need. And then I saw another such need: a need for the Certitude which is security. I dont know how to explain it. Because I had the experience of it, I saw it was one of the human needs; and I understood it very intensely, for when I met Sri Aurobindo, this Certitude is what made me feel I had found the Truth I needed. And I didnt realize how DEEP this need was until he left his bodyjust then, at the moment of the transition. Then the entire physical consciousness felt its certitude and security collapse. At that moment I saw (we spoke about it with Nolini a year later and he had had exactly the same impression), I saw this was similar to Buddhas experience when he realized that everything was impermanent and so all of life collapsed in other words, Something Else HAD to be found. Well, at that moment. Id already had all my experiences, but with Sri Aurobindo, for the thirty years I lived with him (a little more than thirty years), I lived in an absolute, an absolute of securitya sense of total security, even physical, even the most material security. A sense of absolute security, because Sri Aurobindo was there. And it held me up, you know, like this (gesture of being carried): not for ONE MINUTE in those thirty years did it leave me. That was why I could do my work with a Base, really, a Base of absolutenessof eternity and absoluteness. I realized it when he left: THAT suddenly collapsed.
And then I understood that it is one of lifes needs (there are several); and its what spurs the human being to get out of his present state and find another one. These needs are (whats the word?) the seeds, the germs of evolution. They compel us to progress. The whole time Sri Aurobindo was here, as I said, individual progress was automatic: all the progress Sri Aurobindo made, I made. But I was in a state of eternity, of absoluteness, with a feeling of such security, in every circumstance. Nothing, nothing unfortunate could happen, for he was there. So when he left, all at oncea fall into a pit. And thats what projected me wholly (Mother gestures forward).
0 1962-11-30, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
6) All nations will shower help on India and the struggles cost will not affect Indian economy.
7) When asked how the Chinese will be defeated without a shooting war, he said They may just go back. He could not say that there would be no resumption of hostilities. He said There need not be.
0 1962-12-08, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I hope (theres still tomorrow1), I hope hell show me if something has been accomplished along the way. That, I dont know.
(silence)
0 1962-12-12, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Well, my usual answer, the only answer that has some weight with those beings, is Its not up to me. Its up to the Lord, address yourselves to Him. Then they keep quiet. They come back another time, hoping to succeed, and the response is always the same, which they find somewhat discouraging. After a while its over. But really, everything imaginable; and precisely for those who were progressing steadily: a collapse into all the old errors and stupidities. And then a sort of hate coming out of everything and everybody and hurled at me, with this inevitable conclusion: What are you doing here! Go away, youre not wanted. Nobody wants you, cant you see that! Its not up to me, its none of my business. Wanted or not, I am here for as long as the Lord keeps me here; when He no longer wants to keep me here, hell make me go, thats allits none of my business. That calms them down, its the only thing that calms them down. But it doesnt discourage them!
Now I am just waiting for the hurricane to pass.
0 1963-01-12, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Ive had a very interesting experience (not personal). Did you know Benjamin3? His psychic being had left him quite some time ago and, as a result, to the surface consciousness he seemed a bit derangedhe wasnt deranged but diminished. And he lived, as I said, out of habit. The physical consciousness still held a minimum of vital and mind and he lived out of habit. But the remarkable thing is that sometimes, for a few seconds, he would live admirably, in full light, while at other times he couldnt even control his gestures. Then he left altogether: all the accumulated energy dwindled little by little, little by little, and whatever remained left his body. It was just on his birthday, on December 30 (the night of December 30). He left. So they did as is always done: they cleaned his room, took out the furniture. Since then, there had been no sign of him. Yesterday evening, after dinner (which is about the same time he left twelve days ago), I was in concentration, resting, when suddenly here comes a very agitated Benjamin who tells me, Mother, theyve taken all the furniture out of my room! What am I to do now!? I told him gently, Do not fret, you dont need anything any more. Then I put him to rest and sent him to join the rest of his being.
Which means it took twelve days for all his elements to form again. You see, they burned his body. (He was Christian, but his familyhis wife is alive and his brother toofound it less costly to let us handle it than to bury him as a Christian! So they had him cremated.) We cremated him, but I demanded a certain interval of time,4 although in his case it was really a gradual exhaustion and nothing much remained in his body; nonet heless, even then the consciousness is flung out of the cells violentlyit took twelve days to form again. It wasnt his soul (it had already left) but the spirit of his body that came to me, the body consciousness gathered in a well-dressed, neat Benjamin with his hair neatly brushed. He was quite trim when he came to me, just as he would have been in life: he always wanted to be well-groomed and impeccable to see me, that was his way. It took twelve days to gather together because I didnt see to it (I can do it in a few hours but only if I see to it), but in his case, his soul having been at rest for a long time, it didnt matter much. So over twelve days it took form again and when he was ready (laughing), he came to reoccupy his room! And there was no furniture left, nothing!
--
And I cant say it isnt importantit is important, in that all those people depend on me. I cant make them overnight capable of receiving fully and clearly, without any external expression, all that I do. I cant ask them to transform themselves by a miracle, Ive got to help them!
I make myself difficult to approach, I keep at a good distance. As much as I can, I teach them to receive directly, but there remains a minimum. So 1,300 or 1,400 people, not to mention all the others I correspond with that means 2,000 or 3,000 people on average in conscious relationship [with Mother].
--
And I realize You see, I need physical help to relieve the body of all effort thats not strictly indispensable. But I cant make their [the attendants] life completely chaotic in appearance: there has to be some schedule. And a schedule means terrible limitations. I cant help it. I cant help it, because for the time being, simply the will expressing itself isnt enough to make matter respond. Once it is like that, time wont matter any more, butBUT.
We mustnt be impatient.
0 1963-01-14, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
But especially all the prohibitions. For instance, let me quote you a statement from X which I heard from a third person: I will do a special puja to help money come. I will prepare a special yantram1 to bring money. But FOR GODS SAKE dont say anything [to Mother], dont do anything or give anything before January 14, because until January 14, a certain planet is in opposition to a certain other planet (Mother laughs), so things follow a downward trend and wont be successful. But afterwards, that particular planet will be ascending and everything will be successful! (Mother laughs) Something in me said spontaneously (something, well, someone), spontaneously and immediately, But why? I can always hear! And I laughed. So they thought I was making fun of him I dont make fun: I laugh, its not the same!
So, mon petit, thats all.
--
It was actually my experience (for a long, long time, many years) but, these last few days, concrete, in the bodys cells. There arent things in which the Lord is and things in which He isntthere are only fools who think so! He is ALWAYS there. He takes nothing seriously and has fun with everything. And He plays with you, if you know how to play but you dont, people dont know how to play. But how well He knows! How He plays with everything, with the smallest things: you have objects to put on your table? Dont think you have to ponder over how to arrange themno, well play: lets put this here, lets put that there, lets put this like that. Then some other day (because people think, Now she has decided on this arrangement, so thats the way its going to bewell, not so!), some other day (they want to help you! They want to help you put things in order, so it just becomes a mess!), I stay still and quiet, and then we start playing: So! Lets put this here, and that there, and this there ah! (Mother laughs) Since I saw you last time it has been that way constantly, probably to prepare me for this aphorism!
Very entertaining.
0 1963-01-30, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
There may be (I cant say, its all imagination because I dont know), there may come a few somewhat weird things. But there is an insistence on the need to keep to each line as though it stood all alone in the universe. No mixing up the line order, no, no, no! For when he wrote it, he SAW it that way I knew nothing about that, I didnt even know how he wrote it (he dictated it, I believe, for the most part), but thats what he tells me now. Everything comes to a stop, everything, and then, oh, how we enjoy ourselves! I enjoy myself! Its more enjoyable than anything. I even told him yesterday, But why write? Whats the use? Then he filled me with a sort of delight. Naturally, someone in the ordinary consciousness may say, Its very selfish, but And then its like a vision of the future (not too near, not extremely nearnot extremely far either) a future when this sort of white thingwhite and stillwould spread out, and then, with the help of this work, a larger number of minds may come to understand. But thats secondary; I do the translation simply for the joy of it, thats all. A satisfaction that may be called selfish, but when he is told, Its selfish, he replies that there is no one more selfish than the Lord, because all He does is for Himself!
There.
0 1963-03-06, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Just as they found many sorts of transient possibilities that existed between animals and man, so too there will be many different possibilities: each one will try in his own way. And all that together will help prepare for the future realization.
The question we could ask is: Will the human species be like those species that met with extinction? Some species became extinct (though not species that lasted as long as the human species, as far as I know (?), and also not those which had in them the seed of progress, a possibility of progress). The impression is rather that evolution will follow a curve drawing nearer and nearer to a higher species, and maybe all that is still too close to the lower species will fall away, just as those species fell away in the past.
--
We should turn this need for miracles into a conscious aspiration to something something that already is, that exists, and that will be manifested WITH THE helP of all those aspirations: all those aspirations are necessary, or rather, looking at it in a truer way, they are an accompanimenta pleasant accompanimentto the eternal unfolding.
Basically, people with a very strict logic tell you, Why pray? Why aspire, why ask? The Lord does what He wills and will always do what He wills. Its perfectly obvious, it goes without saying, but this fervor, Lord, manifest Yourself! gives His manifestation a more intense vibration.
0 1963-03-16, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I had several experiences of the kindquite a number of them. And since that last experience [the death of death], which lasted a second, Ive had the feeling the same kind of feeling. Before that, whenever I intervened for people, either to prevent them from dying or to help them once they were deadhundreds and hundreds of things I used to do all the time I did them with the sense of Death like this (gesture above Mother), as something to be conquered or overcome, or the consequences of which had to be mended. But it was always that way, Death was (laughing) just a little above. And from that moment [the death of death], the head emerged above the head, the consciousness, the will were above. On the side of the Lord.
I had an experience quite a long time ago, when Sri Aurobindo was here: one night I had the experience of being in contact with the Supreme Lord, and it was concrete:
0 1963-03-23, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
So the body thought, Oh, I havent got beyond that. If I have to do the right thing in the right way and right on the dot to keep my balance You understand, a sense of insecurity! And very strong, very strong. Of course, there is something like reason (not quite ordinary reason), something like reason that says, When you automatically and always do exactly what should be done, it will vanish. (Mother laughs) Thank you very much! But as it cannot be a mental decision, then how? You see, you can learn only through experience, and since everything is in perpetual motion, the experience of the past cannot help for the future: its a matter of every minute. So how can you know? It means well know that we are free from error only when we are all the time, all the time in perfect harmony! But then there will be no point in knowing it, it will be done! Thats the situation. If the body is transformed and lives naturally in the divine rhythm, why would I need to know it! (Laughing) It will be immaterial to me, because it will BE. We want to know things when they arent yet.
The body is like a child who needs encouragement, you know, Come on now, dont get in a state, things are fine, youre making progress, you need not worry. Oh, ridiculous!
0 1963-04-22, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I arrived here yesterday. So far I have spent most of my time struggling against a horrible impression in my heart, my thought and my body, so strong that if I could, I would catch the first train home today. I have never had such an impression here. I almost wired you to call for your help. I shall try to hold out here as long as is decently possible, then will leave as soon as I can.
On the material level, the conditions are as wretched as possiblein a word, complete barrenness in complete squalor. My body isnt too brilliant, but I hope it will get better. On the mental and affective level = NIL. That leaves the one Thing without which all would collapse.
0 1963-04-29, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I feel your help very strongly.
With love,
0 1963-05-03, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Putting it differently, you must become the Supreme in order to help in His action, in the changing of the world; you must have the supreme Vibration in order to participate in that Movement, which I am now beginning to feel in the bodys cellsa Movement which is a sort of eternal Vibration, without beginning or end. It has no beginning (the earth has a beginning, so that makes it easy; with the earths beginning, we have the beginning of the earths history, but thats not the case here), it has no beginning, it is something existing from all eternity, for all eternity, and without any division of time: its only when it is projected onto a screen that it begins to assume the division of time. But you cant say a second, or an instant. Its hard to explain. No sooner do you begin to feel it than its gone: something boundless, without beginning or end, a Movement so totaltotal and constant, constant that it is perceived as total immobility.
Absolutely indescribable. Yet it is the Origin and Support of the whole terrestrial evolution.
0 1963-05-11, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Its the same with my mantra. When I wanted to translate the end of my mantra, Glory to You, O Lord, into Sanskrit, I asked for Nolinis help. He brought his Sanskrit translation, and when he read it to me, I immediately saw that the power was therenot because Nolini put his power into it (!), God knows he had no intention of giving me a mantra! But the power was there because my experience was there. We made a few adjustments and modifications, and thats the japa I do now I do it all the time, while sleeping, while walking, while eating, while working, all the time.1 And thats how a mantra has life: when it wells up all the time, spontaneously, like the cry of your beingthere is no need of effort or concentration: its your natural cry. Then it has full power, it is alive. It must well up from within. No guru can give you that.
Well up. Well, its a long way to go! I will need a great deal of paper for all those diagrams [Tantric diagrams given by X]: seventy-two every day.
--
Why not? It doesnt occur to him [X] because hes used to sitting and writing on the ground. Its the same as if I thought it impossible to meditate unless I sat cross-legged and bolt upright! Fortunately, I lived with Sri Aurobindo, who never used to sit cross-legged. He told me right away that it was all a question of habitssubconscious habits. It has no importance whatsoever. And how well he explained: if a posture is necessary for you, it will come by itself. And its perfectly true, for instance, that when necessary, the body will suddenly sit up straightit comes spontaneously. As he said, the important thing is not the external frame but the inner experience, and if there is a physical necessity and your inner experience is entirely sincere, that physical necessity will come ALL BY ITSELF.2 This is something I am absolutely sure of. And he gave me his own example (I had mine, too) of certain things considered dangerous or bad, which we both did independently and spontaneously, and which were a great help to us! Consequently, all those stories of posture and so on are the petty mechanical bounds of the human mind.
It came to me while I was walking [for the japa]. I had a kind of vision of you squatting askew and writing. And I thought, But thats awful! hell ruin his health!
What is needed is to have the inner attitude.
--
Mother helps a disciple, a painter, to illustrate some passages from Savitri.
Mahalakshmi's music.
0 1963-05-25, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
He understands. Maybe he means some passages that are a bit lengthy from a literary standpoint. Anyway, I dont know, hell write to me. He will tell me. Id be curious to know what he understood. But the man is open-minded.
My own impression is rather that in order to appreciate the book fully, you must already know a lota lot more than those people know.
0 1963-06-03, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
It is this mind of the cells which seizes upon a mantra or a japa and eventually repeats it automatically, and with what persistence! That is to say, CONTINUALLY. Thats what Sri Aurobindo means when he says it can be a help: it keeps at things indefinitely (Mother clenches her fist in an unwavering gesture).
A few days ago, at the end of an activity or a situation which demanded an effort, almost a struggle, I heard (its odd), I heard the cells repeat my mantra! It was like a choir in which each cell was repeating the mantra, automatically. Well, this is odd! I thought. And it was just after that, the next day and the day after, that someone showed me this letter.
0 1963-06-15, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
That person lives in Switzerland, hes a Russian named B.M. He has a center with disciples. I asked for his photograph and Id like you to help me understand what type of man he is.
(Mother studies the photo) He is an intellectual, at any rateclearly not a spiritual man. He may have some vital powers (thats generally what gets hold of people). Yes, an intellectual, an idealist.
--
Because do you know the story of that Romanian who was tortured by the Communists and had visions of Sri Aurobindo2 (he didnt see him as he is, in fact, he saw him according to his own conception: thin and ascetic), and finally the apparition told him, I am your soul, and so on? But he had never read Sri Aurobindos name, he only heard it, and he wrote it in a very odd way [Aurobin Dogos]. It SEEMS to be something of Sri Aurobindo. Anyhow it gave him the strength to go through all those torturesappalling tortures, unimaginable. And he was able to escape, somebody helped him escape (now he is safe in England). But before that, he suffered so much that he thought of letting himself die, and that voice, that apparition which came and spoke to him for hours, was what gave him courage and told him that the soul NEVER gets discouraged, it has something to do, and you must endure. He endured thanks to that voice.
Well, similar things may have happened elsewhere and some people may have received inspirationswe cannot say.
0 1963-06-19, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
There are activities that take place in a semidarkness, which the people of the placepeople who are here at the Ashramregard as light and where everyone attends to his affairs with his own ideas and what he considers to be his knowledge. Everything takes place in a semidarkness, a great confusion and a you know, a most oppressive sense of powerlessness. It went on for hours. Finally, I absolutely wanted I wanted to get out of that place at all costs and return to the Light (the real one) and the open. But it was literally impossible: whatever path I took to get out suddenly collapsed, or disappeared as if swallowed up in a wall or a complexity of incoherent things, or else it came to an abrupt end, plunging straight down very deep. I remember one of those places, I absolutely wanted to find a way out, and when I got there, there was a sheer gulf, and I said to myself, What am I going to do? Just then I saw a man, I dont know who he was, but he was dressed (it was symbolic) as a mountain climber, with all the equipment needed to climb down a sheer cliff, and with the help of his ice axe he fastened himself to the cliff and climbed down. Then I said, This is PRETENDING to find the way, but its not finding the way. I was there concentrating, and as I concentrated, suddenly I was able to find a path which led me up to a terrace.
I was accompanied by three or four people (but they are symbolic people). Everything was taking place in a half-night, and outside it was complete night. But when I reached the terrace, there was one of those big electric street lights, which turned on and gave a white light (like the half-light of an electric lamp in the nightwhich is nothing). The terrace was a very long one, but with a drop on every side: there was no way to get out; at one end, the way was blocked by a sort of house, and on both sides it plunged straight down into a black hole. And then that sense of powerlessness, of knowing nothingyou dont know where to go, you dont know what to do. It was And it is THE ORDINARY STATE OF HUMAN CONSCIOUSNESS the consciousness of human activity. But in my consciousness (I was shut in there, you understand), it was truly it was almost a torture, last night; it was frightful.
0 1963-06-29, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
It was not chance that she was woken upit wasnt chance: she was helPED.
Quite likely, someone other than she wouldnt have seen the spots.
--
But I think it has helped to cleanse the atmosphere a little.
Yes, I told her to write to you because, besides her, there were also two Ashram girls who seemed to be in danger.
--
But clay, that was something really newand lovely! Pink. Pink, a warm, golden pink. They were cutting out [of the clay] rooms, stairways, ship decks and funnels, captains cabins. Sri Aurobindo himself is as he was, but more with a harmony of form: very, very broad here (in the chest), broad and solid. And very agile: he comes and goes, sits down, gets up, always with great majesty. His color is a sort of golden bronze, a color like the coagulation of his supramental gold, of his golden supramental being; as if it were very concentrated and coagulated to fashion his appearance; and it doesnt reflect light: it seems as if lit from within (but it doesnt radiate), and it doesnt cast any shadows. But perfectly natural, it doesnt surprise you, the most natural thing in the world: thats the way he is. Ageless; his hair has the same color as his body: he has hair, but you cant say if its hair, its the same color; the eyes too: a golden look. Yet its perfectly natural, nothing surprising. He sits down just as he used to, with his leg as he used to put it [the right leg in front], and at the same time, when he gets up, he is agile: he comes and goes. Then when he went out of the house (he had told me he would have to go, he had an appointment with someone: he had promised to see two people, he had to go), he went out into a big garden, and down to the boatwhich wasnt exactly a boat, it was a flat boatand he had to go to the captains cabin (he had to see the captain about some work), but it was with that boat that he was returning to his room elsewherehe has a room elsewhere. Then after a while I thought, Ill follow him so I can see. So I followed him; as long as I saw him in front of me I followed him. And when I came to the boat, I saw it was entirely built out of pink clay! Some workmen were working thereadmirable workmen. So Sri Aurobindo went down quite naturally, down into the ship under construction, without (I dont think there were any stairs), and I followed him down. Then I saw him enter the captains room; as he had told me he had some work to do, I thought (laughing), I dont want to meddle in others business! Ill go back home (and I did well, I was already late in waking up!), Ill go back home. And I saw one of the workmen leaving (as Sri Aurobindo had come back to the ship, they stopped the work). He was leaving. I called him, but he didnt know my language or any of the languages I know; so I called him in thought and asked him to pull me up, as I was below and there was a sheer wall of slippery clay. Then he smiled and with his head he said, I certainly dont mind helping you, but it isnt necessary! You can climb up all by yourself. And indeed he held out his hand, I took it (I only touched him slightly), and climbed up all by myself without the slightest difficulty I was weightless! I didnt have to pull at his hand, he didnt pull me up. And as soon as I was up, I went back home I woke up and found myself in my bed five minutes later than my usual time.
But what struck me was the clayit means something very material, doesnt it? And pink! A pink, oh, lovely! A golden pink.
0 1963-07-03, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I saw two examples of this, one physically and the other intellectually (I am referring to things I was in contact with materially). Intellectually, it was a studio friend; for years we had done painting together, she was a very gentle girl, older than I, very serious, and a very good painter. During the last years of my life in Paris, I saw her often and I spoke to her, first of occult matters and the Cosmic philosophy, then of what I knew of Sri Aurobindo (I had a group there and I used to explain certain things), and she would listen with great understandingshe understood, she approved. Now, one day, I went to her house and she told me she was in a great torment. When she was awake, she had no doubts, she understood well, she felt the limitations and obscurities of religion (she came from a family with several archbishops and a cardinalwell, one of those old French families). But at night, she told me, I suddenly wake up with an anguish and somethingfrom my subconscient, obviouslytells me, But after all this, what if you go to hell? And she repeated, When I am awake it doesnt have any force, but at night, when it comes up from the subconscient, it chokes me.
Then I looked, and I saw a kind of huge octopus over the earth: that formation of the Churchof hellwith which they hold people in their grip. The fear of hell. Even when all your reason, all your intelligence, all your feeling is against it, there is, at night, that octopus of the fear of hell which comes and grips you.
That brought home to me the magnitude of the problemits terrestrial. There are Catholics everywhere: in China, in Africa among the Negroes; people who dont give a thought to these things yet are under the sway and caught by the octopus.
0 1963-07-06, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
But it isnt total Victory, no. It isnt the power of transformation. The other day, I told you, I think, that one of my present activities consisted of a sort of conscious concentration on one person or another, one thing or another, to obtain the desired result. For years on end, the Will and Force acted from above, and the outer conscious being [of Mother] wasnt concerned with anything further, knowing that it would only make things more complicated instead of helping them, and that the Force left to itself, directly under the supreme Impulsion, worked things out far better and far more accurately. But over these last months, there have come a will and a tendency to make the material being [of Mother] participate consciously in the details of execution. It has a kind of passive obedience, and so, once that was willed [the need for Mothers material intervention], it began to happen. There was a case recently, with a very good friend of the Ashram, a man with an important position who has been very, very useful. He had to be operated on (I wont tell the whole story, it would be too long); we received two or three wires a day, I followed the thing step by step. There was a very powerful force of destructionit was a very grim battle and there was a will to keep him, because in this body he had been very useful, he was still very useful and could still be very useful. He had a great faith, a great trust, and he was conscious (his consciousness was very sufficiently developed: I saw him constantly and constantly he came to me). He fell into a butchers hands; anyway, it was a wretched thing. Still, even though everyone expected him to leave his body, he held on and was constantly saying (we were kept informed by his son) and feeling that it was I who was keeping him alive. I could even see what they should have done and constantly I sent the formation, the thought, But THIS is what should be done, insistently. Finally they caught my thought, but I think (I cant say, I dont know the details, the small material details), I think probably they didnt do exactly what they should have thats why I say they must have been butchers. Thus they performed three operations in a row, and after undergoing all that, he came to me (before also he used to come very oftenthey said he was drowsy all the time, in a semi-coma, but thats not it: he was living inwardly), he came to me, totally conscious as usual, but he said, I am afraid my body is irretrievably ruined, and if I survive now, instead of this body being a help and a tool of work, it will be a hindrance, an impediment, a source of difficulty, so I have come to ask to be freed I prefer to enter a new body. I answered immediately, But as you are, you are useful, very useful; the position you occupy makes you very useful; you are totally conscious; it would be good if you could recover. He listened, again insisted a little, I too insisted, and then he left.
The next morning, he was much better. I was hoping he had decided to stay, but we were without news for about twenty-four hours, till suddenly we were told he had stopped breathing and was being given oxygen. And then he left.
0 1963-07-13, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
But it [the will not to influence] is probably in my very material consciousness, so at a distance it doesnt count: people are caught, seized, held tight, and the Force wont let go of them. Very interesting.
***
0 1963-07-17, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Nolini told me that every day since the Force has been on the increase, theres a shower of letters from people who cry out their misery, whether moral or material. Its a general cry for help, and, he told me, The remarkable thing is that no one asks for material help, they all ask for my blessings and say (because they have faith) it brings them relief. He said, Its the identical note in almost all the letters. Contacts with the outside have increased considerably; formerly, it was only with people who knew me, but now its with scores of absolutely unknown people.
During the part of the night reserved for the work (generally between 2 and 4:30 in the morning it varies a little), daily now I see people whom I dont know physicallyall the time, all the time, and with lots of work. The work I used to do with the people around me now seems to be spreading: I go to some places that I dont know at all. And always, always something under constructionalways under construction, always. Sometimes I am even testing some new constructions, I mean I try to go this way, that way, do something, try this, try that.1 And at the same time, I am working with people who, on the other hand, arent part of those constructions theyre on the sidelines. To such a point that when I woke up this morning I said to myself, But isnt this going to stop? Wont I get some rest! But it was always an answer (an answer not in words but in FACTS), an instantaneous answertaking no time, not gradual: instantaneous.2
--
So, probably, someone more on the receiving side would call that Vibration Anandamaybe thats what people call the joy of life, I dont know. It has absolutely nothing to do with what human beings call joy. Its really the feeling of something full rather than emptylife as people live it, as I see them live it, is something hollow, empty, dry. Hollow. Hard and hollow together. And empty. So when I do that work, as I told you, all thats around me, all the work and everything is yes, it gives an impression of being dry and hollow; while when the other thing is there, you instantly get an impression of full-full-full-fullfull! Overflowing, you know, no more bounds. So full that all, but all bounds are swept away, erased, gone and there remains only That, that Something. Thats why the cells remain held togetherits because of That, for That, by That. For no other reason.
Its growing increasingly constant and evidentnatural, spontaneous. And the growing feeling that Youyou know, the You, the You of adorationYou is only for the fun of it! I dont know how to explain. Its almost like a burst of laughter so obvious is it that there is no difference. Yes, theres only this: Oh, its so much fun to say You! Thats how it is.
--
Mother is referring to her own answer in the form of help or action.
See last conversation, when Mother spoke of X's visit.
0 1963-07-27, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I told you the story of the other one who came to be operated on and died2 (that makes two in a row, among our best workers). The other one had an important government position and did us some incredible services (he was a very intelligent man and had been chief justice for a very long time), he was very helpful and full of faith and devotion. This one [M.] had even promised to lend some money, but he died just beforea few days before he was due to give it!3 But the first one was a conscious, highly mentalized being, with a very well-formed mental being; he knew a lot and he told me, I am very conscious and now I know that I am fully alive and fully conscious, so I dont want an impotent body that constantly requires someone to nurse it or move it around. I prefer to change. He asked me to find him a good one (!) This one didnt ask to take a new body, but the last thing he said (afterwards, he was paralyzed) was: I must live, because I want to give ten lakhs of rupees to the Mother. And he left with thatso an appropriate body has to be found.
But this one [M.] knew very little, he wasnt an intellectual, he was a man of action, very psychicvery much so! Lovely, oh, lovely! He was like a little child, naked, of course, a baby this big, with small arms, small legsdancing about, he was glad, laughing and laughing, he was happy. And all luminous. I immediately told his son (he did a pranam and rose with his eyes full of tears), I told him, Dont weep, he is now where he wants to be and perfectly at rest. I didnt tell him the storyhe wouldnt have understood a thing!
0 1963-08-07, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Obviously, but The result is that the Americans said they would come to help if they attacked. Even the Russians said they would help.
Well, we dont know. I SEE those great currents: theyre like currents of madness that catch hold of people and things. At bottom, it may be really a rather acute conflict between the Yes and the No, that is to say, between all that struggles to hasten the coming of new things and all that refusesrefuses with increasing violence.
--
Theyve learned so much from the Americansit has warped their taste, but now its beginning to come back. Also, all that theyve learned helps them. And theyve converted America to the sense of Beauty!
Its odd, last night, it was all Japanese.
0 1963-08-10, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
The last experience (which Ive had these last few days), in which apparently there was a hitch (it wasnt really one) was a sort of demonstration. I told you what it was, you remember: its like a purge of all the vibrations that are false vibrations, that arent the pure and simple response to the supreme Influence (all that in the cells still responds to the vibrations of falsehood, either from habit or from the people around or the food takenfifty thousand things). Then, with an aspiration or a decision, almost a prayer for purification coming from the body, something happens which, naturally, upsets the balance; the imbalance in turn brings about a general discomfort. The form discomfort takes is habitually the same: first, pains and all kinds of sensations I need not describe; if that state goes on developing, if it is allowed to assume its full proportions, it results in the past it resulted in a faint. But this time, I followed the process for about two hours from the moment I got up: the struggle between the new balance, the new Influence that was getting established, and the resistance of all the existing elements forced to go away. That created a sort of conflict. The consciousness remained very clear the consciousness of the BODY remained very clear, very quiet, perfectly trusting. So for two hours I was able to follow the process (while going on with all my usual activities, without changing anything), until I felt, or rather was told sufficiently clearly that the Lord wanted my body to be completely immobile for a while so that He might complete His work. But I am not all alone: there are other people here to help me and watch over everything (but I dont say or explain anything to them, those are things I dont talk about I dont say what goes on, I dont say anything), so I sat there wondering, Is it really and truly indispensable? (Mother laughs) Then I felt the Lord exert a little more pressure, which heightened the intensity of the conflict, so that I had all the signs of fainting I understood (!) I stood up, let my body moan a little to make it plain it didnt feel too well (!) and I stretched out. Then I was immobile, and in that immobility, I saw the work that was being donea work that cannot be done if you go on moving about. I saw the work. It took nearly half an hour; in half an hour it was over. Which means there is really there is a fact I cannot doubt, even if all the surrounding thoughts and forces contradict it: I cannot doubt that the consciousness is increasing more and more the consciousness in the body. It is growing more and more precise, luminous, exactQUIETvery peaceful. Yet very conscious of a TREMENDOUS battle against millennial habits. Do you follow?
When it was over, I saw that even physically, bodily, there is a strength: the result is an increased strength. A very clearly increased strength.
0 1963-08-24, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
At times For the body its a constant worka constant laborvery tiny, of every instant, an unceasing effort, with, so to say, an imperceptible result (externally at any rate, quite nonexistent), so for someone who doesnt have my consciousness, its perfectly obvious that the body appears to wear out and age, to be slowly heading for decomposition: thats in everyones atmosphere and consciousness (Mother laughs), its the kind of appreciation and vibration thats being thrown all the time on this poor body, which besides is quite conscious of its infirmityit doesnt entertain any illusions! But that quiet, peaceful, but UNCEASING endurance in the effort of transformation makes it sometimes yearn for a little ecstasynot as an abolition or annihilation, not at all, but it seems to be saying, Oh, Lord, I beg you, let me be You in all tranquillity. In fact, thats its prayer every evening when people are supposed to leave it in peace (unfortunately they leave it in peace physically, but mentally they dont). But that I could cut off, I learned to cut off long, long ago, I could cut off, but something, I mean somewhere, someone doesnt approve! (Mother laughs) Obviously what the Someone the great Someonewants to see realized is perfect peace, perfect rest, and joy, a passive joy (not too active; a passive joy is enough), a passive, constant joy, WITHOUT forsaking the work. In other words, the individual experience isnt regarded as all-importantvery far from it: the help given to the whole, the leaven which makes the whole rise, is AT LEAST equally important. Ultimately, thats probably the major reason for persisting in this body.
Nothing inside asks any questions, there are no problems there; all the problems I am talking about are posed by the body, for the body; otherwise, inside, everything is perfect, everything is exactly as it should be. And totally so: what people call good, what they call evil, the beautiful, the ugly, the all that is a small immensity (not a big immensity), a small immensity that is moving more and more towards a progressive realization thats the correct phrasewithin an integral Consciousness which integrally (how should I put it?) enjoys, or I could say, feels the plenitude of what He doesdoes, is and so forth (its all the same thing). But this poor body
0 1963-09-04, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I dont know, I cant say, because for all these experiences I try to drive all thoughts as far away as possible, because they dont help to get the correct perception. So that I cant say whether or not there was a reason for that memoryto tell the truth, the mind always finds reasons for everything, so You know, I am not occupied with those things, I dont try to know, and therefore they dont comethey come of their own accord. There was obviously a necessity: all that comes is necessary, I know that, otherwise it wouldnt come. But that memory didnt bring with it any sense or perception of a danger to your physical life, not in the least. I dont have that perception, while I did have it two years ago. Now I dont have it.
But I remember that for a few days I was occupied with that memory, as part of a vast work on certain physical vibrations, in all the physical domains with which I deal. And it came (strangely, its always LOCATED, located somewhere), and the perception I have is very acute, absolutely like the perception of something that happened to me personally (but all that comes to me now comes in this way). Only, there was the knowledge that it was your own body that had gone through that experience. And then yes, I remember, there was a certain quality of vibration (Mother looks silently), and it was connected with a study on the experience the cells gain in the process of death. I remember, I was studying the cellular experiences (which the cells have more often than not semiconsciously and often unconsciously), those semiconscious experiences that stay in the subconscient and help to make some cells more and more receptive and prepared for the new Force. And as I was studying that, your experience of the camps came, and I saw in fact that a certain number of your cells, a rather considerable number (cells that are partly in the brain, partly in the throat center and partly here [gesture to the upper part of the chest]) have had the preliminary experience of death.
And that gives them a very special capacity of consciousness.
0 1963-09-07, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Yes, it seems to be helping.
Here (Mother gives a white hibiscus): its the will one with the Divine Willwhen theyre merged like that and you can no longer tell one from the other.
--
But then, once you are here on this earth and you have to go to the end, even if the end is nothingness, you go to the end and its just as well to do so as best you can, that is to say, to your fullest satisfaction. I happened to have some philosophical curiosity and to study all kinds of problems, and I came upon Sri Aurobindos teaching, and what he taught (I would say revealed, but not to a materialist) is by far, among the systems men have formulated, the most satisfying FOR ME, the most complete, and what answers the most satisfactorily all the questions that can be asked; it is the one that helps me the most in life to have the feeling that life is worth living. Consequently, I try to conform entirely to his teaching and to live it integrally in order to live as best I can for me. I dont mind at all if others dont believe in itwhether they believe in it or not is all the same to me; I dont need the support of others conviction, its enough if I am myself satisfied.
Well, theres no reply to that.
--
And afterwards, everything was held in a solid gripwhat do you have to say?
(silence)
--
But for instance, I told you I spoke with the Pope for quite a long time the day of his election, and the conversation was abruptly interrupted by a reaction he had. (It was really a mental conversation we were having: I spoke, he replied, I heard his reply I dont know whether he was conscious of something probably not, but anyway; it wasnt at all a formation of my own mind because I received quite unexpected replies.) But the conversation was interrupted abruptly by a reaction he had when I told him that God is everywhere and in all things; that everything is He; and then a great Force came down into me and I added, Even when you descend into hell, He is there too.
Then everything stopped dead.
Since then Ive learned that its part of their teaching: that what is terrible in hell isnt so much the suffering, but that there is no God there; that its the only part of the creation in which there is no Godthere is no God in hell. And I asserted that He is there too.
But naturally, from an intellectual point of view, all those things are explained and find their placeman has never thought anything that wasnt the distortion of a truth. Thats not the difficulty, its that for religious people there are certain things they have a DUTY to believe, and to allow the mind to discuss them is a sinso naturally they close themselves and will never be able to make any progress. Whereas the materialists, on the other hand, are on the contrary supposed to know and explain everything they explain everything rationally. So (Mother laughs), precisely because they explain everything, you can lead them where you want to.
--
No. And its not good to try either. If they cling to a religion, it means that that religion has helped them somehow or other, has helped something in them which in fact wanted to have a certitude without having to seek for itto lean on something solid without being responsible for its solidity (someone else is responsible! [Mother laughs]), and to leave their bodies in that way. So to want to pull them out of it shows a lack of compassion they should just be left where they are. Never do I argue with someone who has a faithlet him keep his faith! And I take great care not to say anything that might shake his faith because its not goodsuch people are unable to have another faith.
But with a materialist I dont argue, I accept your point of view; only, you have nothing to say Ive taken my position, take yours. If you are satisfied with what you know, keep it. If it helps you to live, very good.
But you have no right to blame or criticize me, because I am taking my position on your own basis. Even if all that I imagine is mere imagination, I prefer that imagination to yours. Thats all.
0 1963-09-28, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
What he announces, and what I am sure of, is that the Victory will be won on the earth and that the earth will become a progressive being (eternally progressive) in the Lord thats understood. But it doesnt preclude the other possibility. The future of the earth he has announced clearly, and its understood that such is the future of the earth; only, if that possibility [of death as an exclusively earthly phenomenon] is what we could term historically correct, it would sort of legitimize the attitude of those who get away from it. How is it that Buddha, who undeniably was an Avatar, laid so much stress on Deliverance as the conclusion of things? He who stayed behind only to help others to get away faster. Then that means he saw only one side of the problem?
Oh, yes!
0 1963-10-16, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I wouldnt call it serious because he may have done it with the best of intentions: not to deceive me, but to help me. But I found it so IGNORANT! That he should use such methods with me shows that he knows absolutely nothing of me.
It would succeed with any ordinary medium, or with a faker. A faker, someone insincere, would be immediately taken in, because in such cases IT IS SINCERITY THAT SAVES. Going by appearances its very, very difficult to make out the difference. It is sincerity that saves (its the same thing I said to Sujata3). I remember how Madame Thon, after I told her several of my experiences, said to me, Nobody can deceive you because you are perfectly sincere (occultly, I dont say outwardly: occultly). And its true, it depends on the sincerity. Consequently, that X should attempt this shows he has a peculiar opinion of me!
--
But I dont want him to know, because I take it for the best, as a goodwill, as if to show me that he is quite ready to help and support me: but all this in a mind that seems to me so childish! You see, the idea that I trust only Sri Aurobindo, and that if its presented in the form of Sri Aurobindo, Ill accept! Things of that sort. I had such an impression that he thought he was dealing with a goose!
Mentally, I know. When I am with him, if I happen to listen to what he says for just two minutes, I get a headache, I cant bear it. I can stay with him only when I am above or outside, then its quite all right. But if I listen to him mentally, I get a headache.
--
You see, what I do is this: the thing comes, its taken up, presented (gesture to the Heights) as though it were mine: But look, see how I am (but its the Ithe great I), its presented to the Lord, very humbly, with the sense and feeling of complete helplessness I simply say, Here, change it. The feeling that only He can do it, that everything that people have tried everywhere appears childisheverything appears to be childish. The most sublime intelligence seems to me childish. All the attempts that are made to enlighten, organize, educate mankind, to awaken it to a higher consciousness, to give it mastery over Nature and its forces, all of itall of it, which for a human vision is sometimes utterly sublime, seems absolutely like children playing and having fun in a nursery. And children who love dangerous games, who believe TERRIBLY in what they do (as do children, naturally). I have never met more serious and stern a justice than the justice children have in their games. They really take life seriously. Well, thats exactly the impression it makes on me: the impression of a mankind in infancy which takes what it does with ferocious seriousness. And which will never get out of itit will never get out of it, it lacks the little something (which may be really nothing at all), a very little something thanks to which ah, everything becomes clear and organizedall that comes from mankind always BORDERS on Truth.
So the only thing I can do is this (gesture of presenting): Look, Lord, see how ignorant and powerless we are, how utterly stupid we areits up to You to change it. How do you change it? You cant even imagine the change, you cant even do that. So all my time (same gesture)not from time to time: constantly, day and night, without letup, day and night without letup. If for an interval of one or two minutes this isnt done, there is something that catches up: Oh, all that time wasted! And if I take a close look at what happened, then I see; I see that for these few minutes, I was blissful in the Lord, letting myself live blissfully in the Lord; so I no longer presented things to Himit happens two or three times a day. A relaxation, you know, you let yourself flow blissfully in the Lord. And its so natural and spontaneous that I dont even notice it; I notice it when I resume my attitude (same gesture to the Heights) of transferring everything to the Lord every minute.
0 1963-10-19, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
The help is ever present, in the sense that you unquestionably feel that the Force acts (the Force, that is, the supreme Consciousness and supreme Knowledge), the Force acts with a sort of pressure on all people and all circumstances, in a favorable direction so that what happens may truly be the bestand the best hierarchically; in other words, the highest and purest (you know my definition of pure) is a sort of center in relation to which things get organized; they get organized hierarchically, each with its right to progress, but as if to favor whats closest to and most expressive of the Divine that is going on constantly, I see hundreds of examples of it all the time. Yet, from the point of view of outer circumstances, there is such a tension that you feel you are close to catastrophe.
Sri Aurobindo told me that there are three difficulties, and they are the three things that have to be conquered for the earth to be ready (this is from the purely outward point of view, I am not speaking of psychological factors): government, money, health.
0 1963-11-04, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
An example: yesterday, for at least a quarter of an hour, I was filled with a sort of marvelousmarvelingadmiration for Natures fantastic imagination in inventing the animals. I saw all the animals in all their details that is, the prehuman age. Consequently, there was no mind. And without the mind, how wonderful that imagination was, you know! It was as though I lived in it: there was no man, no thought, but that imaginative power making one species emerge out of another, and then another; and all those details Everything is becoming like that, as if it were SEEN for the first time and from an altogether different angle; everything, everything: peoples character, circumstances, even the motion of the earth and the stars, everything is like that, everything has become entirely new and unexpected, in the sense that all the human mental visionis completely gone! So things are much better! (Laughing) Much better without the human mind. (I dont mean they are better without man, I mean that seen from another viewpoint than the human, mental viewpoint, everything is far more wonderful.) And then, all the details of every minute, all the people, all the things, all The trees (Mother looks at the coconut tree in front of her window) that were stripped by the cyclone; this one held up so marvelously and it has a new flowerit has old leaves damaged by the cyclone, but it has grown a new flower. So lovely, so fresh! Everything is like that.
Me too. Me too, I saw myself (laughing) from a new angle! And the things that in the past were, not positively problems, but anyway questions to be resolved (certain actions, certain relationships), all gone! And there is something that thoroughly enjoys itself I dont know what that something is, but it thoroughly enjoys itself.
0 1963-11-20, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
My faith doesnt waver, but I have the impression that except for a certain number of things I have to do and for which I receive a precise help, a help really from above, for the rest, nothing. You understand, its ten years now since I came here, well, theres nothingnot that I lack faith, but theres no development.
Maybe not the development youre expecting.
0 1963-11-23, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
And then five of our air force chiefs have been killed in a helicopter crash helicopters never crash, and they were the best possible pilots. Its an act of sabotage the Communists are doing a lot of sabotage. So that makes two accidents in a row.
But these accidents always occur at the time of Kali, in NovemberOctober and November.
--
So there is the good destiny and the bad destiny; there is a divine force which one regards as something entirely beyond understanding, whose designs and aims are perfectly inexplicable, and the submission, the surrender consists in acceptingblindlyall that happens. Ones nature revolts, but revolts against an Absolute against which it is helpless. And all of that is Ignorance. Not one of all those movements is truefrom the most intense revolt to the blindest submission, its all false, not one true movement.
I dont know if its in Sri Aurobindos writings (I dont remember), but I hear very strongly (not for me, for mankind):
0 1963-11-27, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
There was a poor Negro here, very nice, who did all his studies in America, and who used to send me letters, sometimes as many as two a day. His country has just been liberated, its one of those countries Nigeria, I think, and his ambition is to work so that his country will be one of the first ready for the transformationa great ambition. And I received a cable from him the day Kennedy was shot, praying for my help. Its very touching.
But it has triggered all kinds of thingsin fact, thats in part why I had that long presence of Sri Aurobindo and that long work. As though it had served to trigger one of the movements of transformation of the earth.
0 1963-11-30, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
So theres someone helping you.1
(silence)
0 1963-12-14, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
If the expression becomes clear enough to be understandable, the present phase of the experience may be interesting for others, no? I have the feeling it could help break a few limits.
Certainly.
0 1963-12-21, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I have a feeling that something is pressing to eliminate in my active consciousness that discernment which is so sharp, so imperativesharp, you know, with a vision (like the vision I had the other day of the nearness and farness), a vision almost microscopically exact. Obviously, this is helpful to get rid of all the things that shouldnt be, but now there is a will for this attitude to move into the background, and for the active consciousness to see constantly and almost exclusively only WHAT SHOULD BE.
Which means there are movements of elimination, of rejection, movements (for a second) of transformation, and also movements of constructionit seems the time has come to step into the movement of construction.
0 1963-12-29, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
On the 31st I will see you in the music room, and I would like Sujata too to come at 10 A.M., because I want to try different key boards of the organ, and she will help me arrange them.
My tenderness is ever with you
0 1963-12-31, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
And wherever turned for help or hope his eyes,
In field and house, in street and camp and mart,
--
And last night, there was the Answer, as it were. This morning, when I got up, I didnt remember clearly, but in the middle of the night I knew it very well. (Its not going from sleep to the waking consciousness: it is coming out of one state to enter another one, and when I came out of that state to enter the so-called normal one, I remembered very well.) I was as if made to live the WAY of turning that Falsehood into Truth, and it was so joyful! So joyful. In the sense that its a vibration similar to joy that is capable of dissolving and overcoming the vibration of Falsehood. That was very important: it isnt effort, it isnt righteousness, or scruple or rigidity, none of that, none of that has any effect on that sadness (it is a sadness) of Falsehoodits something so sad, so helpless, so miserable so miserable. And only a vibration of Joy can change it.
It was a vibration that flowed like silvery waterit rippled and flowed like silvery water.
--
A borderl and between the world and hell.
There unreality was Natures Lord:
0 1964-01-04, #Agenda Vol 05, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I had X told about a rather interesting encounter of mine with Ganapati1 (quite a few years ago), and how he had promised to give me whatever I needed and actually gave it for quite a long time, certainly more than ten years, and generously so. Then everything changed in the Ashram. It was after the war, the children came and we spilled over; we became much more complex, much larger, and began to be in touch with foreign countries, particularly America. And I continued to be in contact with Ganapati; I cant say I used to do a puja to him (!), but every morning I would put a flower in front of his image. Then one morning I asked him, Why have you stopped doing what you had been doing for such a long time? I listened, and he clearly replied, Your need has grown too large. I didnt quite understand, because he has at his disposal fortunes larger than what I needed. But then, some time afterwards, I had this told to X, who answered me from the height of his punditism, Let her not be concerned with the gods, I will look after that! It was needlessly insolent. Then I turned to Ganapati and asked him, What does all that mean? And I clearly saw (it wasnt he who answered, it was Sri Aurobindo), I clearly saw that Ganapati has power only over those who have faith in him, which means its limited to India, while I needed money from America, France, England, Africa and that he has no power there, so he couldnt help. It became very clear, I was at peace, I understood: Very well, he did his best, thats all. And its true that I keep receiving from India, though not sufficiently; especially as since Independence half of India has been ruined, and all those who used to give me a lot of money no longer do, because they no longer canit isnt that they no longer want to, but that they no longer can.
For instance, M. was greatly interested in my story about Ganapati, and I saw that there was a connection between him and Ganapati, so I told him, But turn to him and he will give you the right inspiration. And since then M. has been perfect, really; all that he can do he does to the utmost of his ability. So all this is very good.
0 1964-01-15, #Agenda Vol 05, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
There is a curious transitional state in the most material consciousness, the body consciousness. A transition from the state of subjugation, of helplessness, in which one is constantly at the mercy of forces, vibrations, unexpected movements, all sorts of impulsesto the Power. The Power that asserts and realizes itself. Its the transition between the two; and there is almost a swarm of experiences of all types, from the most mental part of that consciousness down to the darkest, most material part.
And when I want to say something, there immediately comes from all corners a swarm of things that want to be said and rush in all at the same timewhich, naturally, prevents me from speaking.
--
The passage from an almost total helplessnessa sort of Fatality, like the imposition of a whole set of determinisms against which you are powerless, which weigh down on youto a clear, definite Will, which, the MOMENT It expresses itself, is all-powerful.
(silence)
0 1964-01-18, #Agenda Vol 05, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Oh, are they conceited! And puffed up with their superior realization they were born to helP the earth. They have such goodwill! They want to help the whole earth, (in an ironic tone) help the earth. They come here, but instead of asking themselves what they can learn, they come TO helP; they come to bring some order (theres no order!), to set right the things that are wrong, to bring some practical sense into these nebulous minds!
The other conceit seems to me more serious than the American one the European conceit. Because they really think they are very intelligent. The Americans want to helptheyre children. But the Westerners are sages of the intellect; so it takes some doing to penetrate their minds! Theres nothing they need to learn.
I have very little contact with those people.
0 1964-03-07, #Agenda Vol 05, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Its the same thing with that necessity of returning to the superficial consciousness. In the beginning, in the very beginning, when I identified myself with that pulsation of Love that creates the world, for many days I refused to resume entirely the ordinary, habitual consciousness (to which I was just referring: that sort of surface consciousness which is like bark), I no longer wanted it. Thats why I was outwardly so helpless; in other words, I refused to make any decisions (Mother laughs), the others had to decide and do things for me! Thats what convinced them that I was extremely ill!
Now I understand all this very well.
0 1964-03-21, #Agenda Vol 05, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
And here he kept complaining that his nurses werent up to the marknow hell understand! At least, after that experience, he will understand that whats here is exceptional they always have to go outside to have this experience, they arent sensitive enough to feel that here there is something that isnt found elsewhere. In order to compare they have to go elsewhere, and then be tortured a little.
Its too bad thats the way the world is, it needs to be tortured to understand that there is something else.
0 1964-03-25, #Agenda Vol 05, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
We cannot help thinking of what was going to happen in France in 1968.
***
0 1964-03-28, #Agenda Vol 05, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Only, I am in a transitional period in which I cannot actively look after people, that is, see them, talk to them, receive them, give them meditations I cant, its impossible, the body is unable to do both things. And it is clearly more important for it to attract as much Truth-Force as it can and work like this in silence (radiating gesture) than to help one, two, or three, or ten or a hundred people to progress.
Later on, I cant say. If a power of ANOTHER ORDER descends into the body, and if it recovers from the wear and tear of effort, then things may be different, but for the moment
0 1964-03-31, #Agenda Vol 05, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
It is expected that people (here in the Ashram) would have made some progress! And would not need the physical presence [of Mother] to feel the help and the Force.
***
0 1964-07-18, #Agenda Vol 05, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
And as they are in close touch with me, Id like to know I would like you to know and help them. This is my brothers photo.
Oh! Hes younger than you.
--
And this is a photo of my friend the publisher, who helped me for the publication of The Gold-Washer and the book on Sri Aurobindo.
Oh, a familiar face.2
--
He has quite a considerable vital capacity. But the true solution lies in the psychic development. Besides, thats how doctors cure people, much more than through medicinesmuch more. With some doctors, when the patient comes into contact with them, he feels supported, helped.
(silence)
0 1964-08-11, #Agenda Vol 05, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
But it must be spontaneous, not as a calculation, it mustnt be done with the idea, Its going to work. It must truly be done with the sense of your complete helplessness and of the very formidable dimension of the task that Oh, please do it Yourself; I cantits not possible.
Of course, very philosophical or learned people will pity you, but personally I dont care! I dont care. I am not a philosopher, I am not a scholar, I am not a savant, and I declare it very loudly: neither a philosopher nor a scholar nor a savant. And no pretension. Nor a littrateur, nor an artist I am nothing at all. I am truly convinced of this. And its absolutely unimportant thats perfection for human beings.
There is no greater joy than to know that you can do nothing and are absolutely helpless, that youre not the one who does, and that what little is donelittle or big, it doesnt matteris done by the Lord; and the responsibility is fully His. That makes you happy. With that, you are happy.
Voil.
0 1964-08-14, #Agenda Vol 05, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Silence, silence. This is a time for gathering energies and not for wasting them away in useless and meaningless words. Anyone who proclaims loudly his opinions on the present situation of the country, must understand that opinions are of no value and cannot in the least help Mother India to come out of her difficulties. If you want to be useful, first control yourself and keep silentsilence, silence, silence. It is only in silence that anything great can be done.
That was just when the war began; people were criticizing the government as if To one of them I wrote personally: If you were up there, would you know what has to be done? No. So if you dont know, you have no right to say anythingkeep silent.
--
At any rate, they are conscious. A considerable number of ministers, generals, governors (even ministers of the Central Government) are writing, not positively to ask for advice, but to ask for help. Theyre not asking for advice yet (and on the external level you cant give detailed advice, you can only give general ideas). But there are some things they SHOULD NOT be doing.
How to get out of it? They have tied themselves up in knots.
--
One thing is obvious, its that if everything had gone very well, with good results, the need for a higher help would never have occurred to them; they would have become puffed up with statistics and with satisfaction with their capacities.
To mark August 15, several groups connected to the Ashram have been meeting in Pondicherry.
0 1964-08-22, #Agenda Vol 05, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Its very different from what it was before for so many yearsvery different. I feel a sort of Oh, its an impression equivalent to the one I had when Sri Aurobindo gave my mind silence. It became perfectly blank and empty (gesture to the forehead), blank and empty, and there was nothing anymore: I couldnt think anymore, not one idea, not one system anymore, nothingin a word, total imbecility! It never came back. You see, it went up above, and here there was nothing. Well, this time, it was the same thing for the body consciousness: before, it was everywhere like something holding everything together (to such a point that when there was a difficulty, I only had to stop bothering about it all and let that act, and the difficulty would automatically be sorted out by that body consciousness, which knows far better than our active thought what the body should do), and that day it left DELIBERATELY. The decision had been made the night before, but I was resisting it, as I knew the normal consequence was fainting. But that willed it so and that chose its own time (when there was no danger, when no accident could happen and someone was there to help me), that chose its own time and that did it deliberatelygone. And it has never returned.
So the first day, I was almost dazed; I was constantly groping for the way to do things. Yesterday, it was still strong. And this morning, suddenly I began to understand (what I call to understand is to have control), I understood: Ah, thats it! Because I was wondering, But what on earth does all this mean? How can I do my work? I remember, yesterday I had to see a host of people, people who arent close and whose atmosphere isnt good: it was very difficult, I had to keep a hold on myself, and I must have looked strange, very absent I was very far away, in a very deep consciousness, so that my body wouldnt be you know, that gave it discomfort of sortsdiscomfort, yesit was hard to bear. Yesterday the body was still that way the whole morning; towards evening it got better. But the night wasnt good, oh! In the night, I am always given a state of human consciousness to put right, one after another there are millions of them. And there are always all the images and events that illustrate that particular state of consciousness. At times, its very hard going: I wake up tired, as after a long period of work. And last night, thats how it was; its always the various, multiple ways which men have of complicating the original Simplicity: of turning a simple vibration into extremely complicated eventswhere the thing should be simple and flow naturally, there are endless complications, and such difficulties! Unbearable and insuperable difficulties. I dont know if you have experienced that: you want to go somewhere, but there are hindrances everywhere; you want to go out of a room, but there is no way out, or there is one, but you have to crawl on the ground under kinds of rocks and then something in the being refuses, No, I wont do it. And with a sense of insecurity, as if at any moment the thing could topple over and crush you. There are people who want to help you, but they cant do anything at all, they only make the complication still more complicated; you start on a road with the certainty of reaching a particular place, then all of a sudden, in the middle of it the road changes, everything changes, and you have your back to the place you wanted to go. All kinds of things like that. The symbolism of it is extremely clear. But then, it makes for a lot of work.
Anyway, I got up in that state and began to wonder, Wont there be an end to it? Its always, always, always like that. And more and more I have an inner conviction that it isnt a thing you can obtain through effort and progressive transformationit would take millions of years! Its only the Grace. When the Lord decides, Its finished, now its going to be like that, it will be like that. Then you find rest and tranquillity.
0 1964-09-16, #Agenda Vol 05, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Announcing publicly what you intend to do helps considerably. It may give rise to objections, contempt, conflicts, but thats largely made up for by the public expectation, if we may say so: by what others expect from you. That was certainly the reason for those robes: to let people know. Obviously, you may incur the contempt and ill will of some people, but there are all those who feel, I mustnt touch this, I mustnt have anything to do with it, its not my concern.
I dont know why, it has always seemed to me to be showing offit may not be that, and in certain cases it isnt, but still its a way of telling people, Ah! Here is what I am. And as I said, it may help, but there are drawbacks.
Its still childish.
--
And yet, at the same time, it helps you to take stock and know exactly where you stand.
It was Buddhas wisdom when he said, The middle path: not too much on this side, not too much on that side, dont fall on this side, dont fall on that sidea bit of everything, and a balanced but PURE path.
0 1964-09-23, #Agenda Vol 05, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Yes, it WANTS to act there. Thats why its action is stupefyingit is meant to stupefy that mind. But there are people who cant be stupefied, mon petit! Its very good for average humanity, it can help average humanity, but on those who have an intellectuality, it cannot act.
(Here, Mother makes various remarks about the Tantric guru and describes certain things she saw about him:)
--
There is a whole part of the most material consciousness, the utterly physical consciousness (precisely the one that participates in incalculable, minuscule activity of every day) which, of course, is very hard to bear. In ordinary life, its tolerable, its bearable because you take interest in it and sometimes pleasureall that life on the surface that makes you you see a pretty thing, it gives you pleasure; you have something tasty in your mouth, it gives you pleasure; anyway, all these little pleasures that are so futile, but help people bear existence. Those who dont have the inner consciousness and the contact with whats behind all that wouldnt be able to live if they didnt have little pleasures. So a host of tiny little problems crop up, problems of material existence, which explain perfectly well that those who no longer had any desire, and therefore no longer took any pleasure in anything, had one single idea: Whats the use of it all! And indeed, if we didnt have the feeling that all that must be borne because it leads to something else of an altogether different nature and expression, it would be so insipid and puerile, so petty that it would become quite unbearable. Thats certainly what explains the aspiration for Nirvana and the flight from this world.
So there is this problem, a problem of every second, which I must solve every second by the corresponding attitude that leads to the True Thing; and at the same time, there is the other attitude of acceptance of all that is for instance, of what leads to disintegration: the acceptance of disintegration, defeat, decomposition, weakening, decayall things that, naturally, to the ordinary man, are detestable and against which he reacts violently. But since you are told that everything is the expression of the divine Will and must be accepted as the divine Will, there comes this problem, which crops up almost constantly and every minute: if you accept those things as the expression of the divine Will, quite naturally things will follow their habitual course towards disintegration, but what is the TRUE ATTITUDE that can give you that perfect equanimity in all circumstances, and at the same time give a maximum of force and power and will to the Perfection that must be realized?
--
And in the morning, oh! All mornings are difficult. Its odd: life as a whole goes by with almost dizzying speedweeks and months go by like thatand mornings, about three hours every morning, last like a century! Each minute is won at the cost of an effort. It is the time of the work in the body, for the body, and not just one body: for instance, all the vibrations from sick people, all those problems of life come from everywhere. And for those three hours, there is tension, struggle, acute seeking for what should be done or for the attitude to be taken. Its at that time that I have tested the power of the mantra. For those three hours, I repeat my mantra automatically, without stopping; and every time the difficulty increases, a kind of Power comes into those words and acts on Matter. And thats how I know: without the mantra, that work couldnt be done. But thats why I say it has to be YOUR mantra, not something you received from whomever the mantra that arose spontaneously from your deeper being (gesture to the heart), from your inner guide. Thats what holds out. When you dont know, when you dont understand, when you dont want to let the mind intervene and you are THAT is there; the mantra is there; and it helps you to get through. It helps to get through. It saves the situation at critical moments, its a considerable support, considerable.
For those three hours (three or three and a half hours), its constant, constant, without stop. So then the words well up (gesture from the heart). And when the situation becomes critical, when that disorder, that disintegration seem to be gaining in power, its as if the mantra were becoming swollen with force, and it restores order.
0 1964-09-26, #Agenda Vol 05, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Oh, what a beautiful realization to achieve! A beautiful work can be done in that way. To be able to feel and SEE the thing to be said, and THATS what should be saidnot with the thought, This man is going to die, I shouldnt make him too unhappy, I should, all that is perfectly useless. Perfectly useless, and you put yourself in a kind of mental muddle; besides, it doesnt really help, it doesnt have the expected effect. While this inner vision to see why that being is ill and what that physical disorder expresses in the destiny of the soul of that man or this womanits magnificent, magnificent!
And ultimately, saying, You will be cured, is just as useless as saying, You wont be cured, both are equally incorrect from the point of view of the true Truth, and unsatisfactory for someone who has had a first contact with a life other than physical life.
0 1964-09-30, #Agenda Vol 05, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Sri Aurobindo insisted rather on Oneness: he used to say that even what we consider to be the worst adversaries are still a form of the Supreme, which, deliberately or not, consciously or not, helps in the general transformation. This seems to me vaster, deeper, more comprehensive.
And I tried to base action on this rather than on constant battle with opposing forces. Because, granted this idea, it makes sense that if you make the necessary progress, if you have the divine knowledge and consciousness, the very purpose of those forces disappears, and consequently they cant stay.
0 1964-10-10, #Agenda Vol 05, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
How many times, you know, it comes, it swells up like a tide, like a rising wave, that aspiration of all, all the material being, of all the cells, towards the Supreme: All depends on Youall depends on You. A sense of total helplessness and total incapacity, which in a second can be transformed through an Intervention into a total Wisdom.
And its the cells that feel this the thought has said it says all sorts of things, the earth is full of (when you see it in its totality, its really interesting!), the earth is full of all the human imaginings (which have been turned into statements of facts), even the most fantastic, the most contradictory, the most unexpectedits full of all that, it lives on that, it swarms with thatand the result is that the material world is convinced that all by itself, it can do nothing! Nothing. Nothing, nothing but that: that inextricable and apparently senseless jumble, which is nothing, which is an unbridled imagination in comparison with what can be.
0 1964-10-14, #Agenda Vol 05, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I remember, once, they held an exhibition on Germany at the Library. They put up a long quotation from Sri Aurobindo in which he said, Here is what the Germans THINK OF THEMSELVES and there followed a whole quotationoh, what a quotation! Anyway, they are the race of the future, of geniuses, they will save the world and so on. But they put up the whole thing without the first sentence! So I arrive there (at the time, I could see clearly), and what do I see! I remembered what Sri Aurobindo had written, Here is what the Germans THINK OF THEMSELVES, SO I told them, But you forgot the most important thing, you must add this. You should have seen their faces, mon petit!
Its this dishonesty thats frightening they cut out and remove all that bothers them and leave only what suits them.
--
Maybe maybe if there is a symbolic being (its what I am beginning to ask myself), if there is a symbolic being who has the power (it takes a great deal of endurance!), the power to CONTAIN the representation of all those disorders and to work on that symbolic representation, it must help the whole. Because if an entire human way of being has to change for the Victory to be won, its going to take millions of years! That may be why there are symbolic beings.
Thats what I am now asking myself.
0 1964-10-17, #Agenda Vol 05, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Now, for great upheavals men want to do without Natures help. It seems that five nations have atomic bombs, and the bombs of just one of those nations are enough to vrrf! destroy the earth. So if all this (because its new, after all) suddenly gets out of control They dont know how long these things can remain in waiting: if all at once they start explodingcan you see that! (laughing) In all the countries, all the bombs going off at the same time!
Poor earth.
0 1964-10-24a, #Agenda Vol 05, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
You understand, the word favor is deliberate. Its quite deliberate, it really means a favorto be helped in making the necessary progress is all very well, but what they want is the result WITHOUT HAVING TO WALK THE PATH, and thats what is impossible, thats what must not be.
Basically, thats always what men ask of religions; the God of religion is a god who must do them favors: I believe in You, therefore You must do this for me (it isnt formulated so bluntly, but it is like that), It isnt the aspiration to be guided on the path in order to do exactly what should be done for the Transformation to take place. And thats what I was clearly told: It MUST NOT be miraculous powers. The power of the help is there, fully, of course, but the miraculous power that does things without their being the result of a progress achieved, that must not be.
(Mother goes on copying her note)
0 1964-10-28, #Agenda Vol 05, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Theyre held back by all the other Communist parties, which greatly admired Khrushchev and are now protesting. So I think they cant do as they would like to.
(Mother goes into meditation)
0 1964-10-30, #Agenda Vol 05, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
The people around me dont help. Those immediately around me have no faith.
So that doesnt help, because the mental atmosphere isnt favorable. Mentally, you look at it and smile; but the body feels it a little bit, it feels a little the pressure of defeatist formations around. But it knows why those around are like thatfrom the material point of view, those around are just what is needed, just what is needed; the body needs such an atmosphere so that material difficulties arent made worse. So its perfectly happy, only it dare not be joyous; it immediately says, Oh, its still too beautiful a thing for life as it is!
I dont know how long it will last.
--
You told me this already, and I looked a great deal. It strikes me as a formation (which may go back a rather long time), which you must have accepted at a particular moment, I dont know why, and which has remained around you. But it doesnt seem to me to correspond to a truth. I looked at it a good deal, often, and I never saw that it was the expression of a truth. I saw that its what we could call an adverse formation, not necessarily hostile, but adverse in the sense that it isnt beneficial. But it isnt the expression of something true. And that might well be the point: if you could experience its unreality, that is, its false character, that would help a great deal.
But its something thats all the way down, that doesnt depend on a reasonable consciousness. Because, otherwise, it doesnt bother me, I am above all that. Its only there, on the material level.
0 1964-12-02, #Agenda Vol 05, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
But I have noticed, especially for those who have had a Western education, that they shouldnt change their external occupations abruptly. Most people tend to want to change their environment, to want to change their occupation, to want to change their surroundings, to want to change their habit, thinking that will help them to change inwardlyits not true. You are much more vigilant and alert to resist the old movement, the old relationships, the vibrations you no longer want when you remain in a context that, in fact, is habitual enough to be automatic. You shouldnt be interested in a new external organization, because you always tend to enter it with your old way of being.
Its very interesting even, I made a very deep study of people who think that if they travel things are going to be different. When you change your external surroundings, on the contrary, you always tend to keep your internal organization in order to keep your individuality; whereas if you are held by force in the same context, the same occupations, the same routine of life, then the ways of being you no longer want become more and more evident and you can fight them much more precisely.
Basically, in the being, its the vital that has difficulty; it is the most impulsive part and has the greatest difficulty in changing its way of being. And its always the vital that feels free, encouraged and more alive during travels, because it has an opportunity to manifest freely in a new environment in which everything has to be learned: reactions, adaptations, etc. On the contrary, in the routine of a life that has nothing particularly exciting, it strongly feels (I mean, if it has goodwill and an aspiration for progress), it strongly feels its inadequacies and desires, its reactions, repulsions, attractions, etc. When one doesnt have that intense will to progress, it feels imprisoned, disgusted, crushed the whole habitual refrain of revolt.
--
And that vitalwhich was used to being at the helm, to governing everything, to deciding everything, anyway it was the master of the house the vital must first begin with detachment, which generally, when it isnt very refined, turns into disgust. A general detachment. Then all at once (sometimes all at once, sometimes slowly), it feels that the impulse, the inspiration must come from within, that nothing must come from outside anymore and excite it. And then, if it has goodwill, it turns within and begins to ask for the Inspiration, the Command and the Direction; and after that, it can start doing work again.
For some people, it takes years; for others, its done very quicklyit depends on the quality of the vital. If its a refined vital, of a higher quality, it goes quickly; if it is something very brutish, which goes like a bulldog or a buffalo, it takes a little more time.
--
He has a political attachment to the dogma. For instance, after one of my conversations (I had a good number of conversations with him, three or four, on the mental level, and perfectly objective because his reactions were unexpected; to me they were very spontaneous, in the sense that I received answers that werent at all those I might have expectedwhich proves it was genuine), but for example, before his election, I met him once (there is a part of his mental being, a higher intelligence, thats very well formed, conscious, individualized), and I had a spontaneous conversation that I hadnt sought and which was very interesting. But at one point, I replied to something he said, and I told him with the force I have there [on that higher plane], The Lord is everywhereeven in hell the Lord is there. And then it caused such a violent reaction in him that, pfft! he vanished. I found it very striking. I dont know the dogma, but it seems that in hell, according to the Catholics, whats worse than suffering, the fire and all that, is the absence of the Lord. It seems its a dogma that the Lord is absent from hell; and me, I was speaking of universal Oneness and I told him that.
There is another thing I remember very clearly, which struck me. It was after his election (but long before his trip to India was decided upon): he had come to India and he came to Pondicherry to meet me (not to meet me: he had come to Pondicherry, then he came and met me). Once in Pondicherry, he came and I saw him there, in the room where I receive people. We had a long conversation, a very long and interesting conversation, and suddenly (it was towards the end, it was time for him to go), when he rose, he was preoccupied by something. He told me, When you speak to your children about me, what will you tell them? You understand, the ego showing itself. So I looked at him (Mother smiles) and said, I will only tell them that we have been in communion in our love for the Supreme. Then he relaxed and left. It struck me. These things are very objective.
0 1965-01-09, #Agenda Vol 06, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
And for that, we must do just what we are obliged to do to keep our balance: total inertia wouldnt help, but an effort of action is bad. So dont worry too much, and above all dont see people.
***
0 1965-01-12, #Agenda Vol 06, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
(Regarding an old Playground Talk of March 8, 1951, in which Mother spoke of the being that possessed and guided Hitler: Hitler was in contact with a being whom he considered to be the Supreme: that being would come and give him advice and tell him all that he had to do. Hitler would withdraw into solitude and wait long enough to come into contact with his guide and receive inspirations from him which he would afterwards carry out very faithfully. That being whom Hitler took for the Supreme was quite simply an Asura, the one called in occultism the Lord of Falsehood, and he proclaimed himself to be the Lord of Nations. He had a resplendent appearance and could pull the wool over anyones eyes, except one who truly had occult knowledge and could thus see what was there, behind the appearance. He could have deluded anyone, he was so splendid. He generally appeared to Hitler wearing a breast-plate and a silver helmet (with a sort of flame coming out of his head), and there was around him an atmosphere of dazzling light, so dazzling that Hitler could hardly look at him. He would tell him all that he had to dohe would play with him as with a monkey or a mouse. He had set his mind on making Hitler do all possible kinds of folly until the day when he would come a cropper, which is what happened. But there are many cases like that one, on a smaller scale, naturally. Hitler was a very good medium, he had great mediumistic capacities, but he lacked intelligence and discernment. That being could tell him anything and he would swallow it all. Thats what prodded him on little by little. And that being would do that as a pastime, he didnt take life seriously. For those beings, people are very small things with which they play as a cat plays with a mouse, until the day when they eat them up.)
I knew that being very well (for other reasons the story would be too long to tell), and once, I knew he was going to visit Hitler I went before he did: I took his appearance, it was very easy. Then I said to Hitler, Go and attack Russia. I dont exactly remember the words or the details, but the fact was that I told him, Go In order to have the supreme victory, go and attack Russia. That was the end of Hitler. He believed it and did ittwo days later, we got the news of the attack.1 And then, the next day, that is, when I came back from Hitler, I met that being and told him, Ive done your job! Naturally enough, he was furious!
0 1965-01-16, #Agenda Vol 06, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
That "week" in the Vellore hospital was to last more than a month. Mother's letter astounded Satprem, as he did not believe in medicine; he held quite a grudge against Mother, without understanding that She perhaps had other, "educational" intentions. But in reality, during that month in Vellore, Satprem kept fighting not against the so-called "illness," but against the frightful atmosphere of death and suggestion of death that filled that hospital as in a medical Auschwitz.
***
0 1965-02-19, #Agenda Vol 06, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
At 1 in the morning, I had to do another work, because one of our boys, T. (that boy has the makings of a hero), almost single-handedly saved the clinic, but it cost him a fractured skull. At the time, they thought he was done for. They brought me the news, and when the news came I saw, I felt all of a sudden the other experience recede, and then that I was becoming the universal Mother with all the power of the universal Mother. And then, that T. became quite small, like this (gesture of something tiny in the hollow of the hand), and I held him in my hands but he was all luminous, all luminous I rocked him in my hands, telling him, My child, my little child, my dear child, like this, and for several hours.
Thats what saved him, I think. Because his skull was fractured, it had caved in; it had stopped just short of damaging the brain the caved-in piece was inside, they had to operate, cut open, and remove it. It had stopped just short of the brain. So he will pull through. And I know that thats what saved him.
0 1965-02-24, #Agenda Vol 06, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Those who wish to help the Light of Truth to prevail over the forces of darkness and falsehood, can do so by carefully observing the initiating impulses of their movements and actions, and discriminating between those that come from the Truth and those that come from the falsehood, in order to obey the first and to refuse or reject the others.
This power of discrimination is one of the first effects of the Advent of the Truths Light in the earths atmosphere.
0 1965-03-20, #Agenda Vol 06, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
And its rather strange: all these cells have in their aspiration an Ananda of Light, of Truth, but that doesnt satisfy them completely, that is, they still have a sensation of helplessness. Of course, its all the Darkness, all the Falsehood, all the Disorder, all the Disharmony of the world that you constantly absorb every time you brea the (not to speak of all that you absorb with food, and all the rest the worst of all that you absorb mentally through contact with others, mentally and vitally). And all that has to be changed, transformed, constantly. Well, the cells feel their helplessness to face the work if That, that Vibration, isnt there. They find that Vibration irresistible, they find its the only irresistible one.
Naturally, there is a progress (a work that can be noted, discerned) in the consciousness of the cells, in their receptivity and their resistance to Disorder; but its just a progress, meaning that the possibility, and even the recurrence of disorder, decomposition, disharmony, wrong functioning, none of that is conquered at all, not at all. There is a growing feeling of being the docile instrument of the supreme Will, to such a point that the cells feel that whatever they may be asked to do they can do, but there is at the same time the very clear perception that the field of what is asked of them is still very limitedvery limited and that they would be unable to do better or more. And thats what gives weight to the notion of wear and tear, of agingnot that they feel like that, but in material fact, what is asked of them is very limited.
0 1965-03-24, #Agenda Vol 06, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Oh, I am assailed! And then, my body also doesnt help me much.
Oh, no, the body never helps. Now I am convinced of it. You can, to some extent, help your body (not to a great extent, but up to a point, anyway), you can help your body, but the body doesnt help you. Its vibration is at ground level, always.
Yes, its heavy.
--
But with this sadhana I am doing, there are some threads that lead you along, and I have some sentences by Sri Aurobindo. For the other sadhanas, I was used to it: all that he said was clear, it showed the way, you didnt have to look for it. But here, he didnt do it; he only said or made certain remarks now and then, and those remarks are helpful to me. (There is also my meeting him at night, but I dont want to count too much on that, because you grow too anxious for the contact, and that spoils everything.) There are in that way several remarks that have remained with me and are, yes, like leading threads. For instance, Endure endure.
Let us assume you have a pain somewhere; the instinct (the instinct of the body, of the cells) is to tense up and try to rejectwhich is the worst thing to do: it invariably increases the pain. So the first thing that must be taught to the body is to stay stillnot to have any reactions. Above all no tensing up, and not even a movement of rejectiona perfect stillness. Thats corporeal equanimity.
--
All this to tell you that the thought is absolutely still, everything takes place directly: questions of vibrations. Well, thats the only way to know what has to be done. If it goes through the mindespecially through that physical thought, which is absolutely idiotic, absolutelyyou cant know; as long as that works, you are always driven to do what you shouldnt do, particularly to have the wrong reaction: the reaction that helps the forces of disorder and darkness instead of contradicting them. And I am not talking about anxiety because its a long, a very long time since my body stopped having any anxietya long time, years but anxiety is like swallowing a cup of poison.
This is what is called physical yoga.
0 1965-04-07, #Agenda Vol 06, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
But anyway, you can only note that down if you dont have any work to do! And in fact, it has never been of any use. Do you think prophets have helped men? I dont think so. What was to happen always happened, and prophets foreseeing it didnt stop it from happening.
***
0 1965-05-08, #Agenda Vol 06, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
This repeats itself hundreds upon hundreds of times a day. So if this isnt called sadhana, I dont know what a sadhana is! You see, eating is a sadhana, sleeping is a sadhana, washing is a sadhana, everything is a sadhana. Whats a sadhana least of all is, for instance, receiving someone, because the body immediately keeps quite stillit calls the Lord and says, Now be here, and then everything is fine (because it keeps still). The visitor comes, the body smiles, everything is fine the Lord is there, so of course everything goes very smoothly. But when were dealing with what we call material things, the things of daily life, its hell, because of that idiot.
The other day, after you left, I couldnt eat anything! I couldnt eat because the body felt it was being diluted in the world like that (expansive gesture); so it was being diluted (which is quite all right, the experience is proceeding well), but it had a feeling that it couldnt eatwhy? I dont know. And it was impossible. The doctor, who was there as always during my meals, said, Whats wrong? (Because the day before, there had been an attack, a sort of malice: I started vomiting; it happens to me once in six or seven years; an affair recurring at long intervals; and it was serious, but it didnt last long.) But the other day it was something else: the body felt it was being diluted (you remember, you said I was white), and when it came to eating, the body said (in a moaning tone), Look how I am, I cant eat. If I had had a little time (laughing), I would have given it a good smack and told it not to make such a fuss! But I didnt have time, it was time for me to sit down and eatand I couldnt eat. So I had difficulty the whole day, because naturally those little pranks make life difficult.
0 1965-05-19, #Agenda Vol 06, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I never say this to people who ask me, never; I always tell them, Go and see the doctor and do as he tells you. Because unless the body itself (some people have that, but not many, very few), if the body itself says, No, no, no! I dont want, then its ready; but if the body keeps telling you, Maybe the doctor will help me out, maybe he will findgo ahead, go ahead! Do as he says.
The cells must begin to feel that it means a danger of halting the progress, of putting you back in contact with the old-never-ending-story: If that story amuses you, well go through it again. Well, they are no longer amused, they dont feel like going through it again.
(To Sujata:) But this is another matter: if you have a nice goodwilled doctor, very patient, very experienced in lenses and with a magnificent collection of them (!), if you go and see him and he takes some trouble, he will be able to help you. But a gentleman who, with all his so-called science, looks down on you and tells you, You have this and that and such-and-such a deformation
(Sujata:) I dont think theres any deformation, nothing, its inside rather, as if the canals werent very clean, so the sight cannot get through.
0 1965-06-02, #Agenda Vol 06, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Its quite peculiar, it doesnt help me anymore. Is it clean? (Mother holds out the magnifying glass to Satprem) There seems to be a haze.
Yes, its clean.
0 1965-06-23, #Agenda Vol 06, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Then in the north (thats where there is the most space, naturally), in the direction of Madras: the cultural zone. There, an auditorium (the auditorium I have dreamed of doing for a long time: plans had already been made), an auditorium with a concert hall and grand organ, the best you find now (it seems they make wonderful things). I want a grand organ. There will also be a theater stage with wings (a revolving stage and so on, the very best you can find). So, here, a magnificent auditorium. There will be a library, there will be a museum, exhibition rooms (not in the auditorium: in addition to it), there will be a cinema studio, a cinema school; there will be a gliding club: already we almost have the governments authorization and promiseanyway its already at a very advanced stage. Then, towards Madras, where there is plenty of space, a stadium. And a stadium that we want to be the most modern and the most perfect possible, with the idea (an idea Ive had for a long time) that twelve years (the Olympic games take place every four years), twelve years after 1968 (in 1968, the Olympiad will be held in Mexico), twelve years after, we would have the Olympic games in India, here. So we need space.
In between these sections, there are intermediary zones, four intermediary zones: one for public services (the post, etc.), a zone for transportation (railway station and, if possible, an airfield), a zone for food supplies (that one would be towards the Lake and would include dairies, poultry farms, orchards, cultivation, etc.it would spread to incorporate the Lake estate3: what they wanted to do separately will be done as a part of Auroville); then a fourth zone (Ive said public services, transportation, food supplies), and the fourth zone: shops. We dont need many shops, but a few are necessary to get what we dont produce. These zones are like quarters, you see.
0 1965-07-10, #Agenda Vol 06, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I can tell you (if it helps your physical mind) that in Japan I had a sort of measles (which had its own rather deep reasons) and that the Japanese doctor (who, besides, had studied in Germany, anyway he was a doctor through and through) told me very gravely that I should take care, that I was in the early stages of this wonderful disease, that above all I should never live in a cold climate, and this and that. I was losing weight and so on. That was in Japan. Then I came here and I said that to Sri Aurobindo, who looked at me and smiled; and it was over, we didnt talk about it anymore. We didnt talk about it anymore and it wasnt there anymore! (laughing) It was all over. When I met Dr. S., years later, I asked him. Nothing at all, he said, everything is fine, there is absolutely nothing, not a trace. And I hadnt done anything, I hadnt taken any medicine or any precaution. Only, I had told Sri Aurobindo about it, who had looked at me and smiled.
Well, I am convinced thats how it is, thats all. But the physical mind doesnt believe in that. It believes that thats all very well in the higher realms, but when we are in Matter things follow a law of Matter and are material and mechanical, and there is a mechanism, and when the mechanism and so on and so forth (not with these words, but with this thought). And one has to keep forever working on that, forever saying, Oh, put a stop to all your difficulties, keep quiet!
--
Maheshwaris light. But it seems I always had it, because when Madame Thon saw me, its the first thing she told me; she didnt speak of Maheshwari, but she said, You have the white light that automatically dissolves all ill will. And I did experience it: I saw beings crumble into dust. So you take that, picture that, and you build a cocoon around yourselfyou know, just as insects build their own cocoonsyou build a cocoon before falling asleep. I will do it here, but your picturing is to help it be better adapted, better adjusted. You build a cocoon, and when you are quite wrapped in that white cocoon, when the enemies cannot get through it, you let yourself go into sleep. Then all that comes from outside with a manifest ill will cannot get in. Thats certain. Naturally, there is what one carries in ones subconscient one must eliminate that by ones own will, little by little.
But this Light is all-powerful, mon petit! (Speaking to Sujata:) You too can do the same thing if you have enemies at night.
0 1965-07-21, #Agenda Vol 06, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
We cannot help thinking of Sri Aurobindo's "mathematical formula": "Now," he wrote on 16 August 1935, "I have got the hang of the whole hanged thinglike a very Einstein I have got the mathematical formula of the whole affair (unintelligible as in his case to anybody but myself) and am working it out figure by figure." Mother uses almost the same words.
See in particular Conversations with Pavitra of 20 November 1926. Pavitra complained that "this mechanical part of the mind is carrying me along." And Sri Aurobindo replied, "It is simply an outer functioning and it will be rejected in the course of the procedure." That was in 1926. Sri Aurobindo changed his mind later, perhaps in fact when he discovered his "mathematical formula."
0 1965-08-04, #Agenda Vol 06, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I often wonder. We are indeed told that we should leave our action to the Lord, but shouldnt we help him a bit?!
(Mother laughs) He certainly must need help!
No, it sounds like a joke, but the truth is that He WANTS us to help Him, He doesnt at all want us to be passive and inert.
He wants us to help Him.
Because when one is immobile up there, I feel it as a blank, but a blank in which nothing happens.
0 1965-08-07, #Agenda Vol 06, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
P.S. There may be a certain vanity in saying, Why Sri Aurobindo?Because this and that; that is still our mind trying to catch hold of things in order to put its explanations on them, as if nothing could be without its clarifications. Yet, the most potent events in our lives are those we do not explain, because their force goes on working in us without being frozen by ONE explanation there are many other levels of explanation, and there is a mute explanation that remains quietly in the depths, like an ever-calm water, as clear as a childs gaze. And there is still more vanity in saying that Sri Aurobindo is this but not tha the is this and that, and many other things, too; he is with the yes and the no, the for and the against, and with all that seeks without knowing, because everything seeks after Joy, through the yes and the no, through the darkness or the light, slowly and over the tottering centuries or all at once in an all-seizing light. From age to age, that Light comes down on the earth to help it become sooner what it always was and seeks after in its troubled heart; and that Light is clothed in one word or another, it takes on a sweet or a terrible face, or a vast and powerful one like an all-embracing sea, but it is the same Light always, and the soul that opens itself in that ray secretly recognizes a Face it has loved many a time. From century to century it uncovers itself the same child with folded hands, gazing at the world with love.
August 12, 1965
0 1965-08-21, #Agenda Vol 06, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
The night before, I had spent more than two hours with Sri Aurobindo. We were sitting without being seated (its a strange thing, but so concrete), and correcting sentences (!), that is, making expressions more precise.1 He even had (I had asked him a question), he held his pencil or pen between his lips, like a child, almost with a childs face, and after a while he told me, No, you put it like that. Afterwards, I wondered, By the way, how were we seated? There were no seats and we werent standing, yet we were very comfortable!
Thought, here in this brain, has difficulty adapting.
0 1965-09-04, #Agenda Vol 06, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
No, the body must be helped! It goes without saying that in the exercises and in the material aids and in everything I will put the Consciousness, but one must helpone must help the body. Its a necessary modesty.
Its the same thing with food. We are obliged to eat, of course, and thats not interesting, its not for pleasure, but (Mother speaks to her body:) Look here, be modest, indispensably modest: its necessary to eat and you must eat. And in addition, we must eat what we SHOULD eat, what helps the body the most. Its a story I have been telling myself for years, but its absolutely true. And when you start getting proud, you get a good smack on the face, that is to say, a pain or an accident: Thats what you get! Now be modest, you understand? Then it says, Yes, yes, Ive understood!
***
0 1965-09-11, #Agenda Vol 06, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
(On September 6, after months of clashes in the Kutch desert, Indian troops penetrated into Pakistan. Karachi calls for help from the "Western allies." New Delhi orders a general mobilization. On September 16, China will declare its support of Pakistan. On September 19, the Security Council enjoins India and Pakistan to cease fire and the U.S.S.R. proposes a meeting at Tashkent. On September 22, India and Pakistan order a cease-fire. On September 25, China reiterates its claim to 35,000 square miles of Indian territory. This is the second Indo-Pakistani conflict since Independence. There will be a third in 1971 over Bangladesh.)
We are threatened with a blackout.
--
Yes, but so far they have only cut off all the street lightsto help thieves go about their business. But they havent said anything yet about lights indoors.
They want to cut those off, too?
--
There is one thing, its that Pakistan is entirely dependent on the help they are giventhey make nothing themselves. They have no factories, no industries, nothing. So of course, they are in an inferior situation.
But anyway, all that
--
It seems that so far Pakistan has already called for help from three or four countries, which have refused. But the news I attach no importance to it because it is always falsified. For instance, when a country like Britain can decide to give her support, officially she will say, We have nothing to do with your war. So it doesnt mean anything.
There.
0 1965-09-18, #Agenda Vol 06, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Clearly, circumstances are arranged to help us move on.
Interestingly, Mother had at first written shall fight, then, in the afternoon, she changed shall into must.
Here is the exact text of the question: "If India, who held (till recently) the hope for humanity in the light of her spiritual leaders, can get involved in such a war, who would lead the world?"
See Sri Aurobindo and Mother on India and Her Destiny, p. 13.
--
The United States declared that if China attacked, it would come to India's help.
***
0 1965-09-25, #Agenda Vol 06, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
And theres nothing to say that if they feel protected, helped and supported, in fact by Russia and America, they wont push for reunion. With masses, you know, its only a question of a current of thought: its not reflection, not reasoning, just a current of thought.
I dont know, we shall see.
--
Before the fighting broke out, Nolini had a dream which he has told me now. There was a certain number of people together, and they saw Sri Aurobindo coming to them. And Sri Aurobindo was bent over as if making an extraordinary effort; he was completely covered in a coat and nothing could be seen, but he was bent over as if making a great effort. When he reached them, he opened his coat, and in his arms was fruit (gesture indicating a meagre bundle), fruit and other symbolic things. Then he held it out to them, saying, This is all I have been able to do. And he left. As if that was all he could do: All the feast I have been able to give you, something of the sort. So they tried to make a feast with that, since he had given it, but then it created confusion and wasnt pleasant. When Nolini had this dream, he didnt understand a thingnow he understands. Sri Aurobindo made such an effort to bring that: This is all I can do. It seems there was a sense of tremendous effort (laughing): This is all I have managed to do.
The world isnt ready. Thats the worst part.
--
And the body consciousness (which is now taking form more and more clearly), even the one that is subject to the old habit, is conscious of the divine existence, I might say (the existence of the Divine and almost the divine existence), but it still has a sense of helplessness, and also, within that helplessness, of a complete surrender to the divine Will: If we arent ready, it will be like that [= the dissolution]. And there is a part that feels ready, that understands and knows how things must be and wants them that way, and the two clash. Its not that one is for the Divine and the other against, nothing of all that old business is there any longer: there is the complete acceptance of the Divine, but the sensation of not being ready the sensation that the world isnt ready (it wasnt at all an individual affair, not at all, it was a terrestrial consciousness).
And you clearly feel in this struggle (which lasted the whole night and the whole morningyesterday, I wasnt in too brilliant a state), you clearly see, its visible that its not a question of a forceful will or its not that: the SUBSTANCE must be ready. If the substance isnt ready, a forceful, powerful action visibly causes a dissolution. And then all that has been built has to be rebuilt. This idiotic death, you see, reduces it all to nothing, and the whole work is wastedwhat goes out is what came in with a little more experience, thats all. Thats nothing.
0 1965-09-29, #Agenda Vol 06, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
For instance, India is free and her freedom was necessary if the divine work was to be done. The difficulties that surround her now and may increase for a time, especially with regard to the Pakistan imbroglio, were also things that had to come and to be cleared out. Here too there is sure to be a full clearance, though unfortunately, a considerable amount of human suffering in the process is inevitable. Afterwards the work for the Divine will become more possible and it may well be that the dream, if it is a dream, of leading the world towards the spiritual light, may even become a reality. So I am not disposed even now, in these dark conditions to consider my will to help the world as condemned to failure.
Sri Aurobindo
0 1965-10-30, #Agenda Vol 06, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Something amusing has happened. You know that there is a new comet?1 This morning around four, I saw the comet, and suddenly I found myself in a state above the earth, and I saw a being who seemed to be associated with this comet. He had red hair (but not an aggressive red), a white body, but not pure white: a golden white, as if he were naked, but he didnt give an impression of being naked, or of wearing any clothes either (I have noticed this several times already), sexlessnei ther man nor woman. And it was a young being, charming, full of a sort of joy, like the joy that came a little in the music just now, and he was spreading in the earth atmosphere a sort of substance that was heavier than Matternot heavier, but denser and jelly-like. It was as though he had taken advantage of the comet passing near the earth to spread that substance. And at the same time, I was told it was to help for the transformation of the earth. And he showed me how to make that substance circulate in the atmosphere.
It was charming: a young being, full of joy, as if dancing, and spreading that substance everywhere.
0 1965-11-03, #Agenda Vol 06, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
So it seems to me. And theres no reason for it not to get later still. See, I have all this (Mother shows a stack of letters), which is work yet to be done, and it was supposed to be done this morning. Every day its like that. Now its a mountain of letters, and some letters havent even been opened. So some write to me (but that frees me), I have already sent you two letters and you havent answered, I am unluckytoo bad for them. But there are those who are very patient, who ask for things that are important to them, and whom I dont have time to answer. When I hear the letter (there are some letters I havent even opened, I dont know what they have written), but when I hear, I answer inwardly; if they had the mental perception they would receive my answer; unfortunately they dont have it. Some letters are important, from people who ask for something reasonable, and a word or a gesture would greatly help them to move onits not possible. And it keeps increasing and increasing. Previously, I used to rest (rest, that is to say, concentrate) regularly, at a fixed time, but now thats finished, I cant do it anymore. It cuts into the rest, too, and thats bad.
Its the world in a rush. Its not just from a small number of individuals, its from everywhere: from the United Nations, the Government of India, from people here, there and everywhere who ask for a directive, an indication. They ought to be able to receive mentally; that way I could do all the work, because it doesnt take any time, its immediate, but they arent there yet, they cant. You know, requests for messages, for something to start an action there are dozens of them every day. And its a good sign, I cant complain. Its a good sign, it means the world is growing receptive. But
0 1965-11-06, #Agenda Vol 06, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
But the other night (it had come two or three times already), it wasnt so strong. Last night, it was so strong and it lasted such a long time I thought, Maybe tomorrow morning hell have a smile. But it didnt work! (Mother laughs)
What I see is rather unpleasant.
0 1965-11-23, #Agenda Vol 06, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
You know, you are in considerable discomfort, out of sorts, unable to breathe, you have a feeling of nausea, of helplessness, you cant even move, or think or do anything in a word, quite out of sorts; and then suddenly the Consciousness the bodily consciousness of the Vibration of Love, which is the very essence of the creation, just one second: everything lights up, pfft! gone, its all gone. Then you look at yourself, amazedits all gone. You were in considerable discomfortits all gone.
Well, I dont think words can convey this. Its not even a question of living in the atmospherewhat is it? Maybe one day it will be a power. The power to pass this on. Then it will be possible for everything to change.
0 1965-11-27, #Agenda Vol 06, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Then there were the few the rare individualswho are ready to make the necessary effort to prepare themselves for the transformation and to attract the new forces, try to adapt Matter, seek the means of expression and so forth. Those are ready for Sri Aurobindos yoga. They are very few. There are even those who have the sense of sacrifice and are ready to have a hard and difficult life, as long as it leads them or helps them towards this future transformation. But they should not, they should in no way try to influence others and make them share their own effort: that would be quite unjustnot only unjust, but extremely clumsy because it would alter the universalor at least terrestrialrhythm and movement, and instead of helping, it would cause conflicts and result in chaos.
But it was so living, so real, that my whole attitude (how can I explain? A passive attitude, which isnt the result of an active will), the whole position taken in the work has changed. And this has brought a peacean absolutely decisive peace and tranquillity and trust. A decisive change. And even, all that in the previous position seemed to be obstinacy, clumsiness, unconsciousness, all sorts of deplorable things, all that has disappeared. It was like a vision of a great universal Rhythm in which each thing takes its own place and everything is just fine. And the effort of transformation limited to a small number becomes something FAR MORE precious and FAR MORE powerful for the realization. Its as if a choice had been made of those who will be the pioneers of the new creation. And all those ideas of spreading [the ideal], of preparing or churning Matterchildishness. Its human agitation.
0 1965-11-30, #Agenda Vol 06, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
The entire West is convinced, of course, that the earth has to be taken as it is and that its a preparation for a life in another world, which according to your faults or qualities will be a heaven or a hell. But anyway, doing away with hell, all those who have goodwill will go to a beatific heaven.
Its a weird invention, isnt it!
0 1965-12-07, #Agenda Vol 06, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Yes, its good for (as the old phrase says) its good for the faithful, but the faithless mustnt see the stammerings, it doesnt help them.
She [Sujata] will have less typing to do!
0 1965-12-10, #Agenda Vol 06, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I blame myself for not having helped him.
Didnt you ever write to him?
--
Its all right, he is a fine boy, he has substance, hell be all right. If he did actually leave his body, well give him another one. There.
Yes, he was a fine boy.
--
And rebels (they dont know, theyre ignorant) revolt because things arent as they should be, and instead of saying to themselves (because they dont have the knowledge), instead of saying to themselves, Now Ill work for things to become as they want to be, as they should be, they go off. They say, No, I dont accept the world as it is. Thats very good. Its very good, you neednt accept it, nobody is asking you to accept it as it is, but if you have goodwill, help it to change.
Now he will understand.
--
Petit, its to help you take a step forward.
Its very good.
0 1965-12-18, #Agenda Vol 06, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Diseases are just that. Its the same thing with the doctors illness: this tremor is the possession by an idea, its what in the conscious intelligence is expressed as the possession by an idea, a hypnosisa sort of hypnosis accompanied by a fear in matter. The two things together: possession and fear, a sort of fearfulness. And a sense of helplessness in all that. The possession by an idea and a helplessness to reject it, and a fear, a helplessness to resist. And then a sort of fearfulness that is translated in us by, Oh, its going to be that way oh, its going to be a disease.
In the old Scriptures they used to compare that with a dogs twisted tail. And it is truly like that, its a sort of TWIST that you try to straighten out and which goes back to its shape automatically, idioticallyyou untwist it, it twists up again; you reject it, it comes again. Its extremely interesting, but its miserable. Miserable. And all illnesses are like that, all, all of them, whatever their external form. The external form is only one way of being of the SAME THINGbecause things are arranged in every possible way (there arent two identical things and everything is arranged differently), so then, some follow similar twists, and thats what doctors call such and such an illness. But if they are sincere, they will tell you, There arent two like illnesses.
0 1965-12-31, #Agenda Vol 06, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I dont know. It always revolves around this problem of vision. If I had a beautiful vision from time to time Oncelook, once, in Ceylon (it was the only time in my life), I heard Music, it was marvelous, it was truly divine. Well, to me, thats a sign (it happened once in my life), I say to myself, Oh, good, Im not far, theres something. To me thats a sign. Or if I see a beautiful light or Then I am encouraged, I think, All right, its going well. I can descend into hell after that. After that I may do all sorts of absurd things, but I tell myself, At least I know I am moving towards that. Well, no! You see, it happens once in ten years. Of course, the vital seizes on it and turns it into dissatisfaction, but otherwise, in my normal reason, I simply say, Whats going on? I dont know. I am nowhere, I am waiting.
But so am I, mon petit, I am waiting I am millions of years old and I am waiting.
0 1966-01-14, #Agenda Vol 07, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Oh, to me it was all infernal. All that is hell.
Oh, thats the effect it had on you?
--
Tourism and all that is hell. I did my jobnot very well, but I did it.
Then its all right.
--
Ah, yes! Its pure hell. Its Falsehood in every detail.
Yes, thats right.
--
But I knew the time at which they were in conference, and all of a sudden, in the middle of the night, I was woken up with a start by someone calling for helpit was him.
The next day, early morning, I was told he was dead. It didnt strike me as news! I said, But of course! It goes without saying, thats how it is. And it seems (I heard all the details afterwardslong afterwards, in the course of the day), it seems the going was very tough and when the talks ended in what he considered to be a success (it was obviously the best (!) that could happen there), he was exultant and quite happy6; then he went into his room and after a few minutes, opened the door and called for a doctor, and in no time it was over. Thats probably when he called. But it was decided a very long time ago.
--
Oh, I was conscious of that hell every minute.
Its good, very good. You were much closer than usual. Much closer, like something physically close.
--- Overview of noun hel
The noun hel has 1 sense (no senses from tagged texts)
1. Hel, Hela ::: ((Norse mythology) goddess of the dead and queen of the underworld)
--- Synonyms/Hypernyms (Ordered by Estimated Frequency) of noun hel
1 sense of hel
Sense 1
Hel, Hela
INSTANCE OF=> Norse deity
=> deity, divinity, god, immortal
=> spiritual being, supernatural being
=> belief
=> content, cognitive content, mental object
=> cognition, knowledge, noesis
=> psychological feature
=> abstraction, abstract entity
=> entity
--- Hyponyms of noun hel
--- Synonyms/Hypernyms (Ordered by Estimated Frequency) of noun hel
1 sense of hel
Sense 1
Hel, Hela
INSTANCE OF=> Norse deity
--- Coordinate Terms (sisters) of noun hel
1 sense of hel
Sense 1
Hel, Hela
-> Norse deity
=> Aesir
=> Vanir
HAS INSTANCE=> Balder, Baldr
HAS INSTANCE=> Bragi, Brage
HAS INSTANCE=> Elli
HAS INSTANCE=> Forseti
HAS INSTANCE=> Frey, Freyr
HAS INSTANCE=> Freya, Freyja
HAS INSTANCE=> Frigg, Frigga
HAS INSTANCE=> Heimdall, Heimdal, Heimdallr
HAS INSTANCE=> Hel, Hela
HAS INSTANCE=> Hoenir
HAS INSTANCE=> Hoth, Hothr, Hoder, Hodr, Hodur
HAS INSTANCE=> Idun, Ithunn
HAS INSTANCE=> Loki
=> Nanna
HAS INSTANCE=> Njord, Njorth
=> Norn, weird sister
HAS INSTANCE=> Odin
HAS INSTANCE=> Sif
=> Sigyn
HAS INSTANCE=> Thor
HAS INSTANCE=> Tyr, Tyrr
=> Ull, Ullr
=> Vali
=> Vitharr, Vithar, Vidar
--- Grep of noun hel
bethel
breughel
brothel
brueghel
bushel
hatchel
hel
hela
helen
helen adams keller
helen hayes
helen hunt jackson
helen keller
helen laura sumner woodbury
helen maria fiske hunt jackson
helen newington wills
helen of troy
helen porter mitchell
helen traubel
helen wills
helen wills moody
helena
helenium
helenium autumnale
helenium hoopesii
helenium puberulum
heleodytes
heliamphora
helianthemum
helianthemum canadense
helianthemum scoparium
helianthus
helianthus angustifolius
helianthus annuus
helianthus giganteus
helianthus laetiflorus
helianthus maximilianii
helianthus petiolaris
helianthus tuberosus
helichrysum
helichrysum bracteatum
helichrysum secundiflorum
helicidae
helicon
helicopter
helicteres
helicteres isora
heliobacter
heliobacter pylori
heliocentric parallax
heliogram
heliograph
heliogravure
heliolatry
heliometer
heliopause
heliophila
heliopsis
helios
heliosphere
heliotherapy
heliothis
heliothis moth
heliothis zia
heliotrope
heliotropism
heliotype
heliozoa
heliozoan
heliport
helipterum
helipterum manglesii
helium
helium group
helix
helix angle
helix aspersa
helix hortensis
helix pomatia
hell
hell's half acre
hell's kitchen
hell-kite
hell-rooster
hell dust
hell on earth
hell raising
hell to pay
helladic civilisation
helladic civilization
helladic culture
hellbender
hellcat
hellebore
helleborine
helleborus
helleborus foetidus
helleborus niger
helleborus orientalis
helleborus viridis
hellene
hellenic
hellenic language
hellenic republic
hellenism
heller
helleri
hellespont
hellfire
hellgrammiate
hellhole
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hellion
hellman
hello
helm
helmet
helmet flower
helmet orchid
helmetflower
helmholtz
helminth
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helminthic
helminthostachys
helminthostachys zeylanica
helmsman
helmut heinrich waldemar schmidt
helmut schmidt
heloderma
heloderma horridum
heloderma suspectum
helodermatidae
heloise
helot
helotiaceae
helotiales
helotium
help
help desk
helpdesk
helper
helper cell
helper t cell
helpfulness
helping
helping hand
helplessness
helpmate
helpmeet
helsingfors
helsinki
helve
helvella
helvella acetabulum
helvella crispa
helvella sulcata
helvellaceae
helvetica
helwingia
helxine
helxine soleirolia
herschel
isohel
john herschel
lorchel
pieter breughel
pieter brueghel
rachel
satchel
schnorchel
sir frederick william herschel
sir john frederick william herschel
sir john herschel
sir william herschel
william herschel